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Technical Cant open boot

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Technical Cant open boot

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richierich

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Help!
Ever since the dealer installed my new number plates (he pop rivited them on!) My boot has been giving me problems. It has now jammed closed, there is no key hole to open it, only the electronic key.
If i try and open it i can hear the boot trying to open but alas it wont.
Ive climbed inside and tried to push and pull that little black nob on the mechanism but again it wont budge.

Does anyone know how to open the boot of the Fiat 500 when its jammed?

Thanks
 
Give the underside of the boot handle on the outside a squirt with a compressed air can. The microswitch gets gunked up with road grime and stops working. It's a known issue on the Pandas. Sometimes the switch just dies as well.
 
Understanding how the latching mechanism works may help you to fix this. I'll explain as best I can.

The latching mechanism basically comprises a microswitch, a solenoid & a spring. The solenoid is actuated electrically either by using the handle (which operates the microswitch) or by pressing the remote fob (which sends the appropriate electrical signal to the solenoid). The solenoid then releases the spring, and it is the force provided by the spring which actually unlocks the door. The spring is reset each time you close the boot.

Pressing the emergency release (the black button) releases the spring directly, bypassing both microswitch & solenoid.

For all this to work, there has to a small gap between the hatchback and the body when the boot is shut, otherwise the force provided by the spring won't be sufficient to unlatch the mechanism. If the hatch is properly adjusted, you can feel this gap if you push (firmly) down on the boot lid - you will feel it give a little. If the boot isn't adjusted correctly, or if there's something trapped between the hatchback and the body, then the boot will jam shut & you'll struggle to open it.

First thing to do is to make sure you're pressing the emergency release correctly - I've just taken a photo of mine & the arrow shows you where and in what direction to push. If that releases the boot, then it's likely an electrical problem & the microswitch is the most likely suspect.

If pressing the black lever doesn't release the boot, the next thing is to try pressing down on the boot lid at the same time as operating the release (either electrically with the handle or mechanically with the emergency release). That might take enough pressure off the latching mechanism to allow the spring to release and unlock the mechanism. If this works, and the cause wasn't something caught in the gap, then you will need to adjust the striker plate on the bodyshell so that the hatch fits just loosely enough to allow the spring to unlatch the mechanism.
 

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Last edited:
jnoiles said:
Give the underside of the boot handle on the outside a squirt with a compressed air can. The microswitch gets gunked up with road grime and stops working. It's a known issue on the Pandas. Sometimes the switch just dies as well.
Click to expand...
this happened to mine and was replaced, but whilst not working the boot could still be opened by the boot open button on key, which I believe richierich can't achieve, so there maybe other issues here
 
Today, I have same problem with my new 500C Gucci : just cannot open the boot, the salesman has to climb to the back, flip doan the rear seat and press that black button to release the boot. Then we shut the boot and it still won't open normally. Seems like a bad solenoid, or poor boot fitting ......I should be driving around Hong Kong enjoying the 500C....now I can only dream about it as I obviously did not take delivery of the new 500C.
 
Service Manager says : boot and softtop hand-shaking was faulty. After software reset, all is well.

Should I believe him ?
 
It is just disappointing that I couldn't collect the car because if the fault last week.

I guess I will give them 1 last chance and collect the car on Thursday.
Hope it is 3rd time lucky for me......
 
I've just had a similar problem with my 500. The boot wouldn't open using the boot "handle" or the button on the remote. I opened the boot from inside and tested the solenoid by closing the latch with a screwdriver then pressing the remote key, which worked, and then again with the boot handle, which also worked, but it still wouldn't work when closing the boot normally, even when pressing down on the boot to take pressure off the catch. I sprayed lubricant into the lock, which didn't fix it, then sprayed contact cleaner into the lock, which also failed to fix it. I eventually decided to try adjusting the striker plate, which seems to have cured it. I ended up moving the plate about 1 mm to the driver's side. It's bit of a mystery why the plate should go out of adjustment, there are no dents to indicate that anyone has driven into the car and bent it! The question is, now I've washed all the oil and grease out of the lock, what should I lubricate it with?
 
I sprayed come compressed air around the rubber in the handle, where the microswitch etc. a are.

The handle then opened again, so the air seems to have fixed the problem (for now).

I then put some wd40 around the latch, hopefully more lubrication will help.

Stefano
 
I've now got the can't open boot problem - after reading the comments on here , I have discounted a couple of things.

1:- The boot does un lock with the boot fob button
2:- I have taken the boot handle off and checked the micro switch, thats ok

re built the handle and checks with continuity tester micro switch is working but still does not open the boot with the handle (micro switch)- still works with the fob button.

shorted out the wires from the micro switch (on the boot side of the connector) and does not open the lock.

Any ideas?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jernas said:
I've now got the can't open boot problem - after reading the comments on here , I have discounted a couple of things.

1:- The boot does un lock with the boot fob button
2:- I have taken the boot handle off and checked the micro switch, thats ok

re built the handle and checks with continuity tester micro switch is working but still does not open the boot with the handle (micro switch)- still works with the fob button.

shorted out the wires from the micro switch (on the boot side of the connector) and does not open the lock.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Faulty hatchback wiring thus no live feed to the microswitch? (actually the microswitch grounds a line from the body computer but if that line is broken, it won't work)

You certainly wouldn't be the first to have experienced this problem.
 
Last edited:
jrkitching - Thanks for the reply, yes the loom did cross my mind but was hoping for an easy fix.

Will look at the loom this weekend
 
Just to let you know the boot loom had a broken wire, 1 wire with 50% strands broken and 4 or 5 other wires with split insulation.
Broken wire fixed and boot microswitch is now working - a future project is to sort out the other problems with the loom.

Thanks for the help.
 
Jernas said:
Just to let you know the boot loom had a broken wire, 1 wire with 50% strands broken and 4 or 5 other wires with split insulation.
Broken wire fixed and boot microswitch is now working - a future project is to sort out the other problems with the loom.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

glad you got it sorted, how old is your car out of interest?
 
The car is 3 1/2 years old.

Like others on here, boot loom broken, drivers side door handle broken and its needed a new radiator - but the wife loves it and whilst there are helpfull people on this forum I'll keep fixing it
 
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