GL450 tailgate opens/closes but will not lock
11-04-2012, 09:45 PM
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GL450 tailgate opens/closes but will not lock
my 2008 GL450 tailgate opens/closes but will not latch. I've seen some response in this area that the latch needs to be replaced but I wanted to confirm.... When the tailgate closes it makes a "spinning" noise in the latch area for about 5 seconds then never locks. is this what happens with a bad latch?
thanks!
thanks!
01-09-2013, 06:04 AM
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2006 GL500
I have just read your post and had the same problem with my 2006 GL500.
I pulled off all the plastic coweling on the rear boot door starting with the center top piece and then the two side pieces. They are held in by clips.
Then I removed the cover plate underneath the bottom of the boot door which surrounds the locking mechanism, followed finally by the large cover which covers the inside rear of the boot door. There are no screws just the push on pull off clips. During this process you will need to remove the handle surround on the manual boot release, the red boot closer button on the underneath of the boot door and the cabin light in the back boot door as well.
There are three hex screws on the surrounding lock mechanism to remove and then the entire lock will come out. You will need to disconect the manual release cable from the handle and disconnect the wire lume to completely take the lock out of the car.
At this stage either get a new lock and put it in or try to repair the old one?
I fixed the old one!
This is the hard part. The casing that encloses the locking mechanism is plastic and it sits in a metal jig which fastens the lock to the boot door.
You need to separate the plastic unit from the metal jig by bending the metal arms which hold the two parts together. There are 4 of them.
Then you need to pry out the plastic unit from the metal one.
The problem with the lock is inside this plastic case which has been welded together with plastic studs which you will see around the unit.
I broke the tops off all the studs and then used the right sized drill bit to drill out the studs. As it is all plastic this is easy, then the unit will separate into two halves revealing inside the gears and leavers which operate the closing mechanism.
Inside I found a small cast alluminum arm which engages a gear which operates the final locking mechanism of the lock. There was a pin on this arm which had broken off. I decided to drill a small hole through the arm where the pin was located and pushed a 1/8th pop rivert through to take the place of the pin that broke off. I made sure it was a tight fit so that the pin would not fall out. The hole I made was slightly smaller than 1/8th.
Putting it all back together is the hardest part of this job.
There are two leavers that protrude from the plastic unit which operate leavers in the metal unit. You need to make sure that they are in the right positions when you put the plastic unit and the metal unit back together.
It is best to try and locate the plastic unit in the metal unit before you close the plastic unit up, this way you can rotate the leavers into the right positions using the gears as you try to fit the metal and plastic units together.
Note the L shaped leaver fits into its location in a very specific orientation which allows it to sit right into the hole. Have a look at the leaver and examine the hole to see the way it fits in. If this is not in the right way you will not get the locks together! Additionally when fitting the plastic and metal parts together you will need to push the lock catch on the metal part into the fully closed position and hold it there when you put the two parts together as this allows the L shaped leaver to sit into the right position for the two parts to come together.
Now you need to close the plastic part up. I put the plastic cover on using some 6 gram screws to hold the two halves together, worked perfectly. You should use screws which suit the hole size you drilled to remove the old plastic studs.
That was it I put everything back together and it works perfectly.
If you are not handy with fixing things I believe you would find it challenging to do the mechanism fix as you really need to understand how the gears work with each other to control the lock. Once I pulled the unit apart I was able to study what I saw and work out how it all worked so that I was able to assemble all the parts and get it back together.
For those of you who are not so handy I would recommend you get a new lock. But I guess you have nothing to loose in having a go at it, if you fail all you need to do is buy the new lock and put it back in yourself and you still would have saved yourself some bucks!
Good luck hope this can help someone.
I pulled off all the plastic coweling on the rear boot door starting with the center top piece and then the two side pieces. They are held in by clips.
Then I removed the cover plate underneath the bottom of the boot door which surrounds the locking mechanism, followed finally by the large cover which covers the inside rear of the boot door. There are no screws just the push on pull off clips. During this process you will need to remove the handle surround on the manual boot release, the red boot closer button on the underneath of the boot door and the cabin light in the back boot door as well.
There are three hex screws on the surrounding lock mechanism to remove and then the entire lock will come out. You will need to disconect the manual release cable from the handle and disconnect the wire lume to completely take the lock out of the car.
At this stage either get a new lock and put it in or try to repair the old one?
I fixed the old one!
