My boot closure had been playing up, but now just flashes when I try to use the key fob...... and door panel switch on drivers side does nothing either, neither does the B switch on Boot lid. Goosed basically!! Luckily I have nothing needed in the boot.

So I have looked at a few threads on here and nothing seems to work, and I thought I'd follow the things mentioned by some other users, but I can't seem to see the electrical button inside the boot only a lever when looking through the ski hatch. Is that the only way to open the boot from inside the boot? I thought I'd try a fuse check but someone said its also in the boot....clever design that! I was trying to eliminate a jam, an electrical fault before assuming its the mechanism drive thats failed requiring parts and a garage visit.

I also thought maybe to take the rear seat on left side looking out the back, but unsure how you take it off, is it the side panel first? See pic attached. Any insight much appreciated.

 

Hello @CUE99T ,
Is there any warning on the instrument cluster display in regards to the boot lid being open, hence the release wouldn't work if it thinks it's open, if so, try pressing down on the lid while pressing buttons for release, I remember where a member here had her girlfriend sit on the lid and bounce, actually, I think they both sat and bounced on it, it opened.

Yes, the fuse for bootlid release is in the boot, brilliant, I know.

Do you have Ross-Tech VCDS, under #46 (iirc) Central Convenience, you should be able to activate the boot release.

The escape lever in the boot as shown, is an electrical (microswitch) switch mounted to the lever, therefore if an electrical fault happens, this lever is useless, such as a dead battery, or other electrical power fault, some say, but I think it was a Flying Spur, that the newer years have this escape lever as a direct cable, so no longer a microswitch setup, not sure what your year is, but the 2005, 06, and 07 units I had, were all microswitch setups, worth a try for you with a broomstick.

The emergency release lever behind the seat is 100 % manual, and a direct connection via cable to the lock/latch mechanism lever.
To get to this lever, you pull the lower portion of the seat up, put your finger at the face of the seat by the floor carpet, then lift and remove, then you will see the torx bolt at the bottom center of the upper portion of the seat, after removing the torx bolt, the seat will slide down and out, now you have access to the emergency release lever.

No side panel removal necessary.

Johnny

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@Johnny Hotspur GT Thanks for thats. Super helpful as always. My car is a 2004. Nothing showing on the dash. I did read that thread btw.......I was thinking it but my wife would probably tell me where to go! lol

I left my VCDS in Andorra sadly so cant use it! Annoyed with myself for that!

I will maybe try removing the seat tomorrow at the weekend so thanks for the tips. My question would be.....if I use the lever behind the seat in the back, will I be able to close it if the power drive part mechanism in the boot is goosed?

My only way to close the boot for the last few weeks was to put it down by hand and then press the remote to get it to release the catch and then it would drop as normal, but for a few weeks it wouldnt catch when closing manually when I dropped it to catch. Release was working ok.

Hope you're recovering well btw.

 

Well......not sure if its due to be a hot day and the car sitting at the beach and sitting in the hot sun and something has freed up, but I tried my boot again today and the bleeding thing just opened like it had never failed!!!

Not sure what to make of it, but it still wont latch when closing first time, but when I hold it down, and press the key fob again, it releases the boot and then I can slam it shut......so is it an intermittent fault due to a dirty locking mechanism or something? Is there something I can clean up?

If it wont catch on the first close again....so my question to my fellow forum members is this.....is it because the top half is not releasing when opening, or is it the bottom half thats not releasing something and then not grabbing the top when I slam it shut closed?

Does anyone know how the boot mechanism closes?

 

Hello @CUE99T ,
Just for clarification, does your 2004 have power lift and close, or just power latch, meaning, you have to physically lift the bootlid by hand to the fully open position, and the same for lowering it.

If no power lift on your 04, then you most likely would have the striker piece I show in my video from the 05 without power lift, it's the piece I show on the shelf, it has 2 connectors to plug in, it has what is either a motor or solenoid to the right that moves a rod, the other connection I believe is a microswitch, I can check tomorrow to be sure, so your issue could be in this striker piece, if you have it.

