Wagon boot won't close..

Cam · 10-06-2013, 01:21 PM

As the title suggests..

My AU boot has become increasingly hard to get to latch closed of late, it got the point where it needs to be slammed to shut. So right before a 200km trip today it decided enough was enough, and now won't latch at all..

Obviously I've checked to make sure theres nothing jammed in there stopping it from closing, which it appears there isn't. I've checked the latch on the boot and it seems to be latching as you'd expect.. I can see wear marks on the catch on the car, so it seems (and feels like) its attempting to latch

Where to from here?!

Cheers,
Cam

Cam · 11-06-2013, 09:37 AM

Due to the overwhelming response, I'm going to pick up a new tailgate latch and see how I go

**Mechan1k** · 11-06-2013, 05:04 PM

Do these run an actuator in them?????
I know had issues with my Territory one a while back ... and it failed to latch ... had to drive in the rain hom with it from the south coast back to Sydney metro. Lucky the tailgate is heavy and the rubber seal is pretty thick on it.

Road_Warrior · 11-06-2013, 05:19 PM

Ugh, we had this problem with our AU wagon, when it started doing this, it was the beginning of the end of my ownershit (see what I did there) experience with it.

I replaced the actuator earlier on after it died. Then one cold morning all of a sudden the tailgate decided to not close. Turns out the threads in the vehicle body that the striker bolted to was stripped. No problem, drilled them out, tapped new (larger) threads and modified the striker so it could use bigger bolts. It lasted about half a day and that was it. No amount of repositioning, re-tightening, realigning and overall fiddling with the striker changed it.

In the end, we knew we were going to upgrade to a new car, it was just a matter of waiting for the funds to become available and putting up with it until then.

Cam · 12-06-2013, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Ugh, we had this problem with our AU wagon, when it started doing this, it was the beginning of the end of my ownershit (see what I did there) experience with it.

I replaced the actuator earlier on after it died. Then one cold morning all of a sudden the tailgate decided to not close. Turns out the threads in the vehicle body that the striker bolted to was stripped. No problem, drilled them out, tapped new (larger) threads and modified the striker so it could use bigger bolts. It lasted about half a day and that was it. No amount of repositioning, re-tightening, realigning and overall fiddling with the striker changed it.

In the end, we knew we were going to upgrade to a new car, it was just a matter of waiting for the funds to become available and putting up with it until then.

Hrm. Not what I wanted to hear! I got a latch from the wreckers yesterday as when I fiddled with mine it did appear to unlatch very very easily. The replacement seems a lot stiffer and harder to unlatch. Am about to pull it apart, so will see how I go and report back..

Cam · 13-06-2013, 04:52 PM

Replaced the latch, and gave the striker a bit of a reposition and all seems good so far. Fingers crossed! The old latch mechanism was pretty loose compared to the replacement one from the wreckers. Once it went on itd lock with a bit of force, with the striker repositioned it seems to be locking very easily.

Given I open / close my boot probably 50x more a week then the average punter I wouldn't be surprised if the actuator gives way!

Happy days! (for now..)