Trunk Lid Button
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 19
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From: California
Trunk Lid Button
When I'm close to the car with the key in my pocket, I can no longer open up the trunk using the button under the trunk lid. Is there a switch or something to enable this again? I can use the button on my remote and the switch underneath the dash but the trunk lid button no longer works. Any help would be appreciated. 
Lead Lap
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,189
Likes: 16
From: NY/NJ
Smartaccess
When I'm close to the car with the key in my pocket, I can no longer open up the trunk using the button under the trunk lid. Is there a switch or something to enable this again? I can use the button on my remote and the switch underneath the dash but the trunk lid button no longer works. Any help would be appreciated.
So you have Smart Access. Does the doors open fine without using the fob? If the trunk and doors all don't open, then the fob battery could be low. If doors work fine, but only trunk doesn't, then the trunk button probably is bad.
Thread Starter
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
From: California
It's the same key. Maybe the button really is dead..
Tried using two different keys and both didn't work. There isn't a switch or anything?
Tried using two different keys and both didn't work. There isn't a switch or anything?
Last edited by Crusty; Sep 30, 2008 at 10:45 PM.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
From: Yorkshire
When I'm close to the car with the key in my pocket, I can no longer open up the trunk using the button under the trunk lid. Is there a switch or something to enable this again? I can use the button on my remote and the switch underneath the dash but the trunk lid button no longer works. Any help would be appreciated.
Sorry can't keep off your forum, ours in the UK is a bit quiet as we are few and you are many!!!!
Anyway here is a post I put on there a while ago.... maybe you have a boot leak!!! or someone has done the same to yours
Hi all
Old sweats on here will remember when mine got rear ended earlier in the year, it had a new boot lid, bumper and lights and the rear panel was straightened.... well
I was passing the repairers whilst it was getting done (they are a Lexus/BMW/Mercedes approved body shop) so I popped in to see how it was going, they let me have a look at it as it was being fitted back together...
Imagine my horror to see the boot with no carpet or side panels in it, instead everything in the boot was covered in water, they had jet washed the car with the rear bumper off and the boot seal off. The satnav dvd had a puddle on top of it and the spare wheel well had about 2" of water in it.... well after I had calmed down they stated that they would dry it all out.... not good enough was my reply I want everything out of the boot, dried and inspected by Lexus. I also want the assurance that if anything in future fails and it is attributed to water ingress then they foot the bill. I took pictures of the car and they assured me it would be sorted.
Anyway Lexus had the car for a day and inspected what they could.
About a month ago the button on the boot that lets you open it if you are outside the car, with the smart key in range, stopped working. I booked it in and they had it in on Tuesday. They spent three hours on it and decided that the switch itself had gone, they took it apart and found no water damage, in fact no damage at all but it would work with the boot open but not with the boot shut!!!! They thought it was something in the switch loose and moving when the boot was shut. They ordered a switch, £47 which I said I would pay for as it looked like it wasn't down to the body shop. It was infact the first failure on the car in the year I've had it...
Anyway in it went this morning to have the new switch fitted, they lent me a RX400h....very nice, I got a phone call after another three hours to say it wasn't the switch but the car needed a new rear half wiring loom and a new rear BCM (ecu) as it had rotted away inside the plug where it plugs in below the satnav DVD. They had remembered the earlier issue so had phoned the body shop who said they would pay all the costs...
So it is booked in next week for a new rear wiring loom and a new BCM (body control module) total cost including fitting (1 & 1/2 days) £1750
Quite a lot just to open the boot......
I do feel a bit sorry for the body shop, they had some plonker working for them who was a bit dim and its cost them all this money.....
Wonder what will be next to go.... and wasn't it lucky I popped in when I did....
Pete
So see if the lock trips with the trunk open when you press the button.
£1750 is about $3100 so I hope this isn't your problem..... Although I do think they could have cleaned up the contacts, the plug on the loom and its corresponding hole on the BCM were full of thay green fur, I'm sure it would have been possible to clean it off and it would have worked, its just that they had someone willing to pay the bill !!!!!
Pete
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Driver School Candidate
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
From: Yorkshire
Very easy to test the button, take off the trunk lid inner cover, remove light, a few clips in the middle then it just pulls off, there is a plug going to the switch with just two wires, use a piece of wire to connect them together and it will work if the switch is faulty, if still not working then try the ECU under the satnav in the boot, maybe a dirty connector....
Good Luck
Pete
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 16
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From: CA
I had to bring this thread back to life... I am having a similar problem but not exactly the same.
My trunk button near the rearview camera and the trunk button on my remote stopped working today. The trunk opens from the inside latch under the dash just fine. Also when I close it, the automatic shut works fine.
I took the trunk lid off and probed the button for continuity with my multimeter. The button works perfectly. While I was probing it I pushed the button about 20 times and held it down for a while and the trunk latch actuated every time. Then I removed the meter, started closing the trunk and then checked the button one more time before closing the trunk completely and it did not work! Seems to be working somewhat intermittently.
From my reading I gathered that the box next to the navigation dvd reader in the trunk is some kind of computer. Could it be possible that this thing is bad? Is there anything else I should look at first that could explain my symptoms? The trunk button is the only thing on the car that doesn't work except for one of my rear parking sensors (I am 99% sure it's a bad parking sensor).
If the box is bad, how much would it cost to replace?
Thanks.
My trunk button near the rearview camera and the trunk button on my remote stopped working today. The trunk opens from the inside latch under the dash just fine. Also when I close it, the automatic shut works fine.
I took the trunk lid off and probed the button for continuity with my multimeter. The button works perfectly. While I was probing it I pushed the button about 20 times and held it down for a while and the trunk latch actuated every time. Then I removed the meter, started closing the trunk and then checked the button one more time before closing the trunk completely and it did not work! Seems to be working somewhat intermittently.
From my reading I gathered that the box next to the navigation dvd reader in the trunk is some kind of computer. Could it be possible that this thing is bad? Is there anything else I should look at first that could explain my symptoms? The trunk button is the only thing on the car that doesn't work except for one of my rear parking sensors (I am 99% sure it's a bad parking sensor).
If the box is bad, how much would it cost to replace?
Thanks.
1) did you replace the battery in the remote yet?
2) was the trunk lid lock button by the foot brake release accidentally pushed in?
if it was, you can release it with the mechanical key from your remote
2) was the trunk lid lock button by the foot brake release accidentally pushed in?
if it was, you can release it with the mechanical key from your remote
Last edited by GS3Tek; Oct 19, 2009 at 11:51 AM.
Driver School Candidate
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 16
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From: CA
GS3, I checked the lock button next to the parking brake release. It was not locked, but I locked it and then unlocked it just for the hell of it and it made no difference. I have not replaced the battery in my key, but I have two smart keys and both of them won't open the trunk. When I press the button on the key, I can see the little red light turn on, and the lock/unlock buttons work well even from a distance.
Have you done what Haylands proposed?
It's not that no one is here willing to help. It's just that it's not a common problem.
Remember it's not a mercedes where things are falling apart or failing prematurely
It's not that no one is here willing to help. It's just that it's not a common problem.
Remember it's not a mercedes where things are falling apart or failing prematurely