Hatch refurb

[scottieducati]

It’s my turn…. Finally got some water in my hatch trim area to the sides of the glass. Had been dreading this job for years.

Sure enough under the trim, which had several broken original or repaired tabs… is as gross as one might expect.





It appears I’ll need to remove the big trunk liner to fully relieve the glass weatherstrip and this is looking like a proper project.

The glass frame needs some rust mitigation attention and I will probably go to the body shop and have the whole hatch respray.

Looking for any and all advice, what else to do, things to watch for, etc. that anyone may have time to share. I’ve already pestered GG textually but I’m trying to save the man some frustrations…


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[dohalloran]

Hey Scottie,
I bought a used spare hatch, and had it installed a few year ago. Main issue I had was rust in bottom right corner, and guess what ? The rust returned 1 short year later. The shop ripped me off; never updated the costs until near the very end. Grossly expensive. Furthermore, rear glass latch does not work, nor does the rear defroster. Not good for me here in northern climate.
I think there's something like 28 wires running down each side. Haven't fixed any of it yet. Car is listed on here for sale.
All I can say is that when you wash the car or have any high pressure water sprayed on the back end of the car, make sure you clean out that narrow "trough" that runs along the bottom edge where the glass sits. I'm usually in the driveway, so the air compressor is ready at hand. Lift that long plastic piece gently with something that won't scratch the paint, and blow out all the excess water and dirt.
Sorry I can't guide you any better than that. I've had it up to here with this car.

[scottieducati]

Nice points. Here’s the effort of my investigation today and I’m pretty happy with the condition so far.






Gonna re-tape the wiring and clean the window gasket, both seem in OK shape.

After some initial cleaning:






Minimal rust areas at the corners and under the boots but looks like it’ll clean up well.



Glass frame is my biggest rust area it would appear.


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[dohalloran]

Doesn't look too bad. Your hatch has minimal rust, at least from your pics. Yes. The frame for the glass can get pretty ugly along the bottom.
Noe that it's warming up, I think I'll check into the no defrost issue. Bentley manuals will help in identifying the right wires.

[scottieducati]

Sadly I’ve got some more water ingress. Trying to come up with a plan to ID… can’t seem to find much on here about troubleshooting the various points for the tailgate / rear area of wagons… open to ideas before I just start spraying water everywhere.

[KeysCoupe]

I “experimented” on a couple mildly rusted rear tailgates and hatches in the U-pull yard a few months ago. There was just a little rust showing along the bottom edge of the glass on the hatch. A day or two later when I returned, someone was nice enough to have shattered the rear glass hatch glass (still holding its shape due to window tint). I was able to pull the glass away from the hatch frame. A surprise was the mastic bonding the glass along the bottom edge was still completely attached to the glass, and the body side of the mastic was loose rust with no bond to the frame. I’m quite sure water was able to leak in under the bond to the rusty metal frame, just inviting even further rust issues. This hatch looked pretty good when the glass was intact, but you couldn’t see how much rust had formed under the glass/mastic. The next glass hatch I find without major bubbling rust along the bottom is coming home with me. I will remove the glass and strip/refinish, then re-bond the glass.
This same tailgate had pretty deep rust forming in the two lower corners adjacent to where the wires enter. Rust formed under the sealer around the oval wire grommet from all the debris and dirt that had accumulated. This area needs periodic cleaning to keep rust from forming.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Scottie, where is the water collecting? In the car? Or in the tailgate?

[scottieducati]

Scottie, where is the water collecting? In the car? Or in the tailgate?

It’s ending up in the spare tire well. Floor on the right side was also a bit wet. I suspect the tail lights but they’re new with new gaskets so I’m scratching my head a bit. The cell antenna on top is removed and plugged as well.


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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

OEM tail lights? Or aftermarket? I was thinking your tail lights had developed those cracks in the main tail light upper corners like in the thread that I have somewhere on here about the bulbs running too hot, BMW making the housings too thin, and they end up melting, and cracking which then allows water to come in.

[scottieducati]

Brand new OEM inner tails. Outers appear OEM and may be original.


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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Aha! Ok, I thought so. Those outer corner tail lights, take a look at them from the sides, seems like all of them are susceptible to the cracks I am talking about that happen on the black plastic housings. Happens to all of them, pre facelift, and facelift wagons. Really bad ones, you can see the cracks through the lenses, upper corners, this happened to raftel’s 2000 wagon. Water came in through those cracks, collected up in the upper corner rail area where the CD changer sits, but he had an amp up in there that I had given him, that got zapped, and his cruise control stopped working. He came over to my place, no sound coming out of the stereo, and the cruise control, did some investigating, I checked the amp, and noticed some moisture, it had been a few days after some intense rain that our area had gotten.

So I snooped around some more, pulled out the hose, got into his cargo area and shut the tailgate had him hose the car down, nothing from the tailgate, but when he got to the tail light, drivers side, water came pouring in. When I pulled his tail light out, that’s when I saw the cracks on the housing, then looking through the red lens, clearly saw the cracks on the upper corner. His right side tail light had it too, but I guess it hadn’t cracked all the way through. So I looked at my wagon, and holy crap! They had them too, but I was not getting any water coming through. So I sealed them all up with silicone, no more water came back into his car. His car is preface, a 2000, mine is a 2003, and you can see cracks up in the same spots, the housings are just made too thin, and the bulbs eventually melt them thinner, and then cracks start to form. I’ll find the thread I started, it’s got pictures.

- - - Updated - - -

Here, found it.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-All-Tourings!

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Scottie! You knew about this!

[scottieducati]

I did… will have to check, nothing on visual to indicate any cracking….


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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Do like I did on that thread, pull the lights out, aim a good bright flashlight through the bulb holes, really shows you the cracks that my failing eyes didn’t see.