Trouble shutting tailgate - Ford Forums

stinger73 · 06-06-2005, 22:22

Has anyone had trouble shutting their tailgate? My folks have a territory and have been stoked with it. Well at least they were. At one of the services, the dealer adjusted the tailgate as it was letting dust in. Then at the last service, noticed that it was rubbing paint off and said to bring it in and they would fix around where the paint had rubbed off and readjust it again. Since then it has got to the stage where to close it, you need to stand back and really slam it to get it to close. Not what you should need to do for a $50K car.

They then took it to the dealer as requested (a two hour round trip) and the dealer have now done an about face and now blame it on the heavy duty towbar that has been fitted for quiet a while now. As we speak my folks are trying to get answers out of them but are getting told someone will ring back and they never do. The customer service from this dealer is some of the worst I've seen.

Other then that, the folks thing the car is great.

dcoz · 06-07-2005, 04:54

Mine was a bit tough to close but I found that the rubber cargo mat was creeping back to the tailgate and getting in the way. It's also a bit tough to close when all the windows and doors are closed due to the air pressure buildup. All I do is firmly push in the centre of the lip at the bottom of the tailgate and it shuts OK. Sounds like yours is a bit more serious though.

radtek · 06-07-2005, 15:09

I had trouble with the glass section not locking and got the lock mechanism replaced.
The main door sometimes does the same.

I understand that Ford have had problems with their locks on both the Territory and Falcon, probably due to a 3rd party supplier.

factorthirty · 06-21-2005, 20:56

I had a problem with the tailgate on my 05 Terri (Ghia RWD). A couple of times recently the tailgate would not lock and the catch mechanism would simply not function.

I went to see my trusty ford deal who said they have had problems with the rear tailgate mechanism on some Terri's. something to do with a spring that is not strong enough and once it fails the lock does too.

They replaced the complete lock mechanism inside the tailgate with a new item and all is now working well again.

I wonder how many other people are going to have this same problem over time! I've only done about 7,000kms. The problem occured around 6k.

cheers