Tailgate stuck shut

[pbierre]

Turned out to be a linked wire that was causing an electrical fault.

Do you think this could happen in another vehicle? Which wire?...located where? Thanks for posting an epilog.

[HeavyHanded]

I’m not really sure, I ended up taking it to my mechanic. Took him a while to troubleshoot. He didn’t think it was the lock mechanism because it would work intermittently, but there would also be electrical failures (no license plate light or windshield wiper). So he chased the wires that ran through the roof and found they were strained. Maybe shrinking over time? He moved them around to give some slack and it seems to have fixed the problem. A new lock mechanism was over $500 so I’m glad it was just labor costs.

[jimmyodonnell]

I had my tailgate latch replaced last year, it turned out that some piece of the latch mechanism had broken (car is 11 years old), and although the electronic lock controls seemed to be working both from key fob and from driver's door, the latch would not release and the gate would not open.

The replacement cost was approx $400 parts + labor, which was higher than I expected considering no electronics were replaced . . . but it does now work. I did not try to remove the interior panels or try this repair myself, I do not have a garage and didn't want to get the panel off and find myself unable to replace it properly. The gate gets a lot of use so I decided to just spend to have it done properly.