2010 LR4 150K miles. Cant get my tailgate to open. It unlocks and I can partially unlatch it, but the door will not open at all. I hooked up the gap tool and these are the codes if it helps any.






BCM-Body Control

B12EE-11 (6C) Liftgate/tailgate/trunk release - General electrical failure - circuit short to ground

DDM-Driver Door

B109C-15 (2F) Front courtesy lamps - General electrical failure - circuit short to battery or open

B110A-11 (2F) Rear door driver side central locking motor - General electrical failure - circuit short to ground

 

Sounds like the tailgate lock actuator. Located in the lower tailgate. Very common failure, and lots of videos and posts about replacing it.

 

I may have a similar issue. Today the rear glass would not open, just faint occasional click when pressing the release. Then suddenly it started working again as if nothing was wrong and then it stopped working again. No DTCs. The tailgait itself works just fine, it's only the upper glass which won't release.

 

Yep, a contortioning crawl behind the seats to take the panel off lower door and pull release to open back. Must replace lower actuator at the least, not hard once door opens, but you have to order replacement acutuator, best before the crawl. Mine went at 112,000 miles.Videos on youtube.

 

Well it started working again today. I don't believe I'm having the same problem everyone else has. It's not the button on the hatch, the behaviour's the same using the fob. As I said, when it doesn't work, it either makes a very faint click or no sound at all, when it works, it makes a normal clunk.

Since it worked today, I tested the latch by manual latching it and watching what happens. There's a small retainer which moves back and forth when releasing the latch. This retainer or pin does not always operate, therefore not releasing the latch. The latch seemed a bit sticky so I cleaned it and lubricated it with lithium however it's made no difference. I'm not familiar with this mechanism, but it appears the issue's with the actuator which moves the retaining pin in and out as if either it doesn't always have enough power to move in and out or it's sticking. I'd rather not order a bunch of parts and guess what's the issue so hoping someone else may have an answer.

 

This sounds like the same problem most of us have encountered. You are correct - it is not the switch itself. That’s a different problem that some people reported, but it is not as common. This pretty clearly sounds like the actuator going bad. There are some different failure modes depending on how the solenoid is failing, but commonly it just gets weak until it intermittently fails, then fails completely. On mine, it would work once or twice after resting a while, then it would just make a faint click and stop opening.

The fix is very easy, as long as you do the repair before it fails completely and you can’t get your tailgate open. Mine failed just as I was packing up the car to go on a trip. I was able to buy the actuator at the local LR dealer that same morning for $75, and installed it in the dealers parking lot in about 20 minutes. Lots of videos around on how to do it. There is a water barrier, that I just cut and taped back up when I was done.

 

That's what I figured, acting like the actuator's too weak. Overnighted a new one and going to take the gate apart tomorrow. Many thanks for confirming.

 

Of course now I've a new actuator handy, the latch's working flawlessly

 

I’d replace it anyway. You don’t want it to fail with the tailgate closed. You could open the tailgate and hit the switch repeatedly, see if it starts to get weak. But, in any case, I’d still replace it - even if the problem turns out to be something else, that actuator will eventually fail.

 

Right, all done now.

Old actuator working perfectly fine and even compared to new, could tell no difference other than the plunger on the old one was a little stiff compared to new.

Tried some short cuts, below, successfully.

The tailgate suspension cables can be removed 2 ways and I tried both. One way requires sliding the metal clips on the ball joints downward using a gasket pick tool and then the joint pop off the ball studs which then requires clipping the cables to prevent them from reeling into the body of the tailight's trim and then unscrewing the ball posts with a 13mm deep socket. The other way leaves the ball joints alone and simply using a 13mm thin head access wrench like this https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Th...B&gclsrc=aw.ds and simply unscrewing the posts whilst attached to the cables which eliminates the need to secure the cables from retracting too far.

The plastic trim with the 4 screws was impossible to remove even with the screws out so I left it in place and found if you tug on the carpeted cover from the base of the tailgate unclipping it and then continuing to the top, it simply slides out from under the plastic trim.

Another shortcut allowed to to only make one small access hole in the shredder to unscrew one of the of the actuator screws by measuring for its location. Then for the actuator access, I cut only 3 sides, making a flap. Most of the videos I've seen show people ripping the shredder to shreds and whilst a new one's less than $30, it appears to be quite the mess removing the old one. I was able to fit my hand inside and unclip the actuator harness. After I reinstalled the actuator, I simply used a bit of tape to cover the screw hole I'd made and tape the access flap shut. Honestly the shredder's not that sealed so frankly I don't think it's all that important.

And the final shortcut was to remove the new actuator from the housing and swap it with the old actuator, eliminating the need to remove the latch release cable. This also allowed me to use the original screws and mount which seemed to be of better quality than the replacement.

Also of note, the original actuator didn't have the black housing pictured everywhere and included with the new replacement, so I binned it.