Who here has a RUSTY TAILGATE???

[Qsilver7]

Ditto...excellent write-up & pics of the vulnerable rust spot locations on the Touring's tail gate.

And as far as water retention in the fuel filler door area...both my e38 and e39 collect a small amount of water in this area...which I always would sop out after washing the vehicle. When I picked up my X5...I noticed that BMW designed a drain hole in this area...so apparently water retention in this area did come to their attention thus the redesign. Sadly too late for the e38/e39...but their generational cousin (the e53) which continued to be built up to the 2006 model year...did.

Note the drain hole on the far right of the fuel filler door area...below the hinge...on my e53. This should have been used on the e38 & e39, too:

[Isis M]

+1 for rust, I'll add my info. once I take it apart and fix. I'm trying to find a rust free Titan Silver tailgate, quite the challenge, isn't it?!

[geargrinder]

this is a good thread - missed it before.

almost every touring I've seen has rust on the lower left - for some reason that one is worse than the other. i have a tiny bubble just starting...

will get mine fixed sometime in next year, having seen this DIY I might 'pre-treat' it myself before then to hold it up - ditto w/ the POR-15 treatment.

[RVAE34]

I have it too. I plan on re-spraying the whole car at some point so I will fix or replace the tailgate at that time. I got my car from Tinius

[Fuddy]

I just replaced mine...

got a used hatch with glass for $150, got it sprayed and mounted for $500

[geargrinder]

Dats good price. I could never get that done for that here. You gotta shop connection or something?

[Fuddy]

the gate i got from a guy who was scrapping his touring... he just threw that price out there and I took it.

as far as paint and install, the shop had done work for me before on my M5 so i'm assuming that's why he gave me that price

[bschmidt25]

Mine is rusty too. In fact, I have a hole in the middle just below the button to open the glass. I need to get it fixed because water will get in if it rains. I have it sealed off with some plastic right now, but wondering what my options are. Car is Oxford Green Metallic and with the rarity of Tourings to begin with, I'm thinking my chances of finding a junkyard part isn't very good.

[studius]

I battled this rust on my '99 528iT, and now I am doing the same on my '03 525iT (5MT + Sport Package). I was unaware of the harness and grommet, and have used rust treatments, etc. to slow the progress of the rust only where it shows up at the bottom of the window. But tinius' DIY is really excellent, and now I will really go at the source of the problem and hope to stabilize the little bit of rust that is there. Thanks a bunch!

I also have rust along the bottom edge of the rear window frame, which isn't so bad, but it pisses me off, because it should have been clear to our friends at BMW that that area needed to have positive drainage. As it is, water just sits in that area just below the window as is held against the metal window frame. I have been tempted to remove the plastic strip that runs across the tailgate under the window to facilitate cleaning and drying. Has anyone done that?

[sienayr]

In regards to the hardware that is under the rubber boot 'stop buffer', shown to the right with the torx head in the picture above (with rubber boot removed).

When I took my tail gate apart the other day to ascertain the extent of the rust under there, I noticed that the 'Blind rivet nut' as BMW calls it (a.k.a. Nutsert) is very rusted on both sides of mine (what the torx bolt screws into). At first I thought the tailgate itself was rusted too around the holes where that blind rivet nut goes into, but it seems like the rust from the rivet nut has just run off onto the paint around it and will rub off with some work, with hopefully no rust on the actual tailgate metal underneath it. However, I was hesitant to try and get the blind rivet nut out of there since I didn't really know what I might be getting into. Looking at the RealOEM diagram though it looks like it should be able to come out and be replaced, but it is a rivet so does not just twist out with a socket/ratchet. Has anyone ever removed/replaced that part? Looks like there is a whole set of tools for removal and installation of these things. Read many threads on the tailgate topic and have never seen this mentioned before, unless I missed something.


#17 in the diagram
http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...41&fg=60&hl=22

thanks-
Ryan

[tinius]

Ryan, I was not able to remove or even turn that blind rivet nut on my previous touring, and have not tried on my current car. You might try just removing the bolt, cleaning it up as well as you can and replacing the bolt and bumper. If the tailgate sheet metal is not rotting around it you may not have a problem at all. The bumper keeps the glass from rattling when closed, so it might take some adjusting.

Regards,

[Chisum]

I replaced my rusty tailgate with the one I got from Tinius.

[johnny bananas]

That is a great post, Stephen. Mine has rust, so I will be not only cleaning, but doing rust removal as well. And here I was worried that the e39 guys wouldn't be as on top of their shit as the 2002 and e28 guys. Boy, was I mistaken.

[Brooklyn525it]

I found that my glass needed adjustment on the tailgate. Went to turn that torx bolt with the rubber bumper on it and the whole assembly just spun out.
The rivet, torx and bumper. Not on just one side but both so I ordered all new and got one spare rivet ( #17) . The rivet part is made of a soft metal, like lead, but not lead my father has a shop, so I barrowed his blind rivet tool. Easy install, just really added some never seize to the threads so hopefully it does not seize up like the old originals.

[cristi07]

I would add(6 years later) that beside cleaning, the rear hatch needs some cavity wax. At least this is what I will do after replacing my rusty hatch...

[dohalloran]

Cavity wax ? Is this something special, or or are you suggesting to wax the inside of the hatch ?

[CPHES]

Cavity wax - rustproofing wax - like Ziebart. I plan on painting the inside of mine with Por-15.

[dohalloran]

Okay. I thought that maybe sealing up those holes in either side of the hatch where the wires go through would be a good start. Body shop also recommended some undercoating when the temps cool off, but that doesn't address the rear hatch.

[scottieducati]

Most of the stuff underneath tends to be OK no? Tons of aluminum and zinc coating.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CPHES]

No - do not seal any holes. https://www.por15.com/

Use that, and keep it clean. Do you drive it in the winter?

[rickadootrd]

Cavity wax ? Is this something special, or or are you suggesting to wax the inside of the hatch ?

Maybe he meant to say Cosmoline??? Lol, unfortunately that was applied/Only applied in Munich BMW Factory prior to shipping to the US...

[CPHES]

Cavity wax can be called cosmoline at times. That is what we called the aftermarket rustproofing in the 80’s here in the north east. Keep the gate clean, free of salt, and don’t let the drain holes clog. It is the weak point of the touring. All the debris catches in the valley at the base of the glass, and has a place to fester.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Once a month, I blast these corners with compressed air. That blows out all the dirt and debris that pools up there under the plastic shrouds every time it rains. If you park under a tree that pukes a ton of crap, this is even more important that you do what I do. If you let the debris build up, it becomes a swamp that stays constantly wet, You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next.

[CPHES]

You are in Virginia. I am in NY, and Doholloran is in Canada. The salt mixture we see is nasty stuff. My car was a Boston area car - 197k in the first 12 years - the tailgate was reconstructed twice. My hinge pins snapped from rust. From some of the other pics, I wonder if we would be better off not putting the plastic trim on, and insulating the harness better.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Well, this I could say, pull all the shrouds off, clean the surfaces real well. Inspect for wear through the paint where the harness layed. Inspect where the rust always happens. If it is good with good paint on it, clean it better, get a grey 3M scuff pad, mask off the area that the plastic shrouds don’t touch, scuff the clear coats surface lightly. POR15, coat the whole known area.once it dries, give it a second coat for good measure, peel off the masking tape, cover it back up with the shrouds.this should help out a lot.