hey guys quick and hopefully easy one. my boot and rear were fixed from being in a crash and now the boot release button in the glove box doesnt work and i look and the cable doesnt look tight enough is there a simple way of fixing this or do they just strech and need a new one?

The boot release in the glovebox is electronic.

They either didnt plug it in in the boot (left side behind the antenna) or the motors broken. I'd put my bets on they forgot to plug it in though

or maybe the cables snapped? :confused:

or maybe the cables snapped? :confused:

Its electrical, works a solenoid! No cable! Capish??


CORRECTION!!!! Cable exists - see apology further down.

Hi,
I have a TJ Sports and a KJ Verada - both have the glovebox electric boot release button. However, there very surely IS a cable involved in the boot release mechanism.

Behind the carpet lining the passenger side of the boot, below the radio antenna, is a motor which serves to open the boot (and in some installs the same motor reverses to provide electric fuel-flap release - neither of my cars have this).

The cable runs from this motor (which is installed BEHIND a vertical metal bracket) along the passenger side boot hinge and across to the latch in the boot lid. If memory serves, there is NIL adjustment provided on the cable (a few slots like some clutch cables wouldn't have been too hard to build!). A few 10mm nuts and maybe one screw into boot floor will have the bracket out in a jiffy - need to unclip the electrical connector to move it much.

I haven't had a cable stretch, but the cable on the Verada was snapped when I bought the car. It's easy to undo one screw on the motor to unclip the cable - BUT the CABLE ONLY IS NOT AVAILABLE AS A SPARE PART. Was quoted around $500- from Dealer to replace motor and cable - not an attractive option. We shortened the outer sheath of teh cable by teh same amount as had snapped-off inner cable, cobbled together some way of securing the broken end in the motor and got it working. I've since bought a cable from Pick-n-Pay wreckers in Sydney, haven't needed to install it yet - our makeshift repair is still going OK.

Check appropriate fuses etc before going to all this hassle. Operate glovebox button and have someone look and listen for motor sound from near aerial/fuel flap area of boot - watch and see if any movement at all in boot latch. CHECK THAT "LOCK/FREE" SETTING ON BOOT LATCH HASN"T BEEN CHANGED!! If no joy from these checks - ie motor soounds but no movement at latch, you need a cable. No motor sound? - you need a motor/ or fuse / or electrical connector is unplugged as suggested in prev post.

Its electrical, works a solenoid! No cable! Capish??
Actually there is a cable joining the solenoid and the boot latch :doubt:

its a 2000 th magna and i can tell you right bloody now there is a f*ckn cable as i can bloody well seee the thing.. when some one presses the boot button it pulls but not tight enough to move the latch far enough to open boot lid.

its a 2000 th magna and i can tell you right bloody now there is a f*ckn cable as i can bloody well seee the thing.. when some one presses the boot button it pulls but not tight enough to move the latch far enough to open boot lid.

Calm down princess or dont ask for help in the future.

Calm down princess or dont ask for help in the future.
He's reacting to MadMax's comment, the same one I replied to. Deep breaths ;)

If someonegets it wrong, it should make you laugh, its no reason to miffed. I have a TW But I can go outside and take a look. but from memory there is no adjustment.

Found with mine that it looked totally intact, but the cable was broken inside the motor mechanism. One trip to the wrecker later, all fixed.

If you can hear the mechanism go when you press the button, then the cable is the problem. And, if the cable looks loose, then it sure sounds like it's snapped somewhere. Mine had just worn through.

Get the whole mechanism - motor and cable. Can't help with a price from the wrecker, got mine a couple of years ago now. But the factory ones are very expensive.

Regards, Tony

I got it wrong. I apologise.

Wierd setup though. I assumed it would be a simple solenoid in the bootlid itself, like a tailgate of a wagon. Anyone see why mitsu designed this setup this way?

Two replies here. Might be easier to explain if I answer Madmax first.

Madmax,
They seem to have mounted a motor (I expected a solenoid, but NO) just behind the fuel flap housing and under the radio antenna. In a Verada Xi, both boot and fuel flap are electric release - the clever buggers use the same motor for both functions.

