Damn Rear Hatch Light
 

I drove my X5 to the ocean to watch the stars sitting on the tailgate, with a bottle of wine and a beautiful woman at my side. Then I realized the two rear hatch lights would not go out. The interior light switch would not turn them off, nor wouuld they "time out". I pulled the bulbs to enjoy the darkness that night. I spent an hour the next day looking for the right fuse to pull to turn them off, couldn't find it. Spent another day thinking about splicing a hidden switch in. Then it struck me! I reached up, and closed the open hatch latch with my thumb (two clicks), the light went out. Neat trick! Remember to open the latch before you close the hatch. Enjoy

I have the same problem. I'm not clear how you corrected the problem.

ditto, 4th of July we were watching the fireworks and those damn lights would not go out. I didn't even think about closing the latches with my fingers. I'll know next time tho!

Hi Matt1Mike1, As I mentioned, with the hatch open, reach up and with your finger, snap close the latch as if it were engaging the tail gate mating piece, The lights will go out thinking the hatch is closed. But remenber to "open" latch in the normal way before you close the hatch. Try it before you need to.

With my '06, it's the passenger vanity light - they tell me they will have to replace the sun visor to fix it as I does not turn off.

Thanks, great tip. Incredible that BMW did not build a timer into the design.

I noticed the same problem. It drained my battery once when we had it parked while we were out of the country. The gate wasn't closed properly and I was in too much of a rush to catch a flight to notice.

Be very careful doing the latch trick. You will likely damage something trying to close the gate if you forget to flip it back.

The latch itself also serves as the electrical switch to indicate whether the gate is open or closed. If anyone tries to wire in a switch it should be on the power to the lights not the wires to the latch.