Leaking tailgate
 

Did a search on this and turned up nothing...
On my 09, the right side tail light (the one mounted on the lift gate itself) has gone out. I can see condensation inside of it. Ok, no problem, ill get a new light, whatever.

THE NEXT DAY, I take the car through the hand car wash. when the guys open up the trunk to clean the windows in there, i see water POURING out from under the interior panel on the inside of the tailgate. its literally coming out of the courtesy light.

Has anyone else seen this happen? the guy at the car wash said he sees a ton of X5s and he said they ALL do this... just curious. I plan to demand a new light for free and get that fixed all on BMW.

I wrote a multi-thousand dollar check to them just last week extending my service plan and warranty, so they better step up.

Leaking Tailgate
 

my '07 X5 4.8i is doing the same thing, both sides. It was only noticed when I went in for inspection this week. My OEM warranty expired late July, I'm sure there was moisture in the lenses at that time, just no one noticed. Got quoted $600 for both lights replaced by my dealer- which is crazy. They refer to it as a wear and tear item (gaskets). The car has 39,000 miles on it and is always garaged...

I appealed to BMW NA, but fell upon deaf ears. I've lost a lot of respect for BMW over the past couple of years... they've really gone down hill in quality and certainly in customer support

Very common problem with X5s. I got both tail lights replaced with all new seals installed.

It certainly seems very common from everything I've read. I only wish I would have known this while I was still under original warranty as I'm sure the issue was present at that time.
The other odd thing- as I pulled off the interior trunk lining to get a look at this light- there is very poor protection from the elements- I can easily see how water can get in. The corrosion I saw looks like it has been going on for quite some time...

i had mine replaced under warranty and lo-and-behold 30k miles later they are still filling up with water. i know i won't pay $600 to have them changed out again. i will just stay out of the carwashes.

piss poor design somewhere somehow.

Had this problem, TWICE. Both times replaced the set under warranty. I was told the new lights come with improved seals, we will see.

There's an official bulletin for this matter, mention it to the dealership.

10040048 / SIB-63-11-10 | The Center for Autosafety

Wow giovane. Thank you so much for the useful link. Don't know how much attention BMW would pay to it, but a very useful link to see other complaints.

They have to pay attention to that, the code SIB 63-11-10 is an official BMW tsb!

Posting in case someone does a search and comes across this old thread. I just discovered the lift gate light issue on my 2009 35d due to the driver side led going out on me. No error messages for lamps. Took it in to the dealership, mentioned the Service Bulletin and they couldn't do anything for me. I'm nearly 60k and CPO doesn't cover it so unless I want to pay them close to $700 it's not happening. Now I get to go to the other thread I found when researching this issue to see if I can just dismantle it and clean out the contacts and possibly come up with a better way to seal the lights.