2010 Forester XS Boot hatch not opening.

[Rollercoaster]

Well I havent researched this, yet, and I will,

but its a bit urgent right now so I'm turning to the crew here, hopefully, for quick answers. 

Its an electronic release and its not either releasing or unlocking, or both, I dont know. Could be a fuse I suppose or something simple, its fully loaded, and with kids on the way to the Grandparents.. I have tried obvious solutions, I hope I dont have to unload it all in the rain now and take the panel off the inside or something.. there doesnt seem to be an obvious mechanical bypass to the electric release.

[Rollercoaster]

Worth adding, its a "keyless" car!

Also that when I press the electric trigger button by the number plate lights, there is no sound, there used to be. No sound of it unlocking either from the remote, when there used to be.

[Rollercoaster]

"Just Answer" has this:

There is no fuse for that trunk latch. Its a ground based circuit, so when you hit the switch, it closes and sends a ground signal back to the body computer. When the body computer sees this ground signal it sends power to the motor for the trunk latch so it can release. In this case your first step would be to use an electrical tool to test to see if the black wire at the connector for the trunk latch has a good ground.

If the ground is fine you can try to bypass the wiring at the connector to see if the latch and computer are computer, Just take a bit of wire or a paper clip and jump the yellow blue to the black wire. When the computer sees that then it should send power to the latch on the green/orange wire which you can test for or just see if you hear the latch click. If it does then that confirm that the issue is the latch itself.

[Rollercoaster]

Found this useful tip:

https://www.geojohn.org/DIYourself/SubaruRearGate.html

I still cant open my back door to get started on any repairs though.

Found a small plastic square inside on the panel, removed it, messed about with a moving bit inside the door behind the panel, no joy yet, unhappy not knowing and maybe damaging.

[Rollercoaster]

Heres a good youtube video, short and to the point, on changing the microswitch.

Its cheap enough and available next day delivery from eBay. If I can get it out by prising it from the outside maybe I can short the wires and the hatch will open. Surely not.. cant be that easy to break into the car. Ah well maybe only if its unlocked it might work.

[Rollercoaster]

OK I have found, hopefully, a tip on opening the hatch from inside. It is through the square hole, and yes I was doing it very wrong, I will try this way to see if it works on mine. The car in this video appears more similar to my car, and sadly more complex to replace the switch loom.

But probably just as easy to short the wires creating temporary access!

 

[Rollercoaster]

That last video is longer because the loom includes the number plate lights and its a lot harder to get to replace it.

But the very beginning does show clearly the way to open up the hatch from the inside.

[Rollercoaster]

So I got all the way into the complicated removal of the microswitch, which was very similar to that last video, having to remove the plastic trim on the outside under the rear window. There are seven nuts on the inside behind the interior panel to remove that plastic trim, three of them require removing the wiper motor.

Anyhow the wiring harness from its connector plug seems to include one rear number plate light of the two, thats two pink wires, and the rear unlocking button, thats two yellow wires. The part number on the microswitch is 0415J which may help in finding one, but I am unlikely to want to replace everything on that loom bit, so may just cut the microswitch off and splice another in.

Its a lot of faff all things considered, I can see that the whole assembly is great for production of the car, but absolutely no thought for maintenance or replacement of what seems to be a common failure.

[Rollercoaster]

That part number 0415J wasnt a lot of help in my search.

Impreza part # 63270FG001 looks to be an easy switch replacement by splicing it into the existing harness without having to get the complete Forester harness part # 84931SC060. Just cut the 2 green wires, cheaper too. The Impreza switch is the one without the license plate lamp sockets. Even the 2014-18 Forester switch part # 63270SG000 looks like the Impreza one

Using that part number I am able to order online from various sources, I chose a cheap one that allowed 30 day returns if it proved to not fit when it arrived.

[Rollercoaster]

For now, as we are literally on the road, in bad weather, over the seasonal holidays, with a car full of kids and stuff, I reassembled the parts leaving two green wires dangling where the switch used to be. Tested and it all works as it should, my main concern was the possibility of it being openable when locked. This proved hard or rather confusing to test, as its keyless, so it still opened by shorting out the two green wires, if the key was within range, and the range was bigger than I expected..

There are four tiny screws that secure the plastic number plate light/catch/reversing camera/rear lock assembly to the larger rear trim panel. They were almost impossible to undo, and I hope to replace them with screws that work better, larger might work, or a torx or allen key driver head on them.

Without being able to undo them the access and replacement of the microswitch might have failed at the last hurdle, having said that, I also read a much much quicker and easier way of doing everything that I have detailed, and I shall quote it.

 

[Rollercoaster]

"I then using my drill put a screw into the old button, grabbed my pliers and yanked the old button out. I cut the 2 green wires at the base and cut the new button off its harness with some slack. I then tied the cables together and tested the button, worked!!! So I taped it all up and just snapped the new button back into the lift gate. 15 minute job and I have a working rear hatch again."

https://www.subaruforester.org/threads/2010-rear-hatch-latch-and-lock-problem-updated.434681/

[Rollercoaster]

For a more sensible approach see this video, his car didnt have the reversing camera or keyless boot lock switch and a whole lot less wires than mine, but worth a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As9im2wBf_4

[Mr B]

Glad you worked out the manual release, get a lot of drive in emergancy panics over this crappy engineered garbage .
electronic hatch and rear cameras/sensors big issue on many brand modern cars.
I seen some unable run as module networking corrupted from water ingress in boot lid components.

All this garbage and hassle for sh1te you don't need.
This is part reason I purposely make sure my immediate family don't own cars newer than 2005 .
Older vehicle design from mid 90's to around 2005 worked great, is reliable and of good component quality, easier maintain, parts are plentiful and dirt cheap (although hardly ever need buy any 🙂 ) & your bank account gets fat as good example older vehicle motoring so low cost .

All the low quality electronics and way it integrated in engineering design on modern vehicles is pathetic garbage.
Mechanical handbrakes, door latches and so forth can last 3 decades no problems, New electronic crap nothing but issues and filling up skips with parts year after year until beyond viable repair in  a decade .
The Tesla's going be fun once matured another few years in British weather lol .

[Brack]

Pleased you have got it sorted🙂 - Ive just been through all of this with mine, it was getting harder and harder to open untill it completely stopped opening at the switch. I took off the rear panel and changed the micro switch, also the lock actuator but still no joy.

Ended up going to my local garage for advice - Mark fitted a solenoid onto the tailgate lock with a remote control box fitted in the engine bay for me.

I now have two fobs (original fob and tailgate fob) The tailgate is opening fine now with the new fob.