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2023 Rear Lift Gate - Latch Jammed Closed

katmandude

New Member
U.S. Army Veteran
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Location
PA
Vehicle
2023 Explorer ST
#1
First off, the rear hatch window got smashed out from a tree branch and glass pellets found their way into the latch mechanism .
I heard glass crushing as the hatch closed and locked. The glass replacement dude was informed and vacuumed best he could.
The hatch worked fine for a while, so I paid it no mind, then last time it closed, it locked and will not open.
I hear the latch receiving the open signal & the motor make sound but no movement, hatch won't pop open. I took it to the dealer and they found glass pieces
inside the panel, said Ford won't cover it. From their attitude I honestly don't think they knew how to get latch open.
They were nice enough tho to force command 3rd row seat down as seats will only normally function with rear hatch open. $150 bill !
Just great, so I got home & looked for way to get the latch open from the inside.There is a pop out piece on the panel right at the latch made me think
that is where it can be manually opened from the inside, NOPE, nothing there just a torx bolt I removed it and that does nothing.
I pulled whole panel back as best it will go but can't completely remove it because the bottom piece is trapped by the latch going through it.
I don't see any manual way presenting itself to get the latch open & nothing online how to do it.
 

Messages
60
Reactions
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Points
7
Location
North West
Vehicle
2022 Explorer ST
#2
There are a couple threads about this and so far no one has been able to come up with an answer. Have you tried pushing on the liftgate from the inside as you pop the latch? Please post once, and if, you get it open.
 

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'20 Raptor, '22 Explorer ST, '14 GT500, '03 F150
#3
This has been a huge conversation piece, as far as we know there is no manual release for the tailgate. Big design miss IMO.
 

OP
katmandude

katmandude

New Member
U.S. Army Veteran
Messages
4
Reactions
5
Points
2
Location
PA
Vehicle
2023 Explorer ST
Thread Starter #4
I have tried to activate the open button on remote while putting pry bar pressure and tapping on the latch and motor to no avail...I have been a mechanic for 40 years and emphatically curse out the design engineers who make repairs absolutely ridiculous.. Looks good on paper tho...This one with no manual release takes the cake. Will be looking at it again today, I'll post any progress.
 



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