06 - Back hatch won't open

pyrakel

New member
Hello all,

Having a problem with this '06 that my friend owns. The back hatch will not open most of the time.

When he first got it, the solution was to unhook the battery and then reattach it. After cycling the battery like this, the back latch would open exactly once.

After reading up on some solutions to this issue, it looked like most people were finding that the hatch latch was the problem, and that greasing it fixed the issue. So last night I took it apart, knocked the dirt out, sprayed it liberally with PB Blaster, and then greased the hell out of it with white lithium spray.

Now, the hatch will open and close successfully ~5 times before it quits. Again, unhooking the battery resets this, and after hooking the battery back up it'll open another 5 times before it locks up.

When opening the back hatch, I press the switch on the hatch and hear a relay-like clicking noise before the electric motor actuates and opens the hatch. When it is non-functional, pressing the switch yields no click and no electric motor sound - so it's not even trying to open.

I am wondering if maybe it is the switch in the hatch that's going bad, not the latch and motor? If it's an electrical problem, it's not in the latch motor, because unplugging the harness at the latch and replugging it does not make the latch work again.

Has anyone else had this issue and solved it successfully? I'm not sure why greasing the latch now let it open 5 times instead of 1 after cycling the battery, but there is definitely something fishy going on. Wish that there was a button to pop the hatch inside the car on the dash somewhere as I could then use that to isolate the problem to the latch/motor or the switch on the hatch itself.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.
 
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IMO your latch has a lot of gunk built up inside. PB Blaster is not a solution nor would I recomend anybody doing this. You can't get up in the latch assembly by doing it this way. The latch/actuator is relatively inexpensive, however, I would suggest pulling the liftgate cover off and pulling the actuator/latch assembly to clean it.

The liftgate & window lets in a lot of dirt; I suspect the latch assembly is ok, but is filthy and rusty. The actuator/motor is probably fine as is your switch.

Just my 2¢
 
$44 for the latch and i've seen threads showing how easy it is to replace. gotta take off the inner panel and basically remove the old one and put in the new one. easy peasy.

https://parts.conicellitoyotaofconshohocken.com/oem-parts/toyota-switch-assembly-8484035010

That's not the latch, it's the switch, the latch/actuator sells for much more, on the Conicelli website it sells for $192,

https://parts.conicellitoyotaofcons...lciZ5PTIwMDYmdD1saW1pdGVkJmU9NC03bC12OC1nYXM=

It sells for less at other places, you can find them on eBay for around $120 to $130, this is the cheapest one I found with free shipping doing a quick search.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/03-09-TOYOT...ash=item25c92e4a3a:g:vgUAAOSwCU1YqgTd&vxp=mtr
 
Last edited:
IMO your latch has a lot of gunk built up inside. PB Blaster is not a solution nor would I recomend anybody doing this. You can't get up in the latch assembly by doing it this way. The latch/actuator is relatively inexpensive, however, I would suggest pulling the liftgate cover off and pulling the actuator/latch assembly to clean it.

The liftgate & window lets in a lot of dirt; I suspect the latch assembly is ok, but is filthy and rusty. The actuator/motor is probably fine as is your switch.

Just my 2¢

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear. I did remove the entire latch assembly from the hatch and cleaned and greased it liberally.

The car has been in Texas its entire life, fortunately, so there was a lot of dirt and dust but no visible rust whatsoever.

I use PB Blaster on my classic cars to loosen rusted parts and was thus under the assumption that if there was any rust to be loosened, it was going to do it on the 4runner latch as well.
 
Small bump-up in case no one saw - since the latch is verified working correctly, and when it's not working I can't hear the switch clicking or the motor even attempting to open the latch... does that mean I should be looking at the switch?

All I've seen about the switch is people having issues with it being melted. This one isn't melted (that I can tell, at least) but who knows if it's original or repro or what.
 
That's not the latch, it's the switch, the latch/actuator sells for much more, on the Conicelli website it sells for $192,

https://parts.conicellitoyotaofcons...lciZ5PTIwMDYmdD1saW1pdGVkJmU9NC03bC12OC1nYXM=

It sells for less at other places, you can find them on eBay for around $120 to $130, this is the cheapest one I found with free shipping doing a quick search.

03-09 TOYOTA 4RUNNER GENUINE OEM LIFT TAILGATE LATCH LOCK W/MOTOR 69110-35090 | eBay
oh shit. my bad!
 
Battery's reading a solid 12.6V when the car's off. Maybe I will see if I can find someone else's battery to borrow real quick though.
 
I've got a similar issue

My issue seems to be slightly different though. I have reset the ECU, pulled the power from the while tuck and let it set but no change. When I press the switch on the back of the hatch, you can hear the switch click but that's it. No switching sound from the ECU, no motor, nothing. I can release the hatch manfully. When I close the hatch, it will close on it's own, the motor kicks on and pulls the hatch closed. If I press the switch on the hatch right after it closes (before the hatch goes into "locked" position) the the motor will kick back on and release the hatch. So mechanically everything appears to be working. If I close the hatch and wait a few seconds, the hatch locks and it will not open again. It almost seems like the hatch can't tell the truck is unlocked. Does anyone know if there is a lock sensor on the hatch or is that controlled by the ECU?

Here is a link to a short video of the issue:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Fc-quHllk0dGpCN2wtRDNHdkE/view?usp=sharing
 

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