Trunk emergency!

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Can you open the back seat and pull the safety release

[The1]

Originally Posted by DSB135i

Can you open the back seat and pull the safety release

release for the back seats is in the trunk, a bit of a design flaw in my opinion.

[Wolfgarde83]

Wow. That sucks.

They should never have taken out the trunk keyhole. I'm so glad I have one.

[atomic837]

I figured I should write a follow-up post to update the conclusion of this issue.

The unfortunate part of this is that I never came up with a solution since I had the lesser part of a day to troubleshoot. The reason why I disconnected the battery in the first place was because I was prepping the car for storage prior to my military deployment. I am still on said deployment.

Just about every idea that was posted in this thread I had already tried without success. My first inclination was to jump the car from the front posts, but that led me nowhere.

IDBMW - your post leads me to believe that my battery terminals are indeed touching/grounded... this is what I was thinking a few days after my incident. As I am not entirely familiar with the wiring in the car, is there any way you can elaborate to help my situation? Since you seem to have a good idea of what needs to be done, could you investigate the car's layout and give me a better picture of the positive wire and where/how to disconnect it in the engine bay? I would really appreciate your help in this.

[miiipilot]

Are you able to get any power to the electronics via the terminals up front? Could you use your BMW Assist and ask them to open it. Not sure if that is within their capability. I apologize if someone else asked this too.

miiipilot

[atomic837]

When I last tried, the terminals in the front weren't getting power to the car (I tried via jumper cables with another car and also with my standalone battery charger). Normally my battery charger will indicate that it is "connected" if it is hooked onto an active positive/negative terminal; I did not get this when I tried it in this case.... this is why I think my battery terminals might be touching or otherwise grounded in my trunk.

I did make a call to BMW Assist and to my dealership, and only thing they could advise me to do is bring it in for the techs to look at. Since the car has no power, they can't do a remote unlock or anything to that nature.

[Raine]

Are you sure you tried jolting the negative/positive terminals in the front?

It should give you enough power to pop the trunk.

[Lester]

Surely BMW must have a procedure to open a trunk in case of battery or trunk solonoid failure. Or did the manual key trunk release get removed by the BMW beancounters without consulting the BMW Engineers?

[atomic837]

Yes, I already tried the positive/negative terminals under the hood - I understand that this should work, but not if the battery cables are touching or otherwise grounded. This is likely my problem.

There is no manual trunk release with the exception of a pull-cord in the trunk itself (to prevent getting locked inside). I attempted to pull apart the rear-seats to try and gain access, but was unable to get much further than the padding.

[doublevanosrc]

Originally Posted by Lester

Surely BMW must have a procedure to open a trunk in case of battery or trunk solenoid failure. Or did the manual key trunk release get removed by the BMW bean counters without consulting the BMW Engineers?

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner!!!

Ha this is probably what really happened, BMW does some very cool stuff but sometimes they do some things that make you say WTF?? I mean seriously how much $$$ was saved by eliminating the trunk keyhole? This is my first BMW without a trunk keyhole

[miiipilot]

I am sorry. That's a rough spot!

miiipilot

[JuuS]

Both trunk release cables run under each rear speaker, respectively. When I look in the trunk I can see these cables run into the car frame via a round hole that's under each speaker's location. There is white foam when I poke my finger inside. Is there anyone here who has replaced their rear speakers? Was there white padding/baffle once you took the speaker out? If so, hopefully this padding is the only thing between the speaker and the cable.

[Rawhide]

Originally Posted by JuuS

Both trunk release cables run under each rear speaker, respectively. When I look in the trunk I can see these cables run into the car frame via a round hole that's under each speaker's location. There is white foam when I poke my finger inside. Is there anyone here who has replaced their rear speakers? Was there white padding/baffle once you took the speaker out? If so, hopefully this padding is the only thing between the speaker and the cable.

That's good info. Worst case, I'd pop the speakers and cut a hole through to the trunk to get to that cable if I had to. No one likes cutting their car, but at least the speaker would cover it and no one looks at the top rear of the trunk anyway.

But that's just me. I'm sure if you haul it to the dealer they'll get it (and some of your $$) one way or another.

[mackeroni]

I am totally intrigued by this problem and have to admit that I peek at it daily to see if poor Atomic will ever be able to drive his car again.

Here is an idea that might not have been considered yet:

Jack up the car and look for an entry point on the trunk bottom. (I am still waiting for my 135, or I would inspect the trunk myself.) Is there a plug anywhere? Many automakers include a plastic plug at the lowest point to facilitate the release of water that might leak into the trunk or would find its way there due to a flood. If the hole is big enough, you might be able to fish a wire up to the seatback release mechanism to release it.

Good luck man!

