Estate - Glass Part Of Tailgate Opens At Random

[Randombloke]

Over the last week the glass part of the tailgate started opened a few times at random - unlocking car, slamming door, and soon after going into reverse.

 

I ordered a new switch for the glass part after the car lost the plot and would not let me leave the Devil's Dyke car park without opening the tail gate. In desperation I disconnected the switch at the cable joint under the small plastic cover on the other side of the glass to the rear wiper.

 

This solved the fault so I ordered a new switch.

 

To change the switch the rear wiper must be removed. Easy, plastic cover off, nut undone, then pull wiper. Wiper comes off leaving the metal inner that sits on the taper laughing at me. It would not come off. Fortunately the plastic cover lower down can be persuaded off over the said metal inner, the big nut holding the switch on can be undone (22mm!!) and the switch replaced.

 

Managed to kind of get the wiper back together with brute force and ignorance but will need to remove stuck on metal part and replace rear wiper assembly.

 

However, rear wiper works, glass now opens again and only does so when asked.

 

The way the button that opens the tailgate works is quite weird. It's not a plunger but a whole assemble moving backwards to a point that then touches a button in.

 

Will post some links to the issues when I get the pics out of the camera.

 

The micro switch on the old assembly is now very sticky. It might have unstuck with some WD40, but the risk was that the fault would return at motorway speeds.....

[Randombloke]

This is what the new button looks like, it's shared AFAIK with the 407:

 

http://www.stuff.steveu.org/IMG_0079s.JPG

 

The old button and the wiper have been removed, but the centre stud has come out of the plastic - ideally this needs to be removed with a puller and a new wiper assembly fitted:

 

 

http://www.stuff.steveu.org/IMG_0078s.JPG

 

Connecting the new button cables, passing them through the small aperture so they can plug in to the rear of the glass:

 

http://www.stuff.steveu.org/IMG_0081s.JPG

 

Sliding the 22mm nut over the shaft to bolt the new button in place:

 

 

http://www.stuff.steveu.org/IMG_0082s.JPG

 

Job done, just need to tighten up the nut then reassemble the slightly damaged wiper assembly:

 

http://www.stuff.steveu.org/IMG_0083s.JPG

 

See the whole lot here:

 

Replacing the C5 rear glass release button

[Johndouglas]

Thanks for that. It's a useful addition to the file.

[Johngartyuk]

Hi all

 

Same thing happened to me over xmas, must have been the cold, icy weather or something. It was a real nuisance, and something of a security risk.

After trying to remove the wiper arm and getting alarmed at the probability of it breaking, I tried a different approach - I removed the cover, removed the microswitch (which was full of rusty water) and soldered a slightly different one from RS components on, I used a bit of epoxy putty to make up the slight difference and it works really well. Cost of microswitch just over £4 after postage etc and it works perfectly.

 

By the way, the actuator button was a pain to put back in, but there isn't really any need to remove it, something I found out at the end.

[maximus2]

Hi.

 

Previous poster said he got similar microswitch from RS. Does anyone know which one it would be?

 

Many thanks Max.