Rear Hatch/Lift Gate Won’t Open

[Ricky_M24]

Hi all. So I’ve looked on this site because my rear hatch (lift gate) won’t open. I’ve found videos where I should be able to open it from the inside by taking off a tab exposing a white plastic knob which I turn counter-clockwise…but that doesn’t work. It seems as though it’s stuck because when I try to turn it with a phillips head screwdriver, the screwdriver ends up opening the split in the knob and slipping to the next slot. I’m really not sure where to go from here. When I press the unlock button on the car or fob, I see the knob wanting to turn but it just goes back in place. It’s a 2017 Crossroads model. Any help will be appreciated as I want to try everything possible before taking it somewhere. Money is extremely tight right now.

thanks in advance for any help! 

[2late4u]

i believe you need someone to lift the hatch from the outside while you are turning the screw

[5rebel9]

The rear hatch handle is a known problem area of the handle getting sticky and staying in the open position. Try pushing the handle back to the closed position and then try opening the hatch. The item you have described only releases the LOCK on the hatch and not the latch. With 3 DJ's of mine, I periodically spray lube up into the pivots of the hatch handle to keep things smoothly working, yes a bit messy needing to wipe off dripping of excess spray lube from the hatch.

[John/Horace]

You should here a loud click when the latch does release from turning the plastic screw.

 

Once it’s open you may have to deal with the wires in the rubber sleeve feeding into the top of the hatch.  It’s a common issue for the wires to get bad enough to stop sending enough voltage for lock solenoid etc. The rear led hatch brake light also loses power eventually and the outside hatch lock/unlock activation button. Lots of posts on site about fixing it. Electronic solder, gun, some 14 gauge multi strand wire and heat shrink are needed.