Hi all

 

I've just returned from holiday, and as is normal, my wife thinks we own a van so the boot was full. Well, over full to be honest. When we tried to close the boot, the latch might have closed without catching the bar on the body. After that the boot would not close even with most of the stuff out again. So I drove the 624.4 miles home with the boot tied closed with a rope from the rear windscreen wiper to the tow bar. 

 

Now that I'm home, I've taken a look, but I don't know what the "open" position of the mechanism should look like. Here's a photo of the mechanism as it is now (still not catching when I try close it). I might have tried slamming it a few times because that's my technique for anything that doesn't do what it should. 

 

 

And the bar in the boot appears to have no working parts, but here's a photo of that in case it helps:

 

 

Brawn has not worked, so I'm hoping I find someone here able to explain how I open the latch rather than try break it.

 

I do love my Skoda, but there are times... 

Edited 3 November, 201312 yr by bhofmann

Hi

Not sure if this helps at all but here is a picture of mine which is working fine so at least you now know what a working one looks like. But to be honest it looks pretty much the same as your one.

Paul

Have you tried locking and unlocking or maybe opening the boot via the key fob?

Hi

Not sure if this helps at all but here is a picture of mine which is working fine so at least you now know what a working one looks like. But to be honest it looks pretty much the same as your one.

Paul

 

Thanks Paul, it's good to know not all is lost (yet). The bit that the bar pushes up looks lower on mine so I'll have a go at pushing it up with a screwdriver shank and see what happens.

Have you tried locking and unlocking or maybe opening the boot via the key fob?

 

Good thinking. I should have mentioned that I've locked and unlocked the car (all doors) and tried the boot release switch. The locking an unlocking do nothing, and the boot release switch clicks, but there is no motor sound to try release the lock.

It's fixed!!!      :clap:

 

Here's what I did. I noticed that the rounded part that catches on the bar was lower on mine than Paul's. I used a screwdriver and pushed it up. I then noticed that I could get a screwdriver through the hole from the inside of the car direction. Holding that in place, I used the boot switch to release the lock and heard it winding this time. Pulling did nothing, but when I pushed the little lug/button thing on the left, the lock popped open! Woohooo!

 

All seems fine once again, but now when I have the boot open, the mechanism looks quite different:

 

 

What I see now, which I failed to see in Paul's photo, is that the "hook" (there's probably a better term for it) was open and all the way inside the right hand side of the mechanism. I've circled the tip of it in the photo above. On reflection you might notice that in my original photo, the tip is not showing because the hook is in the closed position, all the way up in the left part of the mechanism.

 

Here's what I think (assume) happened:

1. Wife tried to close boot with WAY too much   in it.
2. Boot hit the bar and tried to lock, but "bounced" back open before it managed to grab the bar.
3. Mechanism now in closed position, with arched spring-loaded thingamabob telling the mechanism the boot is open.

The remedy (in my twisted mind again) was as follows:

1. Push arched spring-loaded thingamabob up so that mechanism thinks the boot is closed.
2. Open boot to release the "hook" whilst pressing the left lug-like-thing up/sideways.
3. Pull down with screwdriver to open the hook.

Hopefully that'll help someone in future with the same problem. As always, prevention is better than cure, so I'll be very clear on capacity limitations. It might be time to buy one of those horrible roof boxes...

Edited 3 November, 201312 yr by bhofmann

Weh hey glad its now fixed buddy

Edited 3 November, 201312 yr by Bigboy

Thanks so much for your help chaps!