2011 trunk lid suddenly twisted

studiolabber · 05-14-2021, 08:11 PM

I had the weirdest thing happen today on my X3. For some time the power tailgate has been making a noise. For a while it would only close halfway but I could close it manually. Once the weather warmed up (I'm in Ontario, Canada) the lid opened & closed again fine. Still noisy but I put the noise down to old age, the car is 10 years old.

I had decided to sell the car and in Canada you have to get a safety certificate to do so. The car passed with flying colours but after picking up the car from the garage we opened the trunk only to find that the lid would not close. "Not this again" I thought but this time the trunk lid was not lined up correctly. Somehow it had shifted so that the latch was misaligned, there was interference on the left side and a half inch gap on the right. I could close the lid so the car is drivable but I can't understand how this could happen with a trunk lid that was closed correctly when I picked up the car.

I took the car back to the mechanic who was as confused as I was, he confirmed that the car was ok when they finished working on it and said that they actually didn't need to open the trunk to do the safety check.

Has anybody seen this before? I have tried to do as much servicing on the car as I can as it has 240K km on the clock. BMW is notably expensive and we have had many $1,000+ invoices to show for it. It looks like this might be out of my hands but any suggestions would be appreciated.

stamsd · 05-16-2021, 08:05 AM

Sounds strange that the shop said your x3 was okay when they were done with it, yet state they never opened the rear hatch. They can't have it both ways.

Did they put it up on a lift? My guess would be that they may have botched lining it up correctly and it slipped off the lift point(s) giving your x3 a quick "twist". I can't think of anything else that would make the latch misalign unless your hinges gave out. Perhaps call a few other inspection shops and see if the hatch is actually part of a proper inspection?

e30lover318i · 05-16-2021, 01:26 PM

Hi studio! this happened to me, what happened was there is a spring inside the lift gate “motors/struts” this spring broke inside mine and basically didn’t allow it to compress… I stupidly applied some force to close the lift gate “I was stuck at a grocery store” and this completely “twisted” the lift gate but I was able to close it luckily. I had a buddy who works at a body shop take a look at it and we saw the hinge on the side the strut was messed up was bent. We removed the hinge and he used some skill and a little magic to bend it back perfect! Hopefully this helps !

05-14-2021, 08:11 PM	#1
studiolabber Registered 0 Rep 4 Posts Drives: BMW X3 Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Toronto Canada iTrader: (0)	2011 trunk lid suddenly twisted I had the weirdest thing happen today on my X3. For some time the power tailgate has been making a noise. For a while it would only close halfway but I could close it manually. Once the weather warmed up (I'm in Ontario, Canada) the lid opened & closed again fine. Still noisy but I put the noise down to old age, the car is 10 years old. I had decided to sell the car and in Canada you have to get a safety certificate to do so. The car passed with flying colours but after picking up the car from the garage we opened the trunk only to find that the lid would not close. "Not this again" I thought but this time the trunk lid was not lined up correctly. Somehow it had shifted so that the latch was misaligned, there was interference on the left side and a half inch gap on the right. I could close the lid so the car is drivable but I can't understand how this could happen with a trunk lid that was closed correctly when I picked up the car. I took the car back to the mechanic who was as confused as I was, he confirmed that the car was ok when they finished working on it and said that they actually didn't need to open the trunk to do the safety check. Has anybody seen this before? I have tried to do as much servicing on the car as I can as it has 240K km on the clock. BMW is notably expensive and we have had many $1,000+ invoices to show for it. It looks like this might be out of my hands but any suggestions would be appreciated.
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05-16-2021, 08:05 AM	#2
stamsd ;) 0 Rep 17 Posts Drives: 19' 330i x-Drive Join Date: Aug 2020 Location: Mid-West iTrader: (0) Garage List 2012 X3 28i [0.00] 2019 330i x-Drive [0.00]	Sounds strange that the shop said your x3 was okay when they were done with it, yet state they never opened the rear hatch. They can't have it both ways. Did they put it up on a lift? My guess would be that they may have botched lining it up correctly and it slipped off the lift point(s) giving your x3 a quick "twist". I can't think of anything else that would make the latch misalign unless your hinges gave out. Perhaps call a few other inspection shops and see if the hatch is actually part of a proper inspection? Last edited by stamsd; 05-16-2021 at 08:10 AM..
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05-16-2021, 01:26 PM	#3
e30lover318i Second Lieutenant 79 Rep 211 Posts Drives: E30,E34T,E46,F48 Join Date: Dec 2019 Location: RI iTrader: (0)	Hi studio! this happened to me, what happened was there is a spring inside the lift gate “motors/struts” this spring broke inside mine and basically didn’t allow it to compress… I stupidly applied some force to close the lift gate “I was stuck at a grocery store” and this completely “twisted” the lift gate but I was able to close it luckily. I had a buddy who works at a body shop take a look at it and we saw the hinge on the side the strut was messed up was bent. We removed the hinge and he used some skill and a little magic to bend it back perfect! Hopefully this helps !
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