I just bought my durango, 1 month ago, every thing worked fine, till now.
I cant get the rear hatch to open. When you hit the unlock button you can fell it in the handle of the hatch but nothin. The key for the ignition/doors fits the key-hole but will not turn, is there suppossed to be another key? *doubt it. When your pulling on the handle, to me it feels loose, not real loose, but enough that it makes me think the problem is the handle, not the locking mech?

SOME OPINIONS ON THIS ISSUE PLZ.

 

Your handle is probably broken. I've seen it a few times.

What you'll need to do, climb into the back of the truck and GENTLY pull the center of the lower rear hatch panel away from the hatch. You can then get your hand down in there and find the release rod. It has a green clip on it holding it to the rod. Pull up on it and push the hatch open.

When you get it open then you can pull the hatch panel off the truck and check all the linkage and such to find out what is damaged. I'm sure the problem will be pretty obvious.

 

k, thank you.

 

The key is the same, the tumbler in your gate is frozen up or rusted.

You can remove the lock and have a lock smith fix it for you.

 

Thanks hydra, that makes allot sense, gotta be rust though, it was 50* today.
im gonna work on it tommorrow, its rainy today.

Do Durangos have issues with locks and doors freezing? My door was almost froze shut last week or so, should i keep a can of that lock de-icer handy.

Also since i think its rust, how do you keep your locks lubercated, to avoid this problem in the future? Just some WD-40? How would you apply it, so it gets in there real well?

 

i would not use wd40 it is not really a lubricant, more of a cleaner/degreaser, i believe that you are looking for graphite to lubricate the lock, the wd40 will force the water out but will not work as a long term lubricant

 

Great, im learning stuff thank you. WD-40 is a water dispersant, and you correct about the graphite, they sell it at advanced auto for $2.

You are to never use anything but graphite, its dry, any thing else will collect dust and dirt.

First should spray, lil WD-40 on key, pull in and out of key-hole, do not turn!!, wipe key on rag, repeat until key comes out clean. I would let it dry in there for 5min or so, maybe just move the process along and start on anther key-hole. When dry and clean, get some graphite in a tube, give tube a good squeeze, and you should be all good.

Does anyone know how often yo should do this, once a year "spring"?

 

i have never done mine, never had a problem with mine i also dont use the key to lock/unlock the truck very often, i use the remote 99% of the time, the house gets done every year -year and a half, however those locks get cycled EVERY DAY, multiple times a day

 

When i googled around, i read that if you dont use your key for your locks, then they could rust.

IMO: everything needs lubercated every so often, key-holes(just learned about) hinges, ect... ect.. every moving part.

 

you are correct, i never said i was right not to do it, just that i havnt done it (nobody is perfect even if some of us claim to be)