Rear Lift Gate Issue

[Kyngfish]

Hey all, I ran a search and didn't find this particular issue.

Since I bought my truck, the rear lift gate seems slightly hard to close. You don't really need to finesse it, but you definitely have to close it very solidly.

Lately, every once in a while, it won't open. I'll cycle the lock a few times, push and pull on the door and eventually it opens but I don't know exactly what does the trick so I'm having trouble isolating the problem.

Here's how it feels:

- When the liftgate is locked, the latch on the outside moves back and forth as if there were no tension.
- When it's unlocked there is slight pressure on the latch, which then releases once I apply pressure.
- When it's stuck, it does NOT feel like it's locked (i.e., does not feel like it's completely unhooked moving completely freely back and forth), I pull on the latch and it moves freely until the spot where I usually feel tension, but it does not want to release.

It doesn't feel like the door is not unlocking, because I feel the tension as I would when it is unlocked, but maybe it's not releasing all the way? This would make more sense if all it took was cycling the power locks a few times, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyone else run into this?

Thanks!

 

[Unner]

Try checking the latch mechanism on the bottom of the door. It has a rubber coating on the metal parts that can deteriorate and gum it up. Also you can try adjusting the striker attached to the body. It has a little adjustment in it. You can also take off the interior panel and look in there to see if there's any obvious issues with the handle mechanism. I'd check the first thing I mentioned first. Hopefully it's an easy fix.

 

[Wikano]

Replacement of the latch mechanism is not too costly or time consuming too. Just a quick trip to the junk yard should fix your problems if you can't fix your old one.

 

[Mark_BC]

This sounds similar to what happened to me, which was caused by the cable in the housing seizing up. It is like a bicycle brake cable. I removed the lower mechanism from the door, taking out the 3 or 4 bolts. Then get some lube anti-seize and get it into the cable housing and work it. Spraying the mechanism without removing it to access the cable didn't do anything for me, I had to actually remove it.