The brief
Mohamed was exasperated, his car boot was jammed shut, the release not working from the key, the switch or the boot itself. He brought it in. A boot you can't open is more than an inconvenience, so it wanted sorting. The boot latch is the motorised mechanism that catches and releases the boot lid, with a release motor and a micro-switch that tells the car the boot's state, all driven off the central locking. Over the years the latch wears, the release motor or the gears fail, and the micro-switch goes flaky, so the latch jams shut and won't release. A latch that's failed doesn't recover, so it needs replacing.
The diagnosis
Getting the boot open and the trim off, the latch told the story, the release motor and the latch mechanism worn and seized, which is why it jammed shut and wouldn't release. The wiring and the central locking checked out, it was the latch itself. That's a latch replacement, you don't rebuild it on the car, so the call was a complete boot latch assembly, fitted and tested with the central locking.
The work
The boot trim was accessed, the failed latch mechanism removed, and a new genuine VW-spec boot latch fitted, connected up, the latch and the release adjusted so the boot catches and releases cleanly. The new unit was registered as needed so the central locking recognised it, and the trim refitted. A check confirmed the boot opened from the key, the switch and the boot release every time, latched first time, and the central locking handled it correctly.
The outcome
A boot that opens and closes every time from the key, the switch and the release, latches first time, and does it quietly. The Volkswagen went home with the boot sorted. A jammed boot latch only stays jammed until it's fixed, so changing the mechanism put it right.
