Just an fyi. My tailgate latch started sticking and not completely releasing. While checking the alignment I found one of the latch bolts missing, and the others loose.

I picked up a new bolt at the dealer. Surprisingly they had some in stock. They mentioned they must had been using these a lot lately. I noticed the new bolt requires a bigger socket with loctite pre applied.

 

I *swear* they gave you the incorrect bolt. That has a pan head, it should be more of a “mushroom” type of head.

I can’t imagine JLR would switch to a bolt head that has far less clearance in the door jamb.

Do you have the part #?

I mean, if it works it works but I think this is the wrong one.

 

I called and double checked the bolt they gave me has the same part number. I figured some how they found a part out of the bin they could consolidate.

 

The dealer is blowing smoke, I would drive up to the dealership and walk the Parts Manager and the Service Manager out to your vehicle and ask them bluntly if they are in agreement that that screw they sold you is the correct replacement for the missing one. If they believe that is the correct screw, you need to take it to the next level, ask for the GM of the dealership because that is not how you should be treated when buying a +$75k vehicle. But I would take passing off that screw as the proper replacement as an insult to my intelligence. Pathetic.

 

It’s just a screw it serves its purpose and is not visibly seen. Not something for me to get bent out of shape about.

 

That is the wrong bolt and it looks out of place. It is hard for me to believe that the service department would send your vehicle out in public that way.

 

Tough crowd here lol.

I did just go out and check the tightness of these 3 fasteners on my 2020 out of curiousity. They were tight, and I’ve never touched them. So that’s good. Gave them a little snug up anyways (probably now overtorqued slightly, each bolt turned about 5 degrees I’d estimate)

 

 

I had the same problem. I just took it to the dealer this week for repair.
The problem turned out to be the paint protection film thickness interfering with the operation of the latch.
The PPF isn't very thick, but the tailgate door has incredibly tight tolerances because of its weight.
The dealership just shaved off enough of the PPF to get the latch working properly.
If you have the factory or add on PPF and you are having problems with the tailgate not opening, this should be the first thing checked.

 

I had a sticking rear door issue with my OCTA, and the cause was the PPF on the upper-left black trim piece. My installer used the XPEL pattern for that area, so this may be a broader issue for other Defenders using the same pattern.

The tailgate seal is different from many other door seals. Rather than a wide, foam-style compression seal, it is thinner, firmer, and has a blunt edge. It folds over on itself as the door opens and closes.

When the door is closed, that blunt trailing edge faces rearward. As the door first begins to open, the seal has to move forward briefly leading with the blunt edge before it rolls over on itself. If the PPF extends too far into that space, as it does with the my XPEL pattern, the blunt edge hits the film edge and the door comes to a sudden stop. It can catch hard enough to make the door latch feel sticky and, in my case, a few times made it impossible to open the door until I drove around and tried again later.

The fix was simple: trim the PPF back less than an inch so the seal has room to fold over before it reaches the film edge. After that, it glides over the PPF edge and the sticking issue disappeared.

XPEL could eliminate this issue by revising the digital cut pattern for that trim piece, I'm surprised with a number of years of L663 production in the books they haven't.

And I agree, Pjazz got the wrong bolt. All of those bolts in the area a flat head, I'm sure by intent given the tight tolerances in that space. I think the proud head on the bolt they gave you could in itself cause a door sticking issue at some point if not scratching up the paint within that opening depending on the terrain you drive or angles you park and try to operate the door. They need to swap it out, they can see it is the wrong bolt looking at any other Defender on their lot or within their service department - regardless of claimed part number.