X3 2.0D 2012 F25 - tailgate struts on the way out?

[GAH]

Hello 

 

We have a LHD X3 we use mainly from driving from UK to Greece - the tailgate lifts perfectly well but on closing it stops halfway down - it will continue and close properly with some gentle assistance on the way down.

The car was MOT'd at a BMW main dealer a couple of days back, we had a free visual inspection and I asked them to investigate the issue.  As per BMW the 'motors are on their way out'.  Given that their quote was shall we say rather strong (I appreciate it is a quite tedious job to replace them) my question is are the rams serviceable or are they really a replacement job?

 

 

[Greydog]

Hi Gary

I did the exact job for a friend of my wife, I did a search of www.realoem.com for the correct part numbers left/right then she searched Google and brought both spindle drives for £110 delivered with 2 year warranty. Changing them requires trim removal so a decent set of trim removal tools and a Torx set will be needed. I did use a garden rake with a towel wrapped around it to support the tail gate as neither of the girls could reach 😅. The rest is straight forward, though getting all the trim out of the way is fiddly the job is plug and play. Couple of good Videos on line

About 21/2 hrs work with Tea and biscuits 🤣

Dave

[GAH]

Afternoon Dave,

Thanks indeed fort the great forum and the quick very informative reply.

If you add a "0" to the price of the motors you arrive at the quote we had from BMW - so that is going in the bin.

I'd seen a couple of videos a while back and thought it might be more than I'm happy to bite off and chew, but I will get some tools as you suggest and see how painful the trim removal is for my rather Clarksonesque skill set..

For my info, is the spindle drive the entire ram and I will be simply switching those over/is there anything more complex on the electricals/does anything need to be re-programmed when the new spindles are plugged in?

 

Thanks again for the reply - much appreciated.

 

All best 

GAH 

 

 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by GAH
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