rs4-380

I thought this was strange enough to share.

My hatch struts need replacing. The hatch has taken a swing at the top of my head more then once. Today, while removing some stuff out of the back of the car, I came back to find that the hatch had once again closed itself. No big deal, I'm used to it, but this time, it would not open. The handle did nothing when the car was unlocked, and the hatch release on the fob or inside the car did nothing either. I was able to get the hatch open but using the child escape handle on the inside of the car.

First thing I noticed when I took the inner trim panel off, is that there was what seemed to me a strange metal rod sticking out of the courtesy light housing. It looked to me lock a lock rod, and didn't really seem to belong there, but the light never worked and to be honest I didn't really care if it did or not. I also noticed there was a loose connector flopping around by the lock mechanism. As I went about my way removing the hatch popper, I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I touched the wiring harness running to the popper and found it very hot. That's when it all came together.

The lock rod between the lock and the latch release, that allows the hatch to open when the outside handle is operated had some how dislodged itself (making the hatch un-operable with the exterior handle) and worked it's way down the inner trim panel, lodged itself in the courtesy light and caused a short. The short did not trip the fuse, but heated up the wiring enough that the insulation started to melt, which in turn melted the insulation on the wiring to the hatch popper (which was bundled together with the courtesy light wiring), shorting that out and causing that not to work when the hatch release on the fob or in the car was pushed.

I replaced the burnt out wiring, and replaced the lock rod, and everything works again as it should, but I thought the odds of the lock rod coming loose AND shorting out the courtesy light (and hatch popper) all at once were pretty low. I could see the lock rod coming loose, and eventually working it's way down to the courtesy light over time, but not taking out both hatch release mechanisms at the same time!

massboykie

Wow good thing you found that. Sounds like it could have started a fire. I would check the fuse & wiring though. A bad short like that should have popped the fuse. IMHO.

Maybe someone replaced the fuse with a higher rating or 'wire' McGuyver-ed it?

Cheers
Massboykie