I picked up a replacement trunk lid motor assembly from the salvage yard a few weeks ago. Swapped out the old one and it worked fine for a few days then stopped working for no apparent reason. Checked the manual and it said to be careful about slamming the trunk as it will cause the switch to not work. I have to admit I have been guilty of that far too often. After banging on the motor to no avail I decided to remove the unit completely.
Long story short:

1.Remove the neg battery cable. (very important, there can be no power going to the motor when the unit is plugged back in and the trunk is raised).

2. Unplug the motor and remove the latch assembly.

3. Removed the housing from the motor (the shaft will come out with the housing and you will have to press the brushes back in place and push the rotor back in, a small flat blade will help)

4.Crank the catch all the way down until the small switch clicks. Do this by spinning the rotor (it is a very slow process and you have to watch to see which way the catch is travelling)

5. Reinstall the motor housing and reattach the entire assembly to the trunk.

6. Plug the motor in.

7. Close the trunk lid, if it won't stay closed have someone hold it down.

8. Reconnect the neg battery cable.

You should be good to go

P.*. I thought my motor was shot and had already discarded the old one but it seems that the switches have to be closed in a particular order so make sure the truk is closed when the battery cable is reattached.

Good Luck

Edit - There is a small switch that trips when the latch catch mechanism screws down. I was able to press it down with a screwdriver and it activated the screwdrive causing the catch to rise up. That was how I knew that the motor was good. Once that happened though the catch was in the up position which meant that the trunk was ajar by a good half inch. So, I would not recommend tripping the switch unless you are prepared to remove the motor housing and spend 10 minutes or longer cranking the catch back down and reassembling everything.

Thanks for posting this, mine quit working a long time ago, and I planned to replace the motor for it.

I may have a wiring problem possibly, because only my key, or remote will open the trunk, the button up front near the fuel door release button won't open it anymore.
That would be separate issue hopefully, as I really would like to get the trunk pulling itself down once again, if for nothing more than the fact that I think it is cool.

Hey Williame. It will help a lot if you add your vehicle make, year, and model to your signature or in the body of your text so that we can be more specific in our attempts to help you. Check the trunk release switch in your glove compartment. I was experiencing what you just described and noticed the switch was in the off position.

Sorry about that, I had the info added where it asked for it already, I did not think to put it in the signature as well, but I put it there.

As for a trunk release switch in my glove box, I do not recall seeing one, I do have an oil change monitor reset switch in there though.
I will look again to be sure though.

Found some info in my alldata manual, maybe it will be helpful to others if they ever have to fix their pull down motor.


Voltage is applied at all times from relay center fuse #1 to the trunk lid pulldown terminal A. Opening the trunk lid moves the trunk lid pull-down switch to the OPEN position and the trunk lid latch switch to the UNLATCHED position. The pull-down striker switches are in the STRIKER REATTACHED position. (See schematic.) Voltage is applied through striker switch #2 to the pull-down motor. The motor is grounded through striker switch #3 and the trunk lid pull-down switch (terminal D). The motor drives the striker up; once the striker is fully extended, the striker switches move to the STRIKER EXTENDED position.

When the trunk lid is closed, the trunk lid pull-down switch moves to the CLOSED position and the trunk lid latch switch moves to the LATCHED position. The pull-down striker switches are in the STRIKER EXTENDED position. Voltage is applied through striker switch #2 to the pull-down motor. The motor is grounded through striker switch #1 (terminal B) and the trunk lid-latch switch. The motor drives the striker down to the retracted position (pre-opening position). When the striker is fully retracted, the striker switches move to the STRIKER RETRACTED position.

AND
----------------------------------------------

Deck Lid/Hatch Release

PERFORM BEFORE BEGINNING SYSTEM DIAGNOSIS:

Check relay center fuse #2.
Visually inspect trunk lid release solenoid connector and associated wiring.
Check that the gear selector lever is in PARK.
Check that the valet switch (if equipped) is in UNLOCK.
Before component replacement, check for poor terminal contact at component and related harness connectors.
Check for proper installation of aftermarket electronic equipment which may affect the integrity of other systems.
Check for a broken (or partially broken) wire inside of insulation which could cause system malfunction but prove "GOOD" in a continuity/voltage check with system disconnected.


After reading that I think you could bypass disconnecting the ground if you remove the fuse to relay center fuse #1 & relay center fuse #2, then when the motor is in and the trunk is closed, then replace the relays.

Not sure if that would work, but it would keep from resetting stuff stored in the PCM, as well as custom radios that take a while to tune, for example my car audio deck takes me about 10 minutes to get it programmed right, and I hate having to set it all over again.

Just went and checked, and you were right about the trunk switch in the glove box, not sure how I missed that, it is plain as day, lol

So thank you for the help!
I still need to check my relays, and possibly replace my pull down motor.
At least I do not have to grab the key-chain or key to open the trunk when coming home from grocery shopping.

Glad to help, I had forgotten about mine also. As far as retaining the radio programming, etc. You can get a computer memory saver that plugs into the cigarette lighter at Amazon and I think Walmart for about ten bucks. I tried to use one the other day but didn't realize until afterwards that for our cars the key must be in the on position before we disconnect the battery cable. Btw, good info on the diagnostics. Thanks for posting. Mine was trial and error and the terminology is sketchy at best but hopefully it will save others time and money. And yes it is nice when all of the bells and whistle work properly.

Oh, not sure if you tried testing your motor by activating the smaller switch near the base of the pulldown shaft. This is not the large striker switch. When this switch is pressed there will be a loud click and the pull down latch should rise if the electricals are intact.

Good to know you can get something to retain computer memory like that, I had no clue they made something like that.
I found one here.
http://www.batterymart.com/p-01050-c...arisonShopping

I could just connect that to my battery jump box if I ever have to remove the battery cables.
I wonder if something like a male to male cigg lighter adapter with a fuse built into it would work?
It seems like all you are doing is giving the car 12v going into the cigg lighter adapter, I could be wrong though.

I just found that info for the pull down motor, I have not yet tried to test it, I have disconnected the connecter and examined it though, it looked ok.
Maybe I should learn if I can test it with my multimeter.

I am not sure what switch you are talking about, I'll look it over and see if I see any switch near the base of the pull-down shaft.
I know it used to work, then it would work when it felt like it, then when I banged on it cursing, then it no longer worked no matter what I did, lol