# soft close feature malfunction



## cujo3 (Jul 8, 2006)

My 98 bmw 740I spends a lot of time in the garage, and had a tendency to run the battery down. I put a battery tender in the trunk, and ran the cord out in the low part of the rubber gasket. I closed the trunk but the cord was under the soft close assist pins. The next day, the engine would start, but the trunk will not latch. Any ideas on what may have happen, or how i can reset the soft close feature on the luggage compartment.


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## M.Wong (Jan 9, 2003)

When you look at the latch on the trunk lid half...is the latch closed (where it won't go around the bolt located on the lower half or bottom side of the latch)?

If yes, losing electrical power caused the latch to stick in the locked position. Try inserting your key into the trunk lock and use the "manual" emergency unlocking procedure (for times you loose electrical power) and manually unlock the trunk as if the lid was shut.










(Photo from Q)

Here is another post about this kind of problem:
_
Symptom: the electric close and open function of the trunk stops working. The remote won't work and neither will the button located near the parking brake. Pushing the knob in on the trunk latch also does not open the trunk, it (the latch) is electrically dead. However, the key may work to open the trunk - but maybe only initially. Mine would open or close/latch manually, but it became harder until it simply wouldn't latch closed at all.

Cause: I am speculating that it was due to battery going dead while the trunk was open causing the car/trunk to be "lost".

Solution: With the trunk raised, the latch (in lid) had to be pushed inward/upward until the lever locks into the closed position (note the trunk is actually still open). When this was done the cam gear in the lower unit rotated (finding its home/closed position). That was it, everything now works fine._
(Additional info from cyclops)


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## journeyfan (Jul 6, 2006)

Hi there...dont know if there is any relevence but over the last few weeks i have noticed on a couple of occasions when returning to my car that my boot (trunk) has opened by its self ??? i know that i aint touched the key remote and that it was closed when i left it. Is this just me or something someone else has expeienced or maybe a common fault ???


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## jessicajiw10 (Nov 3, 2006)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My trunk went out a few weeks ago and I just came across your posts and tried it and that is exactly what my problem was too. Thanks again!


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## dgwennap (May 30, 2021)

M.Wong said:


> When you look at the latch on the trunk lid half...is the latch closed (where it won't go around the bolt located on the lower half or bottom side of the latch)?
> 
> If yes, losing electrical power caused the latch to stick in the locked position. Try inserting your key into the trunk lock and use the "manual" emergency unlocking procedure (for times you loose electrical power) and manually unlock the trunk as if the lid was shut.
> 
> ...


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## dgwennap (May 30, 2021)

Worked great for my 96 740 il fixed it. thanks for the post!


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