Liftgate latch not working

[Island 5]

Good day all, I have searched for answers to this problem and would like to hear if I'm on the right track.

Symptom
Upper liftgate latch isn't operating, cannot unlock with the dash button, the key fob or the sensor pad on the liftgate. Died out of nowhere. Lifegate open error message on the display, alarm doesn't beep anymore but lights do go out and the manual cable release is working as it should.

That being said it did work yesterday twice and then stopped working again.

I pulled the grommets out and checked the wiring, and discovered there has been some patches made on approx 5 wires. They look to be professionally done and in good shape. The fuse is good as the lower tailgate is operating. The relay is also activating.

Does anyone know what wires are power ground and remote? I'm going to pull the trim off, wiper motor and remove the latch. I'd like to check to see if I'm getting power. Should I be looking at replacing the latch?

Thank you for your input.
Mike

[g300d]

What year X? 2004-up face lifts are soft-close.

The latch gets posted about enough online that it looks like it gets replaced frequently. On my 3.0 I've had to repair it once a year ago and just recently replaced that repaired latch with a new one when it finally died.

Normally the latches stop working completely though. I would look into it more if it were intermittent as you describe.

IIRC mine was a simple 2-wire harness. And you wont need to pull the wiper if you just want to check the harness. It will be accessible when you pull the upper hatch panel.

I remember reading about chaffed tailgate harnesses somewhere, maybe you can also look into that.

[Island 5]

Thank you for the reply! Mine is a 2002 MY and yes it did work twice since it died it hasn't come back at all. I'll pull the latch and mess around with it and order a a replacement. I checked behind the grommets and they were patched but look in good condition.

Best wishes
Mike

[g300d]

Gotcha! Does seem to point towards the latch. Good news is yours is the less expensive latch. The soft-close ones are $$$.