Could not open my hatch. Started after I got a dash warning that my hatch (trunk) was open. Had closed it by hand (not allowing the motor to pull it down.) Got out and pushed down on the "closed Hatch." Warning went away. A week or so later went to open the hatch and neither the 1) FOB, 2) Button above the License Plate or 3) Button on the driver's Door worked.

Removed the license plate and used the mechanical key. Opened and allowed the motor to pull it closed. Worked fine. BUT all there buttons would still not open the hatch. Checked the fuses and there is one that operates the module that controls the key FOB buttons, Trunk and Frunk. There is another for the rear hatch mechanism. BUT Frunk worked fine. And motor pulled down the hatch and locked after I opened with the mechanical key (did that several times.) Puzzled.

Brought the car to the dealer and their excellent Corvette Tech discovered the problem! It was corrosion of a pin in a flat multiwire connector! To replace even the plug required replacing the assembly. He thought, just as well, as might be an issue with the solenoid. He ordered a new assembly. Went back today and he replaced it. All buttons work fine! We're both puzzled on why it corroded.

The issue with pushing down the hatch after seeing the dash warning probably had nothing to do with the issue. The corroded plug no doubt has a pin where the "latched signal" comes from may have also had some corrosion. Good fine on Techs part as the GM trouble shooting sequence was no help!

Did not take pic of corroded flat plug but looked something like that shown in this pic.

 

Jerry , thanks for posting this.
Good to know if this becomes an issue

 

Thanks. Yep would hard to find as it's unusual and not in the GM on line service manual which the Tech referenced.

 

Jerry, didn’t you have something similar happen on your previous Corvette? Either I have an elephant’s memory, or a senile deja vu moment. But good catch by your tech.

 

^^^
No but can understand what you probably remembered! I had an early 2014 C7 that used GM's magic memory wire vent instead of the pull down motor I had on my C6. Many of us could not get it to latch. I checked all my systems and the "vent" worked as designed BUT my coupe was tight and it would not latch no matter how hard you pulled down wit the supplied hand hold. Folks were pushing to latch and some had paint cracks because the lower hatch structural frame was bending. I saw it bending 1st time I tried to push closed and stopped. Folks at museum delivery were told DON"T push in the center push use two hands on the window sides or paint might crack! Mine was still bending so for 3 1/2 years I (and many others) use a workaround. I would only close the hatch with the door open. The power of small pressure differentials is amazing. Standing next to my open driver's door I could close the hatch with one finger and it closed and latched! Actually standard cars used motorized pull down for trunks because the air pressure makes it hard to latch with the rubber water seal contacting first!

I would post pics of the other foolish thing that software had! There was an option to have the seat go in your programed position as soon as you opened the door. I called that the Superman Option as had to be faster than a speeding bullet to use that!

In 2016 GM went back to a motorized pulldown and eliminated that foolish option. I accused them of outsourcing that software to someone who never drove a car!

 

Why would you not allow the motor to pull it down? Just curious. I have never closed the trunk without letting the motor close it. The owner’s manual only describes having the motor close it.

 

^^^
Looking at the problem, closing the hatch by hand was not the issue. I just thought it may have been why the dash warning light came on. Don't think pushing to get the warning to stop was an issue with the failure.

There was no reason, I happen to be cleaning the engine from the unusual well over a month we had pine pollen falling! Just happen not to have done what I always do, which is to just use light force and let the motor do it's thing. Looked at the size of the motor on the new assembly. It's surprisingly very small. I'd guess a little over an inch diameter and ~1 1/2 long. Probably has a clock type set of many gears!

 

Great detective work by a gifted Tech....

 

Good Info for future ref.

 

Great post stored in my memory. I just hope it never happens to me or I can remember if it does.

 

Electrical components, whadaya gonna do, they tend to randomly go bad since the time of Nikola Tesla

Good job figuring this out and I am definitely grateful for my Corvette Tech at my dealership as well, so I know what you mean.

 

I has a similar issue with my C7. One day the trunk wouldn’t stay down. The closer would pull it down, but then it popped right away. It took the dealer a couple of days to figure it out, and it turned out to be a faulty latch mechanism. This happened about 2 months after I bought it.

 

Great info, Jerry! Wonder if you asked the dealer tech what could be the cause of the corrosion to the pin, and if that's something that can easily happen on other C8s as well. Was the that part on your car exposed to external air or something? Or was the corrosion due to age of the car - meaning that after you owning the car for a while this could easily happen maybe due to oxidation of the flat pin. When was your car made?

 

Car was built in August 2020. I discussed this in detail with the tech. This is a small dealer and i spent an hour with him as he was plugging my car into his laptop to get the latest software update (which failed ~10 times for me.) He plugged my OBD into the GM system twice. We waited 10 minutes to be sure it took. BWT only indicator that it did is the radio shuts off when I open the door! Was not doin g that and a poster said that is a feature saying you need a software update. But car still say undated needed when I stopped at the store on the way home! We'll see.

We discussed now that could have corroded. Water cannot get in that area, although his thought is there are places it can enter. It is not a waterproof connector. However nothing else, springs etc looked like they had been exposed. To see corrosion on a pin like that is unusual. Could be another cause, as a bad latch locking solenoid as he had said when he ordered the part. Neither of us could understand the cause in such a short time. And I seldom drive in the rain. As with any component could have been and issue when new just got worse.

 

Thank you Jerry for the info! Wire pins gets corroded is a bit weird, as this not supposed to happen, unless there's something wrong in the metal of the pin or some prolonged exposure to to water/moisture or some kind of chemical. Hope it's not due to you are in an area that the air is polluted with corrosive chemicals Since there's no determined cause, I guess that we will all just have to watch out or pay attention to this malfunction potentially happening to us.

Good luck with the fix to get your updates all working!

 

^^^
Thanks. Yep unusual, possible there was some contaminant on that pin when plug was fabricated, like flux, socket forming tool lub etc.

 

@JerryU This is good to know in case the tech who will service mine isn't as sharp as your guy.
Thanks