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[Dirk]

Afternoon,

All of a sudden I am not able to open the boot of my car.
I can still hear the mechanism work when I use the key fob for the central locking system but still won't open.
It will not open with the key either.

Yesterday when I was working on the car to clean the ICV I had the battery disconnected but after i finished the job I was able to get in to the boot of the car.

I probably have to get in via the cabin and fold the back seats down but then what?
How can I open it from the inside?


The car is a 1998 2.0 16v Omega

[alexandjen]

Is there not a manual release on the boot lid as there is on a facelift?

[Dirk]

When the car is unlocked I have to open it with the button.
It doesn't pop open automaticly.
Should it do this on this car when using the key fob?
It has never done this in the two months we had the car.


With the lock in vertical position it won't open.
With the lock in horizontal position it won't open either.
When I turn the key further clock wise the still nothing happens.

When i have the key in it's furthest position and then press the key fob it turns the key back to the horizontal position.

[MutantCav]

Always possible the bar on the lock on the inside has popped out...have a look from the inside and see if anything is amiss

[RolandL]

Hi Dirk,  this happened on my '99 Mini facelift Elite a couple of months ago.  On mine the central locking solenoid had failed.

Arm your self with a torch a small flat bladed implement and you will need a small torx bit (philips screw driver may do at a push). And a boot solenoid

Put back seats down and get into boot. Unclip the two rear light cluster covers and bulb holder. Use torx bit to undo boot closure strap. Look around the edge of the carpeted cover and you will see some pop in plastic studs, use flat bladed implement to release. Look carefully in the centre as well as there are more there. Once the cover is free, carefully manouvere out of boot, place to one side.

Get back in boot and you will see the locking mechanism. Look closely at it and you will see the rod that connects to the solenoid to the lock release mechanism, use this to unlock the boot.

Now you can get out of the car and work on the boot with it raised (much easier  )

I wasn't sure what the problem was at first, so I had to take everythin apart to see what was going on. I then relocked the boot and waited a few days for the solenoid (ebay)


Hope that helps

Roland

[Dirk]

thanks for the information Chris and Roland.
It will give me something to do again
This car has kept me busy for the last two months with all sorts of small things.
I will have a look tomorrow  or I might postpone it till the weekend as I have some more small things to do on the car and do them all in one go.

I hope the boot will have enough space for me to work around in there

[RolandL]

thanks for the information Chris and Roland.
It will give me something to do again
This car has kept me busy for the last two months with all sorts of small things.
I will have a look tomorrow  or I might postpone it till the weekend as I have some more small things to do on the car and do them all in one go.

I hope the boot will have enough space for me to work around in there


Just wait for the looks you get from the passers by when you climb out of the boot      

[Dirk]

can imagine that one  

[Mike Collins]

"When the car is unlocked I have to open it with the button.
It doesn't pop open automaticly."

Have I misread this? The early cars do not have a mechanism to release the boot lid via the key, just the external handle on the lid itself.

As far as I know the locking system just prevents or allows the handle to move.

[Dirk]

Hello Mike,

It doesn't open the boot with the key fob , you have to open it with the button/handle.
When Alexandjen asked me the question about the manual release  I thouhgt i maybe could open the boot just by using the keyfob but this it has never done.
I persume you need to have the three button key fob for that and a newer car
I can move the handle no mather how the lock is positioned.
The only difference i noticed is that it seems to catch something when the lock is set to the open position.
I persume that when it is set in the open position it is normally moving the mechanism inside to open the boot but now nothing happens.
I wil have  a look in the weekend when I have the time for it.

[Dirk]

Got the problem sorted.
It took me 10 seconds to open te boot from the inside unfortunately there was no one passing by when I climbed out of th boot  
I removed the boot cover and checked the mechanism and found out that the bar that unlocks the boot was loose. I first hought there was a screw missing but this part is hold in to place by plastic clips. When you push it in to place it should lock and hold which it didn't
I widened it a little bit and kept it this way for about ten minutes and put it back in place. It is working ok again but don't know for howlong.  next time it happens I will see if I can get this from a scrap heap or maybe new from vauxhall itself if possible to buy seperatly.

Thanks again for the help