Tailgate!

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Mozzer999

New Member
Posts
18
Location
Gosport
Hi guys

This weeks conundrum is the tailgate in my 51 p38. The glass will open fine every time, and when the glass is open the tailgate will open and close every time...When they are both shut though, the glass opens, but the tailgate will not. The switch sounds like its working so to open it i have to 'shoulder barge' the tail gate or rubber mallet etc.

I had to remove the carpet bit so have had a good look. At first i thought just tightening the cable would do it (like any normal car) but alas its not a cable and the bars don't have an adjuster on them. I've greases and wd40'd everything, i've taken the switch out and cleaned the spring etc. My only guess, looking at the mechanism of it, is that when the glass is opened maybe the tailgate latches release a little meaning there isn't enough pull left in the bars or maybe it believes the tailgate is now open.

I dont really understand what the switch goes to and how that works between the two. Is it an ecu or far simpler than that?

Thanks for any help
 
Did you ever load it up with something that was when loaded was pushing against the tailgate? like a push bike or pram for instance, and if it was a pram and the wheels were not locked on, did it bash against the tailgate?
 
But when shut the only thing i can think of is i have one of those plastic trays for the floor and there's usually straw in the back so there could have been some pressure on the tailgate when closed from wet straw between the two but i would expect a farm vehicle to deal with that! ha
 
its not the heavy I was thinking about, its like you say something pushing against it, pressure, you could have bent it ever so slightly, err its not a farm vehicle is it really, I would say a Series is, but not a P38
 
HA HA you are right!

I CANNOT tell you how much i want an old county with minimal electrics on LOL! Please help me convince the wife...
 
Thank you! The only thing i can say is i noticed today that the near side one is rusted and fixed in position...the o/s one wasn't much better. Some wd40 and rubber mallet has loosened them up but this may explain your thinking as me, my dogs etc have been standing on it if no movement in these then perhaps (clutching at straws) this may have caused it to bend slightly.??
 
Yea they do go a lot, when you put is back together, use grease not WD40 and then pack it again with the stuff and put the rubber cover over it, it will protect it more, dont think like I did, well that will do and last another 20 years, cuz it wont, the steel is crap and will rust away fast, so pack as much grease as you can behind the fitting, to keep water and air away from it to kinda make a seal
 
well its not doing as it should is it? so that's one thing to look at, seems like its sticking, especially as you can hear the mechanism unlocking and locking when you press the button? I dont know what else to do, apart from slam it shut, or maybe when your undoing it,
push the door in try it then or out and when you do if it unlocks that way each time then it is pressure, seems the way to go and have a try at that next
 
I'm confused about what you are trying to do here.

Are you trying to open the lower tailgate without opening the glass?

Didn't realise you could. Can't quite see why you would want to either...
 
Mine is exactly the same, and it's not had a large load in it since I got it, and it started doing it some time after purchase. My thoughts are that the switch mechanism is getting tired as it works fine with the trim off and before the upper tailgate is shut. I've noticed that the left side(looking forward from the back of the car) releases but the right doesn't and the mechanism doesn't move far on that side. I think I'll be replacing the switch when I get it back-woman driver in 5 series BMW didn't see me stopped at traffic lights and drove straight into the back. Rangy needs new bumper cover, bm needs new front!
 
Give me 6 tones of ptfe/teflon cable now!!
You where obviously taken in by the great spam advert too....

I ordered 12,000,000,000,000 metres of Teflon cable too...then I am going to go round their place and stuff down their throats and take pleasure in watching them choke to death....

:D:D:D

Thanks to the mod/admin who deleted and removed the posts...
 
I was on the series 2 site, and they was talking about spamers, like sometimes they would have 40 or so of there auto spamming things (im not tec) on line at any one time, and they slow the whole thing up by nicking bandwidth
 
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