C5 Tailgte Wont Open

[acrowot]

Trying to fix high level brake light opened tailgate pulled the rubber boot feeding the wires into the tailgate shut the tailgate now the tailgate will not open. Is there a way of manually unlocking it. Getting a bit fed up now with this car, faults seem to be multiplying.

[SaabC5]

You might be able to climb over the rear seats and get a screwdriver into the locking mechanism to get it to unlatch.

[acrowot]

Thanks saabc5 we have yhe tailgate window open and the lower panel off but the complete mechanism seems to be encased with 3 wires going into it, I am going to apply 12v+ and eth to try to open it.

[wheeler]

If you go in through the back seats & look at the latch you will see a small hole about 3mm in diameter look in with a torch & you will see another hole, if you push the inner 'hole' up with a fine bladed screwdriver (or anything else that fits in the hole) it trips the latch to manually open it.
P.S. It's not a good idea to apply 12v feeds of earths to wires on multiplexed cars unless you know for sure what that wire does, backfeeding the wrong wire can do lots of expensive damage. In this case supplying a breif 12v to pin 1 of the green connector on the latch should open it, it is already earthed via pin 2 so no need to apply a seperate earth.

[acrowot]

Thanks wheeler, I have it open now I did need the two wires as I disconnected the car battery and used a seperate battery to open the tailgate. Hopefully no other damage was done, the problem was 3 of the wires under the rubber flexible cover supplying the tailgate feeds where severed, repaired them and all now appears ok except the reason for the investigation was because the center brake light was not functioning and still is not but it is receiving it's power supply so it looks like the led unit is faulty (estate) and it looks like it is a sealed unit. Thanks for the info about the holes I did not see any I assume you have to look down inside the Tailgate to see these holes this I did not do just put my hand down and felt around.

[wheeler]

No the holes are on the actual latch itself on the side facing towards the inside of the car when its shut. you dont need any trims off or anything, you just access from inside the boot area.

[acrowot]

No the holes are on the actual latch itself on the side facing towards the inside of the car when its shut. you dont need any trims off or anything, you just access from inside the boot area.

Wheeler thanks for this, just to clarify I have been out to look for this hole if you are in the boot looking down at the Latch I can see two holes in it, one on the left and a larger one on the right would one of these holes be the one you are referring too.

[wheeler]

Probably easier to post a pic. This is off a Xsara but they are pretty much the same. The side you can see faces into the boot & can be accessed with all trims in place. It's the hole circled in purple,you can see the smaller hole inside it to the right, you need to put a small screwdriver in the smaller hole & push it to the left. This is exactly the same on nearly all Citroens with electrically released tailgate latches.

[acrowot]

Thanks Wheeler

[Robert12]

Hi acrowot did you get it open as I have the old one of mine if its any good to you.Robert12

[acrowot]

Hi acrowot did you get it open as I have the old one of mine if its any good to you.Robert12

Hi Robert, yes I did get it open and checked the high level brake light and it is faulty, do you have one of those.

[Robert12]

sorry no. not had to fix mine yet