My Tailgate was intermittent on opening & then just stopped working altogether.
Had to use the key to get into the boot.
Had a look at some of the posts on the forum of which, mostly pointed to micro switch failure.
So got myself from Amazon, some of those cheap body trim removal tools.
So yesterday I removed the tailgate cover (plastic clips & 1 Allen bolt holding the handle).
Now the switch still had its "clickiness" but I still went ahead and removed the whole handle.
Remove plastic cover over barrel lock, unclip barrel lock rod, disconnect electrical connector,
undo 4 x 10mm nuts, & release 2 x clips.

Can't seem to upload pictures, so will add the rest soon as I have worked it out.

Picture of the handle.

Now perhaps with hindsight, I should have just tested the micro switch by just disconnecting the connector, as there was nothing wrong with it.
If it were faulty, all you can do is replace the whole unit - the micro switch is moulded in.
But, this gave me a chance to clean out the crap that had gathered over the years and treat the
corrosion that had started to form on all the electrical connectors and number plate lamp holders.

Next, I removed the tailgate release mechanism, 2 bolts, but remember the orientation of the
connecting rod - I just took a picture of it.

I then took the plastic cover off of the release mechanism, this was really fiddly to undo all the little clips - 2 jewellers screwdriver did the trick.
I was most surprised to find a train set motor in there, I thought it would be a solenoid.
Anyhow, on testing the motor with the multimeter, I found it was stuck at a null point.
Moving it slightly in either direction it would start to work.
So a good cleanout with electrical cleaner & it was fine.
reassembled all. the whole job took me about 3 hours with the cleaning, protecting and lubricating.

It looks like that motor always starts on the same commutator segment so over time sparking will cause wear. You would need to try but simply turning the motor a few teeth will align a different segment and might solve the spark wear issue.

DaveMcT said:

It looks like that motor always starts on the same commutator segment so over time sparking will cause wear. You would need to try but simply turning the motor a few teeth will align a different segment and might solve the spark wear issue.

Click to expand...

Your probably right. It's been working fine since.