As the title says....sometimes the trunk does not latch unless I close it hard. Is this normal for a SC? Why?

I took some pictures of the hook and the latch so you guys can take a look and let me know if something is wrong:

First, the hook:


A couple of views of the latch:





I cannot tell if something is wrong....other than a slight dent on the outside perimeter of the latch housing?

Thanks.

 

My first thoughts are to make sure the latching part isn't too far away from the part that goes into the latch to lock. It may be a fraction off meaning one or the other needs to be adjusted up towards the trunk lid or otherwise. I've never had the problem with either of the SC's I own. It shouldn't be that complex. It needs to match up perfectly without hitting anything to get it latched.

I'll take a closer look at mine to see if I can suggest anything else. gl

lar

 

Options, I looked mine over the best I could and mine wasn't scratched as much as yours on both sides of the latch. (I can't tell by your picture if it truely scratches, but looks a little different) You might try some lube on the latch, but not much. The other thing I noticed is there is two bolts holding the top part of your rear lights on each side. I noticed also they slightly hit the other tail light section when you close the trunk. You might want to make sure they aren't hitting way before they should. If you have bolt head impressions that look like they hit hard, you might want to check those. Try taking them off just to see. I don't how else I can help if all that looks correct. There's rubber bumpers there too that might hit before the trunk latches. Otherwise ???

I hope that in some way helps in resolving your problem.

lar

 

One other thing I should mention..... The dent you have in the inner part of the latch could be causing the top part of the latch to push against it creating it to be forced to close. I see nothing wrong with straightening that out. What caused that anyway?

lar

 

Pardeep,

Here's the replacement instructions for lock assembly. I'd check the cable to make sure it's not binding or loose. Besides the electric lock, remember their is a manual release too. I'd check the manual release cable at both ends and make sure the cable is set properly.

 

Thanks 1NEAT and Bob for your help. Seems like with the instructions posted I should be able to look into the latch (and the hook, if needed) and hopefully fix the issue. Otherwise, is this covered under the basic warranty? The car is still under the basic warranty.

1NEAT: I don't know what caused that dent....this is how I got the car. I will try to straighten it when I go into the latch assembly.

Cheers.

 

I did a close inspection of the receiver area of the latching mechanism on my 02. I have no marks whatsoever from the "bolt" on the frame or the black gasket liner. The dent on yours indicates a substantial misalignment between the bolt and latch at some point in time. This raises several questions. Cause, more unseen damage, what altered it etc etc.

 

I inspected the latch assembly and the bolt today. The latch assembly was fine from inside. Straightened out the dent and adjusted the bolt alignment slightly. Now the trunk closes each time (tried about six times) without fail. There was no damage to the inside or outside of the trunk door.

Best I can guess is that the PO must have placed something large in the trunk and tried to force it shut OR just forced it shut. Anyway I hope the above fixed it for good.

Bob: Thanks for posting the pdf....helped in getting to the latch assembly.

Cheers.

 

MY sc430 ,I have to slam the trunk lid down hard to close it, there is no damage anywhere , What i was going to do was remove the latch on the other side of the trunk , its just bolted on there with hexbolts and put a metal washer undeneath each hexbolt, to make it the latch stick out a little more so i wont have to slam it so hard, and if that does not work , I will just put everything back the way it was .

 

There have been times when I gently pushed it closed and didn't even realize it was still slightly ajar. I was always surprised by how much force is needed to close it...but mostly b/c so little force against the struts is needed to get it down to begin with. I would say it closes nicer than an LS430 (which has a powered trunk-closer at the end but requires much more force against the trunk struts than this car does).

 

Long story short.
Wife has left the trunk ajar a few times. On two occasions, both trunk lights were on for 2.5 days and totally drained the battery.
No visible indications of trunk latch misalignment other than there was a little paint missing from trunk lid hook assembly.
I loosened the two 12mm bolts that attach the latch mechanism to the trunk to see if there was any alignment or movement opportunity....only the slightest jiggle was possible. the bolts were not found in a loose state, but were easy to turn. I slightly pushed the entire latch mechanism up, while tightening the bolts. .......I cant swear I made much if any adjustment but....for some reason, the trunk lid now seems to close after 5 in a row tries to shut it. Whatever I did, very minor appears to have made a difference.

 

Glad that you found your solution Lexicon. After my wife left her map lights on a couple of times, I finally replaced all the lights that come on by door openings or trunk openings with LEDs. Didn't solve the forgetting to turn off the lights but has saved the battery on more than one occasion. I did the same with my SC430. I'd suggest that you consider doing the same. Besides, the LEDs look cooler...

 

Great idea to do a low voltage trunk light. Can you post the source and LED light model or size so that I can replace my two lights?
Also, do you know what the replacement LED light is for the map light? (my wife did the same with the map light too)
Thanks for your help

 

the trunk lights are T-10 LEDs. The map lights are reversed polarity bayonet led.

 

I believe that the bayonet bulbs for the map lights are BA9 but as Coleroad stated, you have to specify reversed polarity for them to work.