There was peace in Sequoia land. I felt like a king. I had won the Sequoia Hatch wars (see previous post). It was wonderful to use my working hatch with confidence. But alas, it appears that I raised the victory flag a bit too soon.

It happened again. After 3 glorious months the hatch decided to lock itself into a stuck position. Why? What could possibly be wrong? I replaced the latch, cable, latch assembly; everything except for the liftgate actuator (which I can confirm works fine).

I have now discovered the source of the problem. In the first photo you will see the latch assembly. I circled a part that has a shaft and a channel that it travels through. When you lock your doors, the latch moves in way that prevents the shaft from travelling north. When you unlock the doors the channel opens, allowing the shaft to travel fully to the north position. If you look at the circled part, you will see that when unlocked the channel was still obstructed. This is the source of the problem.

The solution is to somehow shorten the cable. You can’t adjust the cable, so I bent the post that the yellow arrow points to towards the assembly. This proved to be checkmate. The hatch now works again. I figured this out by testing the exposed actuator while still hooked up to the latch and electrical wires. Yes, I am using aftermarket parts. I did seriously consider buying OEM, but not until I exhausted all possibilities. The latch is all metal and appears to be a great part. The new weather-stripping is an OEM part.

If your hatch is stuck, then it is one of three things. A bad latch, bad assembly, or bad cable. Best to replace all, including the lower weather-stripping that attaches to the outside of the window (see pics). When the weather-stripping gets old it lets water in, which will significantly reduce the lifespan of all the internal parts. If it acts up again I may swap the spring next to the shaft with one that has more tension. Never give up!

2005 Sequoia Limited, 260K https://imgur.com/a/gyUwtJT