You may resolve this by realigning the release cable.Ħ. The misaligned cable, like a damaged release lever or broken plastic retainer, may result in a broken link between a driver’s release lever and the latch. To remediate this, you need to replace the release cable. The damaged plastic retainer may result in cable misalignment, thus preventing the proper directional pull to the release lever. Release cable’s plastic retainer damaged. The solution is to replace the whole latch assembly.Ĥ. Sometimes, latch vibration, age, and corrosion can damage release level, or the latch release lever may break and result in the trunk not opening. The remedy for this is to have the metal repaired and re-align the striker. Latch misalignment due to rear-end collisionĭue to collision the, metal holding the striker may move out of location as a result, the latch would not match the striker. You may loosen the striker’s two bolts and re-align to solve this problem.ģ. When a striker is misaligned, this will cause the latch to miss the striker and result in a trunk closing problem. Latch assembly has an internal failure. You can solve this problem by replacing the whole latch assembly. These are some of the most common problems why a trunk won't close. In addition, if the car has been in an accident or rear-ended, the frame may be bent, and the latch may not be aligned properly. Plus, this "fix" will not cost you almost anything.If your trunk doesn't close, examine the latch and the hinge where it connects to the car's body.Įither of these might have become bent out of shape or damaged, preventing the trunk from closing. I do realize this is a Mickey mouse solution, but it should get you thru the next 4 weeks or so before we know what VW wants to do with our cars. The two main reasons why the door latches stop working are failures of the microswitches or the servo motor, and I bet it will be one of these two parts that failed in your trunk latch.Īnyways, since you already decided to part company with the car, it would not make any fiscal sense to invest good money into fixing this issue, so I'd suggest you attach a piece of rope to the emergency trunk release lever, guide the rope thru the ski opening between the rear seats, and every time you need to open the trunk, just pull the rope. There will also be a couple of microswitches to tell the central computer whether the trunk is open or closed. Have you tried to climb into the trunk thru the rear seats and open the trunk with the emergency lever? If that works, you know that the mechanical portion of the latch is still working correctly, and the fault will be, in all likelihood, somewhere in the electrical part of the latch.Īlthough I don't know for sure what the trunk latch looks like on the inside, I am reasonably sure it will be designed in a similar way as the infamous door latches, which means there will be a servo motor actuated by the key fob or the door switch, which will move some type of plunger, which, in turn, will release the latch. Click to expand.If the trunk won't open with either the key fob or the door switch, it would be a strong indicator that there is something wrong with the trunk latch itself.