This is the hard part. The casing that encloses the locking mechanism is plastic and it sits in a metal jig which fastens the lock to the boot door.
You need to separate the plastic unit from the metal jig by bending the metal arms which hold the two parts together. There are 4 of them.
Then you need to pry out the plastic unit from the metal one.
The problem with the lock is inside this plastic case which has been welded together with plastic studs which you will see around the unit.
I broke the tops off all the studs and then used the right sized drill bit to drill out the studs. As it is all plastic this is easy, then the unit will separate into two halves revealing inside the gears and leavers which operate the closing mechanism.
Inside I found a small cast alluminum arm which engages a gear which operates the final locking mechanism of the lock. There was a pin on this arm which had broken off. I decided to drill a small hole through the arm where the pin was located and pushed a 1/8th pop rivert through to take the place of the pin that broke off. I made sure it was a tight fit so that the pin would not fall out. The hole I made was slightly smaller than 1/8th.
Putting it all back together is the hardest part of this job.
There are two leavers that protrude from the plastic unit which operate leavers in the metal unit. You need to make sure that they are in the right positions when you put the plastic unit and the metal unit back together.
It is best to try and locate the plastic unit in the metal unit before you close the plastic unit up, this way you can rotate the leavers into the right positions using the gears as you try to fit the metal and plastic units together.
Note the L shaped leaver fits into its location in a very specific orientation which allows it to sit right into the hole. Have a look at the leaver and examine the hole to see the way it fits in. If this is not in the right way you will not get the locks together! Additionally when fitting the plastic and metal parts together you will need to push the lock catch on the metal part into the fully closed position and hold it there when you put the two parts together as this allows the L shaped leaver to sit into the right position for the two parts to come together.
Now you need to close the plastic part up. I put the plastic cover on using some 6 gram screws to hold the two halves together, worked perfectly. You should use screws which suit the hole size you drilled to remove the old plastic studs.
That was it I put everything back together and it works perfectly.
If you are not handy with fixing things I believe you would find it challenging to do the mechanism fix as you really need to understand how the gears work with each other to control the lock. Once I pulled the unit apart I was able to study what I saw and work out how it all worked so that I was able to assemble all the parts and get it back together.
For those of you who are not so handy I would recommend you get a new lock. But I guess you have nothing to loose in having a go at it, if you fail all you need to do is buy the new lock and put it back in yourself and you still would have saved yourself some bucks!
Good luck hope this can help someone.
11-02-2014, 07:43 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: sheffield, uk
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mercedes gl420
tailgate problems
I have just read your post and had the same problem with my 2006 GL500.
I pulled off all the plastic coweling on the rear boot door starting with the center top piece and then the two side pieces. They are held in by clips.
Then I removed the cover plate underneath the bottom of the boot door which surrounds the locking mechanism, followed finally by the large cover which covers the inside rear of the boot door. There are no screws just the push on pull off clips. During this process you will need to remove the handle surround on the manual boot release, the red boot closer button on the underneath of the boot door and the cabin light in the back boot door as well.
There are three hex screws on the surrounding lock mechanism to remove and then the entire lock will come out. You will need to disconect the manual release cable from the handle and disconnect the wire lume to completely take the lock out of the car.
At this stage either get a new lock and put it in or try to repair the old one?
I fixed the old one!
This is the hard part. The casing that encloses the locking mechanism is plastic and it sits in a metal jig which fastens the lock to the boot door.
You need to separate the plastic unit from the metal jig by bending the metal arms which hold the two parts together. There are 4 of them.
Then you need to pry out the plastic unit from the metal one.
The problem with the lock is inside this plastic case which has been welded together with plastic studs which you will see around the unit.
I broke the tops off all the studs and then used the right sized drill bit to drill out the studs. As it is all plastic this is easy, then the unit will separate into two halves revealing inside the gears and leavers which operate the closing mechanism.
Inside I found a small cast alluminum arm which engages a gear which operates the final locking mechanism of the lock. There was a pin on this arm which had broken off. I decided to drill a small hole through the arm where the pin was located and pushed a 1/8th pop rivert through to take the place of the pin that broke off. I made sure it was a tight fit so that the pin would not fall out. The hole I made was slightly smaller than 1/8th.
Putting it all back together is the hardest part of this job.
There are two leavers that protrude from the plastic unit which operate leavers in the metal unit. You need to make sure that they are in the right positions when you put the plastic unit and the metal unit back together.
