P38A Tailgate button

Bit of a weird one this morning! Went out to the rangie to get some boxes of work stuff out of the boot, unlocked her totally fine went to press the boot button and it was stuck! Bloody thing so I gave it a bit of a firmer push and it gave a few mm but wouldn't move and certainly wouldn't make the tailgate open.

Running late I figured ah i'll deal with it later and put the back seats down to retrieve the boxes.

Got home a few hours later and thought I'll just try it again, unlocked her and pushed the button - smooth as silk and the tailgate opened! So much for reading all the doom and on the internet!

I can only guess that the damn thing had got water in it and frozen over night! Do I need to replace the button? Has anyone every experienced this before?

its a common problem.

I took mine apart and gave the inner button a quick rub down with some fine emery paper.

Very simple to get to - three quick release plastic slot head screws, (just turn them 180 degrees), and carpeted back panel pulls off.

Two Phillips screws, (I believe), retain the switch which you need to rotate to pull out of the door panel.

The switch pulls apart by pressing in a small plastic lug at the base and you can then see the two microswitches and the button assembly.

Had a similar issue with mine stripped it down and found the spring was all corroded cleaned it all up lubricated with oil and refitted has been good for at least 18 months + now. As said dead easy job took me about 1/2 hr to do

Yeah its fine now guys, smooth as silk as normal! Bloody thing must have just been frozen, in two years of owning my last one I never experienced it. But the Vogue does get left on the road where as the old HSE used to live on the drive.

Would copper slip on the spring be a good idea? Or just Vaseline?