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HighlanderGeneral discussion forum for the Toyota Highlander and Highlander Hybrid.
This is a discussion thread titled "The rear hatch is stuck", within the Highlander forum, part of the SUV Forums category.
Yu can't get sufficient leverage to open the gate from the outside because the latch is jambed. If yu pull the ouside handle too hard yu may damage the upper bar assembly too.
Try having one person outside hold the handle to the open position while yu push open the tail gate from the inside. Hope this helps.
BTW, yu can't remove the inside gate panel without breaking it. I removed mine and it must be open to release all the many clips successfully. I doubt it will help anyway. From what I saw of the mechanism when I had all apart.
from inside the car I can feel two bolts that go up into the hatch, they seem to hold the striker to the hatch bottom edge
if i undo those bolts I could then (I think), open the hatch, leaving the lock upper part still in the lock, and I could get to it?????)
do you have a diagram of the lock area?
my pix are from my 06 HL....the same identical parts as your 04.
There is no way to unbolt the striker or latch assembly. pull on the cloth that is jamming it.
if yu can cut thestriker off...yu can always replace it. Its the easiest and cheapest part of the whole assembly. Just ideas. I wish I was there to sum things up a little better.
I have climbed inside and removed the floor covering panels. You can actually get to the hatch striker panel bolts but removing the striker does no good as its held to the door by whatever rod comes down from the outside hatch door handle.
Can not get the cloth out.
Thinking of using a sawzall from the inside to cut the body "u bolt" off- any idea if its hardened steel or just regular steel??. Also I might be able to destroy the thin vinyl trim piece on the sill, and try to get an angle screwdiver on the two bolts holding the "u bolt" but I bet they are on tight.
This use to happen to me all the time in my old van (glad it hasnt happened yet in the HL), I use to have someone yank on the tailgate handle and push the tailgate in while from the inside I would pull the cloth out.
It generally would come out with some good strong yanks using this method
good luck .....ill research to see if anything shows on mitchell about the tailgate lock hatch assembly
was on verge of cutting the striker from inside , and had purchased the sawzall metal cutting blades, when kicking from the inside cured it.
Thanks to all.
striker u bolt thing is $27 at the dealer.
The rear hatch is stuck
Linear Mode