It is best to try and locate the plastic unit in the metal unit before you close the plastic unit up, this way you can rotate the leavers into the right positions using the gears as you try to fit the metal and plastic units together.
Note the L shaped leaver fits into its location in a very specific orientation which allows it to sit right into the hole. Have a look at the leaver and examine the hole to see the way it fits in. If this is not in the right way you will not get the locks together! Additionally when fitting the plastic and metal parts together you will need to push the lock catch on the metal part into the fully closed position and hold it there when you put the two parts together as this allows the L shaped leaver to sit into the right position for the two parts to come together.
Now you need to close the plastic part up. I put the plastic cover on using some 6 gram screws to hold the two halves together, worked perfectly. You should use screws which suit the hole size you drilled to remove the old plastic studs.
That was it I put everything back together and it works perfectly.
If you are not handy with fixing things I believe you would find it challenging to do the mechanism fix as you really need to understand how the gears work with each other to control the lock. Once I pulled the unit apart I was able to study what I saw and work out how it all worked so that I was able to assemble all the parts and get it back together.
For those of you who are not so handy I would recommend you get a new lock. But I guess you have nothing to loose in having a go at it, if you fail all you need to do is buy the new lock and put it back in yourself and you still would have saved yourself some bucks!
Good luck hope this can help someone.
I pulled off all the plastic coweling on the rear boot door starting with the center top piece and then the two side pieces. They are held in by clips.
Then I removed the cover plate underneath the bottom of the boot door which surrounds the locking mechanism, followed finally by the large cover which covers the inside rear of the boot door. There are no screws just the push on pull off clips. During this process you will need to remove the handle surround on the manual boot release, the red boot closer button on the underneath of the boot door and the cabin light in the back boot door as well.
There are three hex screws on the surrounding lock mechanism to remove and then the entire lock will come out. You will need to disconect the manual release cable from the handle and disconnect the wire lume to completely take the lock out of the car.
At this stage either get a new lock and put it in or try to repair the old one?
I fixed the old one!
This is the hard part. The casing that encloses the locking mechanism is plastic and it sits in a metal jig which fastens the lock to the boot door.
You need to separate the plastic unit from the metal jig by bending the metal arms which hold the two parts together. There are 4 of them.
Then you need to pry out the plastic unit from the metal one.
The problem with the lock is inside this plastic case which has been welded together with plastic studs which you will see around the unit.
I broke the tops off all the studs and then used the right sized drill bit to drill out the studs. As it is all plastic this is easy, then the unit will separate into two halves revealing inside the gears and leavers which operate the closing mechanism.
Inside I found a small cast alluminum arm which engages a gear which operates the final locking mechanism of the lock. There was a pin on this arm which had broken off. I decided to drill a small hole through the arm where the pin was located and pushed a 1/8th pop rivert through to take the place of the pin that broke off. I made sure it was a tight fit so that the pin would not fall out. The hole I made was slightly smaller than 1/8th.
Putting it all back together is the hardest part of this job.
There are two leavers that protrude from the plastic unit which operate leavers in the metal unit. You need to make sure that they are in the right positions when you put the plastic unit and the metal unit back together.
It is best to try and locate the plastic unit in the metal unit before you close the plastic unit up, this way you can rotate the leavers into the right positions using the gears as you try to fit the metal and plastic units together.
Note the L shaped leaver fits into its location in a very specific orientation which allows it to sit right into the hole. Have a look at the leaver and examine the hole to see the way it fits in. If this is not in the right way you will not get the locks together! Additionally when fitting the plastic and metal parts together you will need to push the lock catch on the metal part into the fully closed position and hold it there when you put the two parts together as this allows the L shaped leaver to sit into the right position for the two parts to come together.
Now you need to close the plastic part up. I put the plastic cover on using some 6 gram screws to hold the two halves together, worked perfectly. You should use screws which suit the hole size you drilled to remove the old plastic studs.
That was it I put everything back together and it works perfectly.
If you are not handy with fixing things I believe you would find it challenging to do the mechanism fix as you really need to understand how the gears work with each other to control the lock. Once I pulled the unit apart I was able to study what I saw and work out how it all worked so that I was able to assemble all the parts and get it back together.
For those of you who are not so handy I would recommend you get a new lock. But I guess you have nothing to loose in having a go at it, if you fail all you need to do is buy the new lock and put it back in yourself and you still would have saved yourself some bucks!
Good luck hope this can help someone.
