More Tailgate Drama...Upper gate pops with FOB but does not release

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Smiley05

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So i have completed the LR4 initiation ritual of climbing into the back of the rover and disassembled the tailgate cover to release the tailgate from the inside and replace the actuator. (Broken L shape piece of spaghetti hardware). Worked great for about 2 years.

Now a new challenge arises: The rear release button above the license plate seemingly did not work- meaning- no sound, no release. Removed it - no corrosion, it was clean and functional. Stripped the wires and connected them- same story- nothing. Next steps: Pressed the key fob release and voila- the upper gate popped, but was still held back by the lower tailgate latch. Could not lift it away from the upper gate.

When i pressed the FOB a second time and held the fob button for a SECOND, i was able to lift the upper gate cleanly away from the lower gate. The lower gate button works fine and i can open the lower gate as usual. Strange part is.... if i hold the FOB button for MORE then a second, i cannot pull the upper gate away, it remains held back by the lower gate's latch. Any thoughts and what British gremlin torments me now?
 

ryanjl

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I had the same thing happening. Turned out to be a bad wire connection. Yours could also be a bad liftgate actuator switch.

You can read my posts about troubleshooting my problem here:

 

djkaosone

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I've had this mod in for years and it's flawless. The best part is, if I sleep in the truck I can still open the hatch from inside.

I would agree with @ryanjl that it could be a bad wire. You can probably ohm test your wires for continuity and if the wires are good it's the switch. You can probably ohm test the switch too.
 

ryanjl

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I know I said it in the post I linked, but the wiring for the tailgate actuator switch is shockingly frail. I had never dug into the wiring before and had never been in a wreck and my wiring somehow lost continuity. When I replaced it, the wiring felt really brittle and delicate.
 

Mozambique

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So i have completed the LR4 initiation ritual of climbing into the back of the rover and disassembled the tailgate cover to release the tailgate from the inside and replace the actuator. (Broken L shape piece of spaghetti hardware). Worked great for about 2 years.

Now a new challenge arises: The rear release button above the license plate seemingly did not work- meaning- no sound, no release. Removed it - no corrosion, it was clean and functional. Stripped the wires and connected them- same story- nothing. Next steps: Pressed the key fob release and voila- the upper gate popped, but was still held back by the lower tailgate latch. Could not lift it away from the upper gate.

When i pressed the FOB a second time and held the fob button for a SECOND, i was able to lift the upper gate cleanly away from the lower gate. The lower gate button works fine and i can open the lower gate as usual. Strange part is.... if i hold the FOB button for MORE then a second, i cannot pull the upper gate away, it remains held back by the lower gate's latch. Any thoughts and what British gremlin torments me now?
Hi,
Were you able to make any progress on this? I have the exact same thing re. Press the key fob for a second and it pops open. Any longer than that and it opens an inch and catches on the latch.
Will be checking the wiring as soon as I get the 3x corroded torx screws that hold the whole handle unit undone.
Thankfully the dealer has replacement screws.
 

Smiley05

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Happy to report it was the inbound wire to the switch. While in the shop for 3 weeks to find the source of a slight but aggravating Idle/acceleration surge... I shamed them them into tossing me a freebie- trouble shooting which wire was the culprit: inbound or outbound to the actuator. They id'd it as the inbound...replaced the wire only. I connected the two wires and sho' enough...it worked, so I just popped in a new latch (cutting the harness and just connecting the two wires to the latch). Prior to pleading for the freebie...i asked how much to trouble shoot fix the latch: $1200 (On top of the 1200 i spent to find/fix the surge, it felt like a tremendous savings in a convoluted sort of way)
 

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