Rear trunk won’t open!

[kolelt]

Hello fellow old members and new members. Been a while since I been on here let alone posted something. Life has gotten the best of me! I’ve barley been driving the 4runner ! But I still whip it once in a while. With that said, I’ve always had a issue with my trunk latch. It was always hard to open it from the outside. And now all of sudden. It won’t budge. It’s hard to say if it is even unlocking! I have a storage box back there. So there’s somewhat limited space but not to much. Any ideas? Open the back window and rip apart the plastic ?

 

[HiLife]

The storage box might be pushing against the hatch, not allowing the latch to unlock from the striker. In my case, this happened to me before.
I think it's a bad design.
Try pushing the hatch in while unlocking. It would relieve the stress on the latch being hung up on the striker, and hopefully it will unlock.

 

[davidch]

My experience has been that if the rear window is all the way up - and I do mean all the way - its drive motor is powerful enough to distort the rear hatch, or something therein, by just a little bit. It's enough so that it causes the hatch's release handle not to engage its mechanism properly.

I have found that if I lower the the window just a smidgen, the distortion eases and the release handle properly engages.

This has been more prevalent in cold weather.

At any rate, this costs nothing to try.

 

[5th4runner]

On my '02 the carpet can slide back and jam under the hatch. This jams the release because when it finally shuts all the way it is really tight. It requires thumping the hatch closed whilst pulling on the hatch. The other issue is that after awhile the hatch release mechanism gets rusty and sticks such that the mechanism doesn't work. This requires a bit of cleaning and greasing. An interesting feature is that the rear wiper won't work if the window is open just a smidge.
Hope this helps.

 

[Hopeless Diamond]

Fought with that all the way through Baja. Not a nice feeling when you can't open the back for the Federales at the military check points, luckily i worked easier at those time. There were a few times I couldn't get it to budge at all and with storage drawers it wasn't good. Back home here in Seattle, haven't had a problem with it at all. Have no idea why but it's smooth as silk and unlatches easily everytime.

 

[Pyral]

I had an issue with the back handle. One of the nuts that held on the latch bracket came off and the handle became completely disconnected from the rods and cables that make up the latch release. This meant that not even the key could open the back. Before it gave out it felt as if the latch would only open at the very last moment when you pulled the handle, which sounds like what it was with you.

I had to remove the back plastic panel, another metal panel that covers the window mechanism, and then reach around the back power window mechanism to put this nut back on and reattach the bracket. It was a complete pain in the ass, and I cracked the plastic panel because the clips were hella stubborn. It doesn't require specialized tools, but it is a big pain in the ass removing the plastic panel. Once you reattach the nut and bracket it will work again.

 

[kolelt]

I’ll try some of your suggestions. My storage box is tied dow. Sits behind the plastic trim. And the drawers have latches so it won’t open. Appreciate your replies all.

 

[chickenman9102]

I purchased my runner a week ago and had the latch not work within an hour of owning the vehicle. Turns out the actuator wasn't initiating at all which was disallowing the hatch to open or close. Sort of silly that they use the fancy actuator on these old things...

Anyways, before taking apart the door panel I simply disconnected the battery, waited 5 minutes, reconnected the battery, turned the truck on, and my actuator worked again.

Maybe worth a shot? Good luck.