Rear Hatch Won't Open

[EOD Guy]

Not really some resistance, but once it releases, it's all at once.

If you have someone to assist, maybe pushing the rear hatch from the outside to bounce it more closed it may relieve the lock's claw enough to be easier to move the lever. Kind of like when the hood won't pop open, if you press down on the hood magic happens.....lol

 

[DubDub]

Please see below. This is as close to your photos as I can get. Is the tab on the left or right of the removed screw?

Did you remove the shroud that was behind the screw? On the Sequoia you just loosen the screw and rotate a shroud down to expose a tab. I marked the rough location of that tab on your photo here.


Disregard, see @EOD Guy is helping and his comments are just now loading.

 

[EOD Guy]

For anyone interested .......... I had contemplated adding a cable to that little manual unlock lever, but abandoned it due to where would the cable/handle lead to and how would you access it. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

I also assisted another member with an idea of welding on a longer tab to the OEM tab so you could move the lever with your finger. IDK if he ever tried that or not. I decided to leave the white plastic blocker and screw off, should I ever have to climb over and use it, but I've successfully used the methods above on several occasions and haven't needed to use the manual lever.

 

[ChuckA1]

SOOO, I took the Cruiser into the dealership, and it stayed there for a week. Come to find out, there was nothing wrong with the rear hatch except it required something they wouldn't explain to me. They said it worked perfectly fine when the mechanic tried it and they couldn't find anything wrong... sorry, but that can't be true because the hatch wouldn't open when I dropped the vehicle off. Female attendant tried to explain it was user error until I reminded her, SHE was the attendant I spoke with when I dropped the vehicle off. I believe it was a programming issue that was reset when they disconnected the battery... maybe. Not sure why or how, but it's working fine again and, at this point, that's all that matters.

 

[MSINAL]

SOOO, I took the Cruiser into the dealership, and it stayed there for a week. Come to find out, there was nothing wrong with the rear hatch except it required something they wouldn't explain to me. They said it worked perfectly fine when the mechanic tried it and they couldn't find anything wrong... sorry, but that can't be true because the hatch wouldn't open when I dropped the vehicle off. Female attendant tried to explain it was user error until I reminded her, SHE was the attendant I spoke with when I dropped the vehicle off. I believe it was a programming issue that was reset when they disconnected the battery... maybe. Not sure why or how, but it's working fine again and, at this point, that's all that matters.

So few positive dealer experiences on here.
Hopefully you dont have any further issues. Try not to think about what they actually did, you're better off not knowing I'd say.

 

[Jon]

So few positive dealer experiences on here.
Hopefully you dont have any further issues. Try not to think about what they actually did, you're better off not knowing I'd say.

I would agree, but it's likely whatever they did (like disconnecting the battery for a time) is something you could have done and saved yourself the hassle and being without your vehicle for a week!

@ChuckA1 next time you're at a dealership, ask them to print the service history for you. Maybe they left some clues in there.

required something they wouldn't explain to me

Sounds like some plug was loose or some other simple oversight. Fingers crossed that it doesn't reoccur!

 

[EOD Guy]

if it was something as simple as disconnecting the battery for a hard reset or a manual "open/close" cycle of the hatch or a "open/close" of the rear glass, I'd like to know that ..... if there was a next time........ The reason I say that...... all three situations has happened to me and had me stumped for quite awhile..........

If it's something that can be simply reset without a dealers visit, that's valuable information.

 

[ChuckA1]

if it was something as simple as disconnecting the battery for a hard reset or a manual "open/close" cycle of the hatch or a "open/close" of the rear glass, I'd like to know that ..... if there was a next time........ The reason I say that...... all three situations has happened to me and had me stumped for quite awhile..........

If it's something that can be simply reset without a dealers visit, that's valuable information.

I'm 72 and had to crawl in through the passenger door to unload the cargo, including a large Yeti ice chest that was full. This is exactly why I continued to ask for a detailed explanation. This went so far as me asking my salesman and his boss to join my meeting with the service attendant due her aggravation with my questions. I explained I was concerned that this may happen again, and I will appreciate the info to do whatever they did to override the lock. I never received this information and I'm just hopeful it was a system reset when the battery was disconnected / reconnected.

 

[Mopper]

Sounds like a perfecto catch-22!

All you need to do to open the lift gate is reset the system by disconnecting the battery.

All you need to do to disconnect the battery is open the lift gate and...

 

[Jack_]

Sounds like a perfecto catch-22!

All you need to do to open the lift gate is reset the system by disconnecting the battery.

All you need to do to disconnect the battery is open the lift gate and...

Oh hell, I actually hadn't thought of that!

 

[basicxj]

I just had the hatch not opening situation this afternoon. I tried the fob, the button on the dash and even the Toyota app. The app said “unable to complete request.” I was resigned to getting home, emptying out the cargo area through rear doors after tumbling rear seats forward, then crawling in and manually releasing the hatch. Yes, I tried reseating the rear glass a number of times, along with trying to persuade the hatch with pushes and pulls.

I made a stop on the way home and tested the hatch- it decided to work fine. I will familiarize myself with the manual release (hopefully before next time it refuses to open).

 

[EOD Guy]

I too had a "No Hatch Opening" event yesterday, luckily mine was resolved quickly by opening and closing the glass hatch. That in itself is puzzling as I haven't driven it in accouple of months. When I checked the voltage on the 12v battery, 11.3v. After a manual re-cal of the hatch, all is working as it should.

 

[basicxj]

I suspected it would generate a code

I reset it, we’ll see if the loss of communications persists.

FYI, voltage seen by the vehicle 14.07V: