[mastee]

Hello All,

After trying all listred methods unsuccessfully to open the rear hatch, this is how I managed to fix it, now it works smooth as butter and hopefully will help others

My 2004 4runner with 270K miles was owned by couple of wilderness guides from Moab, it came caked in sand and mud. The hatch had been stuck for over a year, I had tried the CPU reset, pushing down hard on tailgate while trying to open the damn thing etc etc.

Take the plastic trim, bottom trim, the weather shield off the hatch. From inside spray some penetrating oil on it, with the bottom trim off from inside you should be able to insert a long screwdriver/prybar where the latch mechanism hooks into the locking jab, wiggle around and with some effort the hook should rotate and the tail gate should open, if the latches are gummed up the soft close/open mechanism will not work

I took the actuator off the tail, took off all the old plastic/vinyl coating on the hook, after cleaning the locking hook it should rotate freely, and if rotated it should stay in place, the large lever should be able to open it from the closed position.

Make sure that the green micro switch's metal prong touches the end of the arm of the geared mechanism, it works as an stop mechanism.

If the soft stop mechanism does not work at this point, upon closer inspection you will see that there is a latch inside the rectangular metal housing which contains the hook assembly, however it moves in horizontal orientation in relation to the locking hook, and is parallel to the bottom metal plate of the housing, to visually see it, look at the metal housing containing the locking hook from the top corner, there are gaps along the corners that form the rectangular enclosure containing the hook. It should look like a small metal nub/rod, try to move this small rod back and forth, and ensure that the latch/rod springs back into position when unlocked or the smaller latch handle is pulled upwards , otherwise clean the heck out of it, this should take care of the soft closing of the hatch

I should have taken pictures, ask away if anything is unclear and I will try to take a few pics for better visualization

[SocalSam]

There is a release bar on the hatch actuator accessible from inside. If actuator motor runs, fails to release from catch, and then reverses to locked position, simply reverse the catch to present clean side to actuator.