[JuuS]

That trick ain't gonna happen. You'll understand once you get your car. The seat release is a lever that moves forward and back in relation to the car. Even if he manages to fish a wire in the drain plug, he only has the option to pull down.

edit: the plastic compartment that holds the battery and knick-knacks will be in the way of the wire. Also, there is the carpeted cover that weighs like 5 lbs. His wire would turn into a pretzel before he finds a way into the trunk.

[Wolfgarde83]

Originally Posted by mackeroni

I am totally intrigued by this problem and have to admit that I peek at it daily to see if poor Atomic will ever be able to drive his car again.

Me too!

The whole situation is a bit ridiculous. I used to always remove the battery from my 944 before winter storage, and while I drive my 135 year round, removing/disconnecting the battery is a totally reasonable thing to do before storage... so the fact that they didn't take this into consideration is really a complete failure on BMW's part.

I would start writing letters until BMW does something to help you resolve this or compensate you. Heck I'll start writing letters too...

[voerman]

I think this was mentioned before but if the battery cables are shorted together in the trunk or the positive cable is shorted to ground, clearly applying 12 volts to the front terminals will not work. But if we/he can find out which fuse in the fuse panel protects the trunk solenoid circuit, pulling that fuse will isolate that circuit from the short to ground. Now applying 12 volts to the circuit side (vs the battery side) of that fuse socket will allow the trunk button to operate - in theory anyway.

If I can get motivated, I may look for the fuse but if anyone else wants to try and let us know if it works that would be good. There is also the possibility that more than one fuse is involved. There is also a possibility that a single large fuse exists which could be removed to isolate the entire fuse panel from the short.

Lou

[Lester]

This might solve it.

[Lester]

Originally Posted by JuuS

Both trunk release cables run under each rear speaker, respectively. When I look in the trunk I can see these cables run into the car frame via a round hole that's under each speaker's location. There is white foam when I poke my finger inside. Is there anyone here who has replaced their rear speakers? Was there white padding/baffle once you took the speaker out? If so, hopefully this padding is the only thing between the speaker and the cable.

Thed cables for the trunk release don't go anywhere near the speakers. Those are likely the seat release cables.

[NYF32DRIVER]

As a BMW loyalist (4 in a row and counting) I am APPALLED by this STUPID decision. My 135 was nearly $50,000 as optioned and NO FUCKING KEYHOLE ?

You have got to be kidding Munich !

Joseph

[Lester]

The more I look at that RealOEM parts drawing, the more it looks like the emergency release/trunk (1/7) release button pulls a bowden cable (9) that triggers a micro switch on the trunk lid lock. On the pre 2009 models, the key swich (10) pulls another bowden cable that attaches to the same micro switch.

Is there a question here your honor?

Yes - there is, if these cables simply pull/trigger a micro switch, will any of them even work if there is no power to the trunk lid lock?

If the answer is No - astounding! This to me is a safety issue. Time for a recall campaign? The key switch could be added by drilling a hole, and adding the cables.

What if the OP's 4 year old had decided to climb in the trunk and play hide and seek with his old man who was busy putting the battery in the cupboard for the winter?

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by Lester

The more I look at that RealOEM parts drawing, the more it looks like the emergency release/trunk (1/7) release button pulls a bowden cable (9) that triggers a micro switch on the trunk lid lock. On the pre 2009 models, the key swich (10) pulls another bowden cable that attaches to the same micro switch.

Is there a question here your honor?

Yes - there is, if these cables simply pull/trigger a micro switch, will any of them even work if there is no power to the trunk lid lock?

If the answer is No - astounding! This to me is a safety issue. Time for a recall campaign? The key switch could be added by drilling a hole, and adding the cables.

What if the OP's 4 year old had decided to climb in the trunk and play hide and seek with his old man who was busy putting the battery in the cupboard for the winter?

The glow-in-the-dark trunk release is a mechanical device, so no safety issue there. Works on our 2010 135i with the battery disconnected. Also, the back seats can be released from inside the trunk, so that presents an alternative escape path. Totally safe compared with the mechanical mechanisms used on cars before the emergency release became mandatory on new cars and safer than any car that doesn't have folding rear seats.

I've had endless problems with the mechanical release on the rear hatch of our 1998 Jeep Cherokee with it failing and preventing the hatch from opening, so I don't see an electric-only trunk release being a problem. As others have said, you just need to supply power to the jump-start terminal and ground under the hood to open the trunk if the battery has been disconnected or removed.

In my experience mechanical devices that become stiff and/or disconnected due to grime and corrosion are more of a problem than failed electrical devices as a car ages, this has been the case with our Jeep. The rear trim panel and panel retainers on the Jeep had to be somewhat butchered to get the door open, due to the bowden cable retainer snapping (has happened twice now). On the 1-series coupe, if the actuator mechanically failed (emergency release disconnected or electrical actuator disconnected), then the likely method of access would be to release a seat with a screwdriver inserted into the lock on the back of the seat, followed by butchering of the trim panel on the inside of the trunk lid. This is the same approach as for a mechanical only trunk release.