Until recently my rear washer was leaking down the inside of the boot trim, with water going past the seal and sitting in the latch. 

 

Over the past few days, my boot really struggles to catch when closing, and simply bounces of the latch.

 

Last night it took about 20 attempts to get it to close.

 

Fiddling with the latch this morning I got it to catch quite easily at work, but I'm not sure what I did really.

 

I'm assuming the water has either seized up the latch or got into the electrics.

 

What should the latch look like when it's correct?

 

It's probably sticking.  Get it greased up properly.

I finally fixed this yesterday.

 

It was not the metal lever visible inside the boot as I suspected, but was the electric release motor.

 

The electric motor that controls the release mechanism has a flat coil spring inside that winds up as the motor turns to push the latch open. When the motor stops, the spring winds back, pulling back the plastic rod that pushes on the catch release arm.

 

This spring was full of crud so was failing to recoil and pull the release arm back fully.

 

You can take the spring out, but it will unwind into a long piece of sharp metal and make a big mess if you're not careful....

 

If anyone has the same issue and comes across this thread, I found that turning the rod against the spring so that it has some tension in it already before re-assembly really helps it unwind a lot better.