My (new to me) M5 has been sitting idle when there is snow and salt is on the roads- my 540i has winter tires on it and I have been using that until potentially selling her in the spring... Anyway, the trunk on my 540 broke (wouldn't latch shut)- there is a small spring in the actuator that broke. I bought a box of springs at Home Depot, but the one that fit wasn't strong enough. Then I searched a couple of local hardware stores. Then I bought a used one actuator which was listed as excellent working condition- it arrived with the spring broken (and in very poor condition- seller took it back in return).
Frustrated, I did some net searching, and found a post on another forum- the poster said he went to Ace Hardware and purchased expansion Spring #74 which was a perfect match! Total cost $0.89!! I popped out the actuator, put in the new spring and put everything back together- perfect!
I bought 2 springs in case my M5 spring ever goes
Anyway, I wanted to post here since I didn't find this info when I searched here and it saves a ton of money/searching to find the correct spring. I drove with the latch broken for a couple of weeks- when the spring is broken the trunk will stay down from gravity, but doesn't latch (nor lock when you lock the car)- the Germans were smart enough to design the lock to fail in the open position thankfully!
Frustrated, I did some net searching, and found a post on another forum- the poster said he went to Ace Hardware and purchased expansion Spring #74 which was a perfect match! Total cost $0.89!! I popped out the actuator, put in the new spring and put everything back together- perfect!
I bought 2 springs in case my M5 spring ever goes
Anyway, I wanted to post here since I didn't find this info when I searched here and it saves a ton of money/searching to find the correct spring. I drove with the latch broken for a couple of weeks- when the spring is broken the trunk will stay down from gravity, but doesn't latch (nor lock when you lock the car)- the Germans were smart enough to design the lock to fail in the open position thankfully!
