2012 CTT Tailgate Won't Open
 

My CTT tailgate won't open when I hit the button on the drivers door, nor the key fob button. It also does not open if I try to manually open it from the tailgate itself. When I push the button on the fob, I can hear a click which I assume is the lock disengaging (or trying to) and a few seconds later you hear the sound of it relocking itself. I have tried manually lifting it at the same time as pushing the button as well as trying to press it open with my legs from the inside while working the button, and neither is working. Any ideas?

If you search around enough here - and it might be in the 955/957 area - someone else had a rear hatch that wouldn't open, and he eventually cut through the U loop that goes into the latch using a vibrating edge saw Something like: https://www.harborfreight.com/power-...ool-63113.html

Meanwhile someone else had a similar problem, and found they could remove the interior panel on their PIG! hatch by crawling into the rear area and working on it from there. I'm fairly certain that was a 958 - since it's pretty easy to remove that panel - nothing really blocks it's removal even if the hatch is closed. That let them do something that got the hatch open.

I can't recall what the fixes were - but I know they're here somewhere..

Reading the codes using a OBD tool would help tell you what's going on, for sure.

There are 5 screws and a bunch of clips holding that liner in place. Two of the screws are dead in the middle, behind that little door and you can access them when the tailgate is closed. The other three screws are at the bottom and can't be accessed while the tailgate is closed. You can probably remove the 2 centre screws, carefully pop the top clips, pull the top of the liner off and gain unconformable access to the latch.

I checked this out with my iCarScan and it was not throwing any codes and said the latch was down and locked.

For the sake of anyone else who ends up with this issue, I did end up getting this resolved (or so I hope!). I went into the bed of the truck to see what it will take to remove as much of the trim panel and there is actually a small braided wire coming out of a slot a few inches underneath the access door in the center of the tailgate. I gave the wire a really hard pull and I heard the lock unlock and was immediately able to push open the tailgate. I got out of car and closed it via the close button and it worked, and then tried it again with the key fob and it seems to be working as expected. I'll keep an eye on it, but for now I think I'm past this issue.

Joel - you might look under the flapper cover on the base of the rear bed where the loop for the latch lives. Some people reported some crap (tech-term) getting under it - and that causing this sort of problem.

On our 957, the motor was running and not lifting the tailgate. I looked for a trouble code, but none. Found a blown fuse for central locking system. Replaced the 15amp fuse, all is fine. Not sure if this is relevant to this year/model, but perhaps it could, and wanted to mention. If it helps, please post back.

Good shout, I did find a quarter in there! Not sure it caused my issue but I certainly can't rule it out. Worst case, I'm $.25 richer.

Hi, everyone.

My 958 has exactly the same problem as Joel had. I crawled into the bed of truck but could not find the braid wire. I guess I need to remove the trim cover but well, I found it's not easy to remove.

I want to try replacing the fuse. For 957 it's fuse number 31 "Filler flap actuator, rear end control unit (motors)" but I cannot tell which fuse that is in the 958. https://fuse-box.info/porsche/porsch...011-2017-fuses

Anyone can help which fuse will do?

Thank you.

I have just been through the process of removing the rear hatch trim cover over the past few weeks, and it shouldn't be that hard:

• Two screws in the emergency triangle location in the middle of the trim panel - one each in the velcro straps.
• Gently pry out the rear hatch red/white bulb holders, and remove the cable connections.
• Do not try to remove the hard plastic sections that house the red/white lamps, these are plastic-welded to the rear trim panel
• Pry out the switch for the powered tailgate, and pull the connector.
• (As you are looking at the boot from the rear) There's two Torx screws in the area behind the left/driver red/white lamp location.
• There's one Torx in the right/passenger red/white lamp location.
• Do not try to remove the hard plastic sections that house the red/white lamps, these are plastic-welded to the rear trim panel.
• The trim panel around the locking mechanism is separate to the hatch trim, and should just pull/pop out.
• If pulling the hatch trim panel off, it will require some careful application of force to pull the clips out of the hatch metal, but once one or two come away it becomes a lot easier. Keep the little rubber squares that sit at the base of each clip, they are vibration suppression pads.

In the aperture on the rear hatch that contains the "upper" part of the hatch locking mechanism, there should be a foam-coated little pipe of about a foot length, with a plastic clip and a wire braid loop in it. That should be routed to the horizontal slot just up from the locking mechanism, leaving the braided wire accesible to the cabin. I suspect that this loop is not accessible to the cabin, it looks as though the clips that hold it in place are easily dislodged and allows the wire braid to disappear into the door.

I would suggest to check both of the connections to the motor (remove and reseat if possible), but if there are no oddities seen by the module then it might be hard to see if there's an electrical gremlin. At least if the wire loop is accessible to the cabin you should have a purely-mechanical method of opening the tailgate if every one of the electrical methods has failed to work.