Boot Won't Shut
 

I spent the last 3ish hours taking the rear bumper off to trace a random cable.
The cable turned out to be the aerial for the tracker, no removed.

To get the bumper off I had the gain access to the 10mm nuts and the odd bumper clip things on the side.
On the left hand side I removed the AMP, TV tuner, DVD drive and I think the nav unit. On the right I unplug 3 plugs from a black box, green plug, black plug and beige colour plug.

When I removed the 3 plugs from the right, some motor spun up. I'm not sure if it was the boot motor or the fuel flap motor.

I carried on removing and refitting the bumper. I found out the right side bumper thing is broken but that least of my worries.

I put the bumper and boot back together, tidied my tools away and shut the boot.
The boot went down, shut as it normally does but with out the soft close noise at the end.
Turned around and noticed the boot was lifting back up.
Pressed the close button and it did the same thing again.
Manually shutting the lid closes it but it won't lock, the car still says the boot is open.
If I slam it hard it shuts and lock.

Not sure what's going on.
I'll get VCDS on it tomorrow and see what it says.

Anyone else had this?

Sounds like the motor that pulls the lid closed has pulled down to the locked position, when you started pulling plugs.

Really ought to disconnect the battery before doing stuff like that but too late now i guess.

Have you tried to open it with the button on the key to see if it resets the pull down to the open state?

I dont have a motorised boot, but have had similar reluctance to lock. In my case, there were two different causes:
Failed spring on the bottom catch- this resulted in the striker being ever so slightly low and no soft close function, replaced the spring
Sticky latch mechanism- there is a microswitch inside the latch which was gummed up, so a quick dismantle, re-lube and adjustment to the microswitch resolved it.

Judging by your description that you heard a motor noise, my guess is on the spring. You can use the old one in a pinch by bending out one of the coils or get this http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/150-part-s...sortment-n06ct and have more springs than you know what to do with!

When I putting it all back together I thought I should have unplugged the battery.
Next time I will.

I had a spare 5 minutes this morning and thought I'd try the boot again and hope it reset and started working over night.
It did not but I did try something different.

The boot attempted to open, failed and closed again. That's normal but it does normal do the soft close latch noise, it never did it this time.

I opened the boot, clicked the latch over in the lid with a screw driver and pressed the open button on the key.
A high pitched motor started up, it sounded like the fuel cap motor but this time with the boot open I was able to try and locate it.
I failed. The only two motors that I know of in the right hand side of the boot is the lid motor and the fuel flap motor but neither of these showed signs that it was them spinning.

Is there any other motor or something that would make a noise?

used the remote and boot buttons to open and close the boot and nothing made a difference.

What is the resting point for the striker plate?
Mine appears to be right at the very bottom.

I'm going to look at the striker plate and such after work.

Hello RandomGuy, is this spring somewhere in the striker post assembly on the 'slam panel' and what purpose does it serve?
My boot has to be slammed to catch so much that it has cracked the tool box. Only occasionally do I hear the soft-close motor whirring. In fact I don't think I have heard that for months.

The spring pulls the striker catch back up so that it can catch on the latch when you close the boot, then the motor pulls it down for the soft close.

I still have the boot empty from the DAB retrofit, so will upload a picture in a coupe of mins

The picture above is with the boot closed, and this one is when it is open, sorry I am on my ipad, so editing is a bit hit and miss...

Interesting.

My striker plate is in the down position and does not move.
Looking at your images the cable that pulls it down goes to the right hand side of the boot.
I wonder if I knocked something off when I was fiddling around with my bumper guide.

EDIT: Your motor seems so quiet in relation to mine as well.

Brilliant info. thanks, gives me the confidence to tackle this long-standing problem.+++

thanks for that
ive had this problem for some time, if i close it hard manually it locks, knew it was something in the mechanism just havent got time to do anything with it

Two hours later, 2 battery removals and refit plus some time on VCDS and I found the issue.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...pspvctahtk.jpg

Two snapped teeth on a cog.
No idea when or why this happened.
Part of my thinks it was when I plugged or unplug the cables and it confused the motor, it spun up and snapped the teeth.

At least I found the issue, I just need to get it fixed.
I doubt I can buy the needed cog so it's back to A8 Parts and see of they got a motor.

Good job Scott, shame it's that not a spring or something simple

>>>>>
By the way, great info Random Guy +++

Grrr. If this was 2020, you would just 3D print a new one using a solidworks file you downloaded from a solidwork sharing site.

Not a bad idea, I could have sketched one up in solidworks if I had it here

My mate's dad has a 3D printer, so its an idea but at the moment my boot don't shut very well.
It latches and shuts but not all the way.

Delboy, If you want to solidwork it. I'm more than willing to send it to you and see if my mates dad can print it out. Be interesting.


My randomly unplugging cables is the reason this broke I think.
O well, one to chalk up to making sure that I always remove the battery when unplugging things.

The amount of error codes I had was mental.

Just emailed A8Parts for a price on another motor.

Yeah stick it in the post, it will interesting to see the 3d print outcome.

I'll PM the address.

Brilliant thanks.

Just double checking with my mate he still has it, what format and he's happy to do it.

Opened my boot.....and it now won't lock. Comes down on the button. Goes down and then springs back up!!!

I've tried a screwdriver in the catch mechanism (on lid) and it seems rather weak, though dont know how to get to the mechanism yet (boot lid liner removal?)

I've had the catch plate (on the car, above bumper) loose, have sprayed and cleaned and tried various positions with no joy!

Any pointers???


Lee

Hi There,

Just solved my problem....I had a very weak latching mechanism which i suspected wasn't correct, you could use a screwdriver as the pin (staple) and trigger the catch, but then you could pull it back out quite easily!

Just took the latch off (remove boot trim, via the pdfs in the tech dump) and it looked a little splayed on the end, quick tweak in the vice and it closed up and made the latch less wobbly and it now catches firmly. Re-install and i have a working boot that pulls down and locks properly :D

I fixed the boot on mine today and for the first time in 2 years it closes and does not pop open again. Took the rear trim piece off and found the spring broken from the soft close mechanism, located the OEM spring but it had snapped. I purchased the multipack of springs from Maplin last weekend, and used one of those to replace the OEM one. The spring is the one shown in post 3 of this thread from audiworld.

http://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-s...ishar-2866079/

That is what happened to mine the second time.

Stupidly I bought a whole motor.
So got one sat in the garage if anyone needs one.