How to close tailgate?
 

Just bought a 2006 E53 6 speed manual and I am having trouble closing the tailgate. It unlocked fine with the push button but it wont lock back in to place upright. Is there a lock button I am missing?

It should click into place, are you talking about the hatch portion or the actual lower tailgate?

If its the upper piece, there are little rubber buffers on the sides of the hatch that you can screw into the hatch farther, sometimes if they are out too far it prevents the hatch from "latching on"


And what color is your 6 speed manual? I would have killed to find an 06 back in the day, please post up in the manual transmission registry to get you registered and show some pics!

Its supposed to lock by itself when you tilt it back up. You can try a quick search for possible problems but I think there are rubber bumpers/stops on the sides. They can be adjusted and might be causing it to not close all the way to lock.

I think I may have a problem then. I am talking about the lower section. It wont lock when I bring it back up. Hopefully I am just doing something wrong but if not and its broken I guess its my own problem now I bought it with no warranty minus the ny lemon law.

Pull out the fuses for it in the trunk. There might be one in the glovebox for it. Check fuses, put back in. Your switch might be stuck. Make sure it is not locked first, try unlocking the lower again without it being closed.

I figured it out. I just needed to give it a bit more elbow.

The car is stratus grey with grey interior. Ill have to check out the manual transmission thread. Thanks for the help.

There have been many complaints about the rear hatch/tailgate rattling. The most common method to lessen or solve this is to tighten up on the rubber stops to reduce the play in them when shut. The down side is you have to be more forcefull when closing them to make sure they catch.