OK, so there are a lot of posts on tailgates not opening and a lot of theories around the method to open them. I had one of these troublesome doors so thought I would get to the bottom of the problem.
First thing to do is get into the load space which means climbing in there. Now pull the door trim off by pulling from the top. There are 4 screws at the bottom which may be inaccessible until the door is open.
Once off inside the door you will see a plug on the bottom of the lock assembly, remove this by pushing the locking mechanism in and pulling down.
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Now armed with a voltmeter set to read 12v connect it to the connections in the plug, bits of wire may help here. Then you will need to go round to the door handle outside but still be able to see the voltmeter reading. Operating the handle you should see a momentary 12v appear and then go back to 0v. If you do the wiring to the latch is OK, if not then you will need to find the fault elsewhere.
To get the latch assembly out you need to get the door open but the pic below shows one screw, circled in red, you need to remove first. Also remove the 2 plugs.
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This pic shows the other side of the assembly.
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With the screw removed what you need to do is pull the plastic cover, arrowed in red, up far enough to be able to pull the lever circled down and the door should open. It is fairly brutal but the only way! Beware if your window won’t go down as it will catch on the surround, luckily for me I could lower the window.
Once the door is open you can undo the 4 screws, 2 cross head and 2 TORX, the latch assembly should come out now, but be aware the cables are on a clip going over the top of the assembly but the clip can be released with a pair of pliers through the top hole in the door.
With the assembly out detach the solenoid from the latch by twisting the arm out.
You can then undo the 4 screws and see what is inside, just a motor and a screw gear. All looked ok everything moved and was not seized, put it back together and plugged it into the white plug. Tried the door latch and it worked! There is not much else that can go wrong except for a kaput motor.
Reassembly and fitting is just the reverse, just make sure the wiring around the top of the assembly does not get trapped when refitting.
This whole job took about an hour to do.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long but hope it helps someone.
Mew
First thing to do is get into the load space which means climbing in there. Now pull the door trim off by pulling from the top. There are 4 screws at the bottom which may be inaccessible until the door is open.
Once off inside the door you will see a plug on the bottom of the lock assembly, remove this by pushing the locking mechanism in and pulling down.
[GALLERY=]
Now armed with a voltmeter set to read 12v connect it to the connections in the plug, bits of wire may help here. Then you will need to go round to the door handle outside but still be able to see the voltmeter reading. Operating the handle you should see a momentary 12v appear and then go back to 0v. If you do the wiring to the latch is OK, if not then you will need to find the fault elsewhere.
To get the latch assembly out you need to get the door open but the pic below shows one screw, circled in red, you need to remove first. Also remove the 2 plugs.
[GALLERY=]
This pic shows the other side of the assembly.
[GALLERY=]
With the screw removed what you need to do is pull the plastic cover, arrowed in red, up far enough to be able to pull the lever circled down and the door should open. It is fairly brutal but the only way! Beware if your window won’t go down as it will catch on the surround, luckily for me I could lower the window.
Once the door is open you can undo the 4 screws, 2 cross head and 2 TORX, the latch assembly should come out now, but be aware the cables are on a clip going over the top of the assembly but the clip can be released with a pair of pliers through the top hole in the door.
With the assembly out detach the solenoid from the latch by twisting the arm out.
You can then undo the 4 screws and see what is inside, just a motor and a screw gear. All looked ok everything moved and was not seized, put it back together and plugged it into the white plug. Tried the door latch and it worked! There is not much else that can go wrong except for a kaput motor.
Reassembly and fitting is just the reverse, just make sure the wiring around the top of the assembly does not get trapped when refitting.
This whole job took about an hour to do.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long but hope it helps someone.
Mew
