Off and on over the years we have had trouble with the liftgate unlocking. Dealer has worked on but never reliably better.

Usually after enough unlock attempts it opens, but not today.

Key will not fit all the way into the lock. We never used it so I suppose the tumblers are stuck. Have sprayed "Free" into lock, no luck yet.

Inside there is a quarter sized access hold in the plastic trim cover. Is there some way to unlock from inside the van?

thanks.

 

Yes, you remove the plug and tear through the mastic patch that covers the area. Inside you will see a rod that connects to an arm. I believe you push the arm down but it may be up.




The issue with the lock is a common one, not so easy to remedy. Where the latch rod connects to the outer handle, that piece slides back and forth on the handle to lock and unlock. It gets all rusted and corroded and won't slide anymore. The dealer has probably been lubing it to try and get it to work but to really repair the problem, the outer handle has to be replaced.


you will see that there is one nut that holds the handle on. It is a plastic coated nut that I guarantee won't come off and getting it off is the biggest pain there is. If you decide to replace it, you will have the lock cylinder out, you can disassemble it and get it to work too.

 

2000 Dodge Caravan here. my liftgate won't open with either the remote or the key. With the remote I can hear the actuator working. With the key it turns easily and I hear and feel movement from the mechanism

I just attacked mine today. After tearing it apart and cracking the interior trim in the process it looks like I might have been able to poke my finger through the mastic stuff and gain access to the lock mechanism and push it DOWN.

It was crazy that there is no EASY way to open the liftgate when this mechanism fails. Beyond that you can't even remove the large interior trim piece to gain access without first opening the gate. To say the least, It's a crappy design.

But I did get the liftgate open and that long white plastic nut was not a problem to remove - it came right off.

I'm not quite sure what was causing the failure but I did notice that if I pulled the outside handle from the end nearest the key (right side) it opened easier than if I pulled from the middle or the left side of this handle.

Once I took off that long white nut, released the rods from both the actuator and the latch assembly I was able to "wiggle" the handle/key lock assembly out.

Everything looked fine and seem to work okay so I put things back together and tested. It worked fine except for having to pull the handle from the right side. I cycled it several times with the lift gate up by "locking" the latch with screw driver and unlocking with the key and the remote.

I closed the gate and tried it several times before it failed. I took it apart AGAIN. Everything looked fine and seemed to work okay. My helper (father-in-law) suggested we spray some silicone lubricant on this mechanism. (He suggested this several times during our repair) Finally I agreed and now the thing is silky smooth. (He's a real know it all!! lol)

I put it all back together (with the exception of all the interior trim pieces just in case) and tried it several times during the day. It's still working like new.

I don't know if this helps. Nor do I know why this didn't work properly. all I can tell you is that so far the silicone lub seems to be what was needed.

Good Luck