Ditto wpoll... Press and hold the tailgate release button:

Thanks gentlemen, for the panic mode info.

Mystery Switch
 

Hey racebmwm3,

I know it has been a while since your post, but I just read this entire thread for the first time. I was blown away when I came to your post. My car has a hidden switch too and I cannot figure out its function. It is a round switch just like the one in your center council except the switch in my car is mounted in the horizontal trim just above the drivers left foot. I cannot reach it when in the seat, I have to reach in and up after exiting the car. I have left the switch in both positions for days at a time and I cannot discern what it is intended to do. In your last post to this thread you promised to report back the function of your mystery switch, but you never did.
Did you ever discover the function of the switch? Inquiring BMW owners want to know. At least I do.
There is one possibility that I have not checked out yet as it occurred to me just recently while shopping for some camping gear. My E53 came with the factory trailer hitch which I have yet to use (I've got a pickup for towing). The factory hitch has the big circular 7 pin trailer connector which I have come to learn conforms to a standard that has B+ available* for trailered gear. Anyhow, my thought is that the mystery switch in my E53 might kill something in the trailer connector, but I haven't tested this theory yet. Does your X5 have a trailer hitch? Did you figure out what your switch does?

AceEngineer :cool:

*As an aside some owners have discovered that you can recharge the vehicle battery thru this connection if you have locked the keys in the car and have only a remote and the battery goes dead.

Unfortunately...unless racebmwm3 has become part of the "silent majority" (those that read the forum but never engage in the dialogue)...he appears to have left the building. His last post was made in March 2016. If you click on his name and then select "view all posts" you can verify that his last post was made in 2016.

AWSOME!!! THANK YOU! That drove me nuts seeing all those things! You’re right! I pushed the BC Button on the directional five seconds, until it said PROG… then I had to toggle back-and-forth, doing the clock button and the BC button on the dash (my dash module is sketchy so I couldn’t see which was which, so it was difficult to figure it out) but once I did toggling between the BC and the time button, I selected the ones I wanted only and then hit the set button- the last one on the right. It took me a few attempts to figure it out totally but it works now I only show time date and range. Oh yeah!