Around the spindle of the motor are two concentric plastic pieces with some 'cams" (for want of a better word) and they also have some slack designed between the moving pieces - presumeably to reduce shock on the cable and help avoid snapped cables.

One piece around the motor spindle operates the boot release cable when the motor is operated in one direction - this acts on a cable about 1500mm long to travel along boot hinge and across to boot latch mechanism.

The second concentric piece around the motor spindle is designed to operate when an opposite polarity is applied to the motor and the motor direction reverses - this would operate a cable of maybe 150mm to open the fuel-flap in a Verada Xi. Its a wonder they didn't fit the electric release fuel flap on more cars, they have 90% of the parts in the boot and could have saved the cost of the long manual cable and fitting that as the cars were built.

Here endeth the lesson, part the first.

Headake,

Getting a replacement from a wrecker should be easy. I went to a self-serve wrecker and got just the cable, cos I expected that to be much cheaper at the cash register than getting a motor and cable. And it was.

As stated in my post above, its a few 10mm bolts and maybe a couple of phillips-head screws to get the motor bracket out. Unclip the wiring connection will give you more room to move and work.

ONE quite small phillips screw to undo a washer that holds the cable-hubs onto the motor spindle, and prevents the cable slipping out the side of the cable-hubs. cable pulls out (it is very like a pushbike brake cable - has a blob of molten metal on the end of the cable, goes into a slot in the cable hub, which sits around the motor spindle).

That is my attempt to explain how this is all set up.
NOW, if your cable isn't actually broken - try to work out how much extra movement of cable would be needed to operate the latch. You've tested the glovebox button and observed the latch moving.....

Open the boot. Resest the latch of the boot using a screwdriver etc, into "locked" condition. Get your mate to HOLD the glovebox button down for a few secs, you should see the boot latch moved by the cable, but not spring back while he is holding the glovebox button down. Use your fingers to move the latch mechanism until the boot latch unlocks.

IF it is a SMALL amount of extra movement required to pop the latch, you MAY get away with a work-around we used. If it is only a few mm's extra movement of the cable that is required, you can do a bit of a bodgy at the motor end of the cable. You will have to unbolt the bracket described above and move the motor where you can work on it in the boot but have it reconnected to the wiring loom. Unclip the loom, move (and possibly flip the motor) and reconnect.

Operate the motor, observe how it works, how far it rotates and in what direction.

Carefully remove the screw and washer which holds the cable-hubs onto the motor spindle. You will see a couple of plastic pieces with a bit of "slop" (room for movement) between them.

Holding it all together with a finger or two, operate the motor again and work out how the motor and these plastic bits move the cable.

Devise a piece of packing between the two plastic "cams" to slightly increase the movement of the cable. We chopped-up short pieces of very heavy-guage solid copper wire in our car, and poked them into the appropriate gap between the two white plastic "cams". Refit the washer and screw that holds it all together.

Remember that if you pack too large a piece of packing in, you WILL over-stretch and break the cable - the little motor is surprisingly strong (must have worm-drive or something).

Reset boot lock to "locked" - test the cable-release to see if your packing is enough to operate the latch. Fine tune. Put it all back together. If it works, congratulate yourself that you didn't pay my Dealer $500- to do this.

Here endeth the lesson, Parte the Seconde.

Hope this helps. If you think I'm gonna pull mine apart and take photo's of all this - sorry, ain't gonna happen.

THANKS: A great explanation Elwyn! Greatly helps my state of confusion (decrease, not increase)
My only experience with this setup is a rental 380, push the button and it pops - sure sounded like a solenoid operating to me!

RANT:
What drugs were the Mitsu designers on when they created this setup? :bowrofl: A simple solenoid for the boot release and another for the fuel flap would be simpler, cheaper and more reliable! Much too smart for their own good! They must have missed the lessons in Design School where they are taught to achieve functionality with maximum simplicity and relaibility!
END RANT:

guys i didnt mean anyone to take offence i first thought i was goin crazy and saw something i didnt see and then i thought no but i am sorry didnt mean for some one to get upset

cheers for all the help

No one is upset. This has been a pleasant learning experience for me.

---==== Live long and prosper! ===---

Maybe a solenoid latch for boot release would pull too much current? the wiring in the Magna's has never let me down, but its not full-on Heavy Duty stuff either.