I'm almost embarrassed to ask this...

[titodj]

How do you open the back when the battery is dead or disconnected?

I disconnected the battery do work on the car, but could not figure out how to open the trunk again to re-connect the battery.

[audiophool]

You can't. Fold the back seat down and crawl in, re-connect the battery. Solved.

[lo_jack]

Yep, foolishly there is no mechanical override. Wave of the future!

[titodj]

Thank you guys, I was really feeling dumb...

[lo_jack]

It's not you, its them.

[wpoll]

There are manual releases for both the lift gate and the tail gate - they are mentioned in the owners manual.

[andrewwynn]

You can also apply power at the B+ under the hood that's easier than crawling through the car.

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

You can also apply power at the B+ under the hood that's easier than crawling through the car.

Oh yes this is a good way to do it.

[oldskewel]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

You can also apply power at the B+ under the hood that's easier than crawling through the car.

I'm in this situation (on purpose) on my 2001 3.0i. In the middle of a head gasket (or more) repair, I have disconnected the battery in the back.

I found that hooking up either a battery charger, or a battery and charger in parallel to the B+ under the hood DID NOT WORK to let me open the rear hatch.

I really expected it to work, so when it did not, my son crawled in to do the manual release. And then I tied a string from the release thing to the driver's door seatbelt, so now I can just open the driver's door with the key, and then pull on the string to open the back.

I really don't know why the electrical method did not work, but it definitely did not work for me. With a weak battery, I have had it work. But with the battery disconnected, it did not. EDIT - also, yes, I used the "special nut."

[Qsilver7]

Ditto...you can either do the manual unlock procedure outlined in the owners manual for the tail gate & lift gate...or connect a battery charger or jumper cables (using a donor vehicle) to the terminals in the engine bay. This should provide enough power to either use the tailgate release button on the lower dash or your remote fob trunk release button. And just in case you're not familiar with them...see the info below (also from the owners manual).


I recommend using the "special nut" located on the left fender for negative ground because you actually want this to work...using something else may not be truly grounded thus powering the tailgate won't work with power only to the B+ engine bay terminal.

{upper lift gate manual procedure...same as above}





{lower tailgate manual procedure with the 2ne & 3rd steps listed }