Retrofitted Power Tailgate 2007 BMW X5

[pendzint]

Just figured I would let it be known that the Power Lift (open/close) can be retrofitted into a 2007 BMW X5. I purchased the major cost items out of a 2011 BMW X5 at a local wrecker. Then bought all the other odds and ends from bmw. The main parts required were the power operators (in place of the usual gas struts), the extra internal hatch power button with trim (located on the bottom of the interior rear hatch panel) and the hkl module. Surprisingly the power operators clipped directly in place of the struts and the electrical wiring boot / harness fit directly in place of a rubber grommet located next to the strut mount on the hatch. I couldn't find the matching connectors for the power operators so I cut the connectors off, soldered long lengths of the correct gauge wire for each lead and then applied heatshrink over each soldered connection. The wiring had to be fished through the sides of the tailgate, through the rubber boots at the top of the tailgate and then routed carefully to the passenger side of the trunk area below the fuse panel to where the hkl module is installed. I was able to dremel a hole in the bottom of the interior tailgate cover in the same location as the factory install. The switch fit perfectly with the surrounding moulding i got from the wrecked x5. (a new cover with the switch hole was very pricey) Two of the three wires from this switch were put in parallel with the wiring from the exterior tailgate switch. The third wire had to be run from the switch to the hkl module similar to the power operator wiring. Power and ground wiring was installed in the appropriate fuse panel terminals and ground hubs located near the fusepanel. The only thing i missed was there is a latch on the lower tailgate which needs to be replaced with a different latch including a limit switch. This just tells the hkl module that the lower tailgate is closed and it is ok to close the tailgate. One wire from this switch is routed to the hkl module while the other is just tied to a ground. If the lower tailgate is open, this switch closes and applies ground to a terminal on the hkl module. As i missed this switch, I left this wire disconnected until i can get the new latch and route the wiring. Two can bus wires were tied in parallel with the can bus wires from my ahm module. (trailer module)

Next came coding the vehicle to recognize the hkl module. I had to change the fa code from #0407 to #0408 as this option was not available on my model year. I also added $316 to the fa which is the option code for the power lift tailgate.

After coding this, the power tailgate was operational but needed minor coding in the hkl module to permit the remote open/closing of the tailgate. (from the factory it will only open with the remote.

One last glitch had me scratching my head for a while. I had a persistent airbag module error that I couldn't clear in inpa. After translating the error from german i concluded that it said their was an active head restraint fault. Thinking back to changes in model years, i remembered that active headrests came standard in the x5 in 2008 but were not available in 2007. The airbag module was looking for something that was never installed in my x5. To fix this, I changed the fa code back to #0407 in the cas and frm modules and then recoded the airbag module back to the original coding before I started the model year changes. The airbag module error cleared upon completion of this coding.

In summary,

This was a fairly large project to complete. It set me back about $1000 using wrecker parts for the big expense items & bmw for all the other odds and ends. I think it was worth it. I used BMW WDS to determine all of the wiring and realoem to figure out all necessary part numbers or sometimes locations of certain parts. I bought this certified series x5 about 3 years ago. It was practically loaded (nav, usb, rear entertainment, rear camera, pdc, etc) but was annoying in the fact it was missing the power tailgate option. Kind of feels stupid when someone in a grand caravan parked beside you has this feature and your x5 doesn't. I would definately recommend this upgrade.