Can’t open Sportbrake boot through any means

[njharrison]

Hello! Hoping someone can help me.

The boot on my 2015 XF Sportbrake is suddenly not opening. I get the normal “tailgate open” message on the dash, so I suspect it’s the loom issue that I’ve seen other people complain about.

However, it does wobble up and down slightly - I guess the final lock isn’t sliding into place.

The thing that makes this really annoying is that the keyblade also won’t open the boot. It turns back and forth about 45-60 degrees but no further. I’ve tried applying more force - with pliers - and liberally squirted WD40 in there, but with no joy.

It sounds like something is moving when I twist it.

Does anyone have any advice please?

Many thanks

Nick

[O.T.H]

Hi Nick---It sounds to me that there.s some thing stopping the  tailgate from closing properly - just a thought try pushing

down on it hard ??? while operating the key blade ???

[njharrison]

Wow, thanks for the quick response!

Yes, you’re right - oddly for us the boot was pretty clear but there could be something trapped there I guess.

I have tried pushing down as hard as I can, will  try the same again whilst using the keyblade as I might not have done them in combination!

[njharrison]

I tried pushing down whilst turning the keyblade but nothing happened - various attempts at pushing, pulling, pressing the button etc all failed, unfortunately.

 

Any other ideas at all?!

[njharrison]

Right, I managed to work out what was going on here.

I think the harness connection to the pull-down motor disconnected whilst it was in action. This left it "jammed" in position. The main latch (which the keyblade controls) was open, and the car was happy that it was open - hence the warning message.

Thanks to various searches I worked out how to remove the boot lid trim (easy), find the pull-down motor (harder, but using part searches to see what it looked like helped) and then use an allen key (I lent mine out so only had imperial to hand, a 7/32" one fit, using trial and error) and manually rotated the motor.

Then to test it, I hit the "boot open" button from my location lying in the boot with dropped rear seats, and because I hadn't disconnected the trim and the interior lights, when  the boot surprisingly raised everything got pulled out of the car and onto the ground, with the trim dangling from a few small wires. I felt pretty stupid about that.

Still 100% buzzing from sorting it out. Will possibly need a new pull down motor, but will check the harness first.

Thanks again for your response, it spurred me into continuing to try stuff.