I recently purchased a 2017 c7 grand sport. The previous owned mentioned to me that he is tall and fisconnected the trunk because he would accidently hit the trunk button often.

now ive been trying to open the trunk because my logic is if my battery dies one day i wont be able to open my car at all.

ive tried manually opening it with the key on the back on the car but it does not open. I have been trying to find a way to open it but cant find any other way to do so.

i also decided to remove the entire back bumper to connect the trunk back but in irder to remove the rear bumper i have to have the trunk open.

anyone have any ideas what to do? My battery hasnt died yet but if it does i wont be able to open the car at all because in order to open the front door the latch is in the trunk from my understanding.

 

I would try the FOB. If the FOB battery is good and it still does not work, I would take it to the dealer.

 

Why not ask previous owner what he did?

 

Yup! Whatever he did, you undo.

Elmer

 

i did and he said that when he installed a new rear bumper he did not connect the trunk cables but in order to reconnect them you have to open the trunk to remove the bumper

 

So previous owner basically never opened the truck after that? By any means?

 

correct thats what he said unfortunately >.> lol so im stuck in this predicament

 

Take off the bumper, there are you tubes on how and connect the cable back to the spot it needs to be to work. Probably don't have to remove the entire rear, just enough to get at the cable and reconnect it.

Elmer

 

Do you know if i can take off the bumper without opening the trunk?

I researched how to remove the bumper and from my understanding you have to remove some clips on top were the trunk is

 

No, you will not be able to remove the bumper without accessing the cargo area first in order to remove some screws on top. The previous owner may have been tall but he's obiviously no mental giant by disabling access to the cargo area.

 

D; !!! i agree lmfao !! wow any ideas?

 

But he was smart to sell.
Could the latch be released somehow from inside if you could crawl in from front seat area? thinking out loud

 

i tried searching online for an opening from the inside i cant find anything at all

 

If the latch/cable is behind the interior panel at the rear of the luggage compartment, can you climb in and cut away enough of that panel to make the cable connection? Yes, you'll have to buy a new panel afterward.

 

A lot of people have trouble opening the hatch/trunk with a key. Try pushing down on the hatch/trunk while turning the key hard.

 

What a mess. Cutting the interior panel to access that area behind the bumper might not work because the bumper itself may block access. That would be my last option to try.

The next-to-last option might be to remove all screws holding the bumper cover except those at the top that are not accessible and see if there is enough movement at the bottom to insert both arms. If you can do that you may be able to extend them enough to do the re-connection, but I would bet against that working since the exhaust system may block access. IIRC there are two electrical connectors under the bumper cover, the other being the tail lights which I think is the larger one toward the right center. What's also questionable is if bending the cover in this manner might cause the paint or plastic to crack toward the top, so trying this wouldn't be without risk. Keep in mind that the bumper is also held on by clips which may restrict movement even more. You wouldn't be able to release those clips with the ~10 screws on top in place, or at least I wouldn't want to try it.

What I would try first is to inquire at a trusted dealer that knows Corvettes. Since it's possible for a connector to go bad it would seem likely that there is some emergency method to open the hatch that's not available to the owner, like connecting to a dealer's proprietary computer software. If not, they can call GM and bump it up to a higher level.

IIRC, valet mode disables access to storage areas including the hatch, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to check that.

 

Good advice by iclick. Can't believe that the prior owner thought making the trunk inoperable was a good idea.

Best of luck finding a way to get the trunk to work.

 

Thank you bud definetly goong to try this

 

After witnessing many owner screw-ups over past decades, including a few duesies of my own, that has to be the second dumbest owner jury rig I've ever seen or heard of. It deserves this honor because there may not be a graceful method to undo it. The worst owner jury-rig I've ever seen is the one below. What makes it even worse than the shocking first glance, I think this dude is welding on his gas tank.



I thought of one more last-ditch method, which would be to just cut the bumper cover, but that would entail trashing a $1000+ part, not including painting the new cover.

 

Maybe he just unplugged the dash button.....?