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Rear trunk won't open

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Got it fixed, part was available at SC and was a < 1 hr job. I took the trouble of tearing apart the old module but it looked good (all the gears were undamaged and well-lubricated). If it really is this part then it has to be the motor that is worn out from the inside.

My testing indicates it’s the actuator motor. My hypothesis is the car is sending too much voltage to it. My car is sending over 13 volts to it. At 13 volts the little electric motor jumps/clicks like a bad car starter. At 7 volts it spins over just fine. If an electrical engineer could confirm this I think there might be cause for a class action lawsuit. In the meantime I may test using a resistor to lower the voltage and see how long it works.
 
My testing indicates it’s the actuator motor. My hypothesis is the car is sending too much voltage to it. My car is sending over 13 volts to it. At 13 volts the little electric motor jumps/clicks like a bad car starter. At 7 volts it spins over just fine. If an electrical engineer could confirm this I think there might be cause for a class action lawsuit. In the meantime I may test using a resistor to lower the voltage and see how long it works.
The car can send 12v or 350v. I don’t believe it has any sources in between.

The newer ones are 15v-ish.
 
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The car can send 12v or 350v. I don’t believe it has any sources in between.

The newer ones are 15v-ish.
13 volts is very normal for a lead-acid battery. So Tesla should have stepped down the voltage to 7 volts before it got to the motor. And the new guy wants to start a class action lawsuit over it? It’s a Mercedes part. I wonder what voltage they suggest using.
 
13 volts is very normal for a lead-acid battery. So Tesla should have stepped down the voltage to 7 volts before it got to the motor. And the new guy wants to start a class action lawsuit over it? It’s a Mercedes part. I wonder what voltage they suggest using.
I would suspect Mercedes would suggest between 12 & 14.7v
 
13 volts is very normal for a lead-acid battery. So Tesla should have stepped down the voltage to 7 volts before it got to the motor. And the new guy wants to start a class action lawsuit over it? It’s a Mercedes part. I wonder what voltage they suggest using.
Nah I don’t want to start a lawsuit, I’m not the original owner nor did I suffer any damages while under warranty, so I really don’t have a horse in the race. Judging by the number of people that have had this issue I’m surprised there wasn’t a recall though, especially for the 2015 model year. I haven’t read anywhere that they upgraded the part, so maybe just a bad batch of actuator motors for that year.

It’s sad to think, but it seems to me that people have come to expect issues with their Teslas so much that they just accept this sort of thing. It’s really unfortunate.
 
Nah I don’t want to start a lawsuit, I’m not the original owner nor did I suffer any damages while under warranty, so I really don’t have a horse in the race. Judging by the number of people that have had this issue I’m surprised there wasn’t a recall though, especially for the 2015 model year. I haven’t read anywhere that they upgraded the part, so maybe just a bad batch of actuator motors for that year.

It’s sad to think, but it seems to me that people have come to expect issues with their Teslas so much that they just accept this sort of thing. It’s really unfortunate.
i see volkswagens with their left taillight not working for 15 years now.
 
Related questions (as I've encountered the trunk latch issue myself and of course now in the queue to get it fixed): Is there any way to manually lock the trunk, so that the car thinks it's closed. Alternatively, is there a way to LOCK THE CAR while the car thinks the hatch is open?
 
Related questions (as I've encountered the trunk latch issue myself and of course now in the queue to get it fixed): Is there any way to manually lock the trunk, so that the car thinks it's closed. Alternatively, is there a way to LOCK THE CAR while the car thinks the hatch is open?
No, just keep on trying to open and close occasionally. For me it just locked into place the next morning which allowed me to open the trunk once more (with the part ready). Saves a ton of work (and it's an easy job to do yourself)
 
No, just keep on trying to open and close occasionally. For me it just locked into place the next morning which allowed me to open the trunk once more (with the part ready). Saves a ton of work (and it's an easy job to do yourself)
Thanks. Tried multiple times, will try again tomorrow. If not, then will try to use the emergency release tomorrow when I get some more time. Also tried the 15s trick, I hear the latch clicking, but whatever position the motor died in is preventing it from releasing.
 
Update, the trunk popped itself open while driving. I pulled over and closed it manually (car finally thinks the trunk is closed). Then, evil temptation I decided to see if "it fixed itself", well, it opened great, but when I tried to close, it got stuck again (closed but car thinks it's open and it will not open). Tried many things, including the 15s press trick (worth while trying, definitely does something as I was hearing the latch click) - back to square one. Came back few hours later, tried open/close/15s trick, and got it open! Closed it again manually, so at least I can drive the normally until mobile tech comes to replace the latch.

PS> If you are ever stuck like this and need to lock a car, the way to do it is to open your door, then click the lock icon on the main MCU screen, then leave the car and close the door. This will keep the car locked even if trunk is open. Note, this disables auto-present, you must use the key or the app to unlock the car.
 
This video SOLVED my problem.
Trunk was stuck closed, indicating open, pull cable didn't budge it.
Now works perfectly. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Happened to my 2013 S today after manually stopping the trunk from fully open (to not hit a low garage door). Thank you for referencing this video! On the 2013 S, there is additional plastic clip (poped off when I forced the side fabric off from the rear door side) & the black box is in similar location but at higher spot. Unplugged the black connection and the latch motor opened. Saved me a service call. :)
 
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Happened to my 2013 S today after manually stopping the trunk from fully open (to not hit a low garage door). Thank you for referencing this video! On the 2013 S, there is additional plastic clip (poped off when I forced the side fabric off from the rear door side) & the black box is in similar location but at higher spot. Unplugged the black connection and the latch motor opened. Saved me a service call. :)
Couldn't edit since I created the account just to thank pts260. To be clear, I unplugged the black connection and reconnected it 1 time (guess was lucky that I didn't have to do it multiple times), and the latch motor sounded and went into open state.

Before trying the fix, the trunk was in a open state but the latch motor was still in "closed" state, so the trunk door bounces up and down about half a cm of space while in this "confused" state (trunk is open but the trunk latch (motor) is in closed state) when I slam any of the car doors shut (or when driving over bumps).