The other issue could be the power latch itself, I have one in front of me right now, and the only thing it appears to do is, is to pull the latch in further after initial close, just like the soft close doors do, this power latch assembly is really not a serviceable piece, well, except maybe for the motor and the gear mechanism the motor drives, as I was able to remove said motor and gearbox that slides over the square drive shaft, the housing will not split in two as it appears it should, I removed all 9 bolts, the are 2 hammered fasteners that would have to be ground off the split the housing, and the only reason why I would want to split the housing is, I believe that there are 2 microswitches inside said housing assembly, as the connector on this piece has 8 wires, 2 large, and 6 smaller in gauge, the 2 large and 2 of the small go to the motor, the other 4 small ones go inside where I can not see, but I am thinking to microswitches, and any of these switches could be the problem.


I may go drill those two fasteners to split the housing.

EDIT:
I drilled the two pins, took every bit of 3 minutes, I just had to know if there were microswitches in there, there are 2.

But, once the pins are drilled, the unit is pretty much, unless, maybe just grinding the heads off may lead to reuse, BUT BEWARE, when you open it, springs, gears, and a lever come falling out, I figured how to put it back together, but mine is trash, I just kept it for learning the innards one day, now it can go to the scrapyard.

Johnny

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Thx @Johnny Hotspur GT thats great info there. Yeah, I have to physically lift the bootlid by hand to the fully open position, and the same for lowering it.


Looks like I maybe need a new top latch then. For me thats the bit that isn't catching. I can manually do it when its fully open with a push of the top part in my pic but then the bootlid won't close at all as the lock catch is rotated round into the lock position..


The bit I am not understanding, is why it will catch when I cycle the bootlid with the keyfob when its pushed down (and dash is showing as boot open). Thats the weird bit. After that it will close shut once or maybe 2 times. then goes back to this state of just "bouncing" off the bottom part of the lock and not catching and my top lock looks like the picture.

EDIT: it seems if I open it using key fob (or door or button) and I gently place the bootlid down and softly push it in, it will close alll of the time, whereas before it woul just bounce off the striker. Interesting........(PS found my VCDS cable btw - I did bring it with me!!)

 

So if I replace the top lock mechanism NOT the striker.....is there a VW part likely to match it?

As a side note....what did you do to install power lift and close?

 

And @Johnny Hotspur GT so you know, the weird thing is my striker doesn't flip down either side of the middle cross bolt....it pushed down on the left and its like its fully one big plate when pushed .... will try and video it.......

its probaly why your power lift and close cycled up and down and up and down as the striker has different top latched bits......

 

So waited on the part for months from the garage and gave them the car and still not fitted so I have just resigned myself to handing it to Bentley MD as I am now needing to think about returning to my winter home and need the emissions problem fixed too so it can pass ITV!!

 

Great info as always JH. I was unaware of that manual boot release mechanism.

 

Hi, very helpful post. Thanks. Flat battery on my 2006 Conti GT (without power lift boot) so I managed to open the boot with the emergency release lever behind the passenger rear seat. HOWEVER, the latch now refuses to catch and I noticed that the release lever did not get back to the original position and looks loose somehow. Is this because in the heat of the action I failed to get a helper to press the boot ? Would that cause the cable to snap ? Another thing I noticed when I pulled that lever in the first place is that it required some serious force. I am grateful for advice before I begin to remove panels to inspect this damned cable. Cheers,

 

PROBLEM SOLVED: the issue was that after being actuated and the boot opened, the emergency release lever would stay mid-course and not re-arm to its original position. As a consequence, the boot latch would not catch.
Here is why:
The cable end attached to the lever is of an “S” shape that needs to be pulled downwards with your finger at the same time the other hand moves the lever back to its original position. Otherwise it remains stuck horizontally preventing the lever to return to its straight position.

Cheers