Ok here's the story:

On Saturday I was at Fry's Electronics and I popped my trunk (using my trunk popper). The trunk popped open and I put a plastic bag in it. I shut the trunk and pushed my cart to the curb. When I came back I noticed the plastic bag was hanging out of the trunk so I popped the trunk again, tucked the bag in and gently shut the trunk.

I then drove home. I parked, I hit the trunk popper and the trunk wouldn't open. The latch was clicking but the trunk wasn't popping. It was doing the same sound that it makes when you attempt to open the trunk when it's already open. I also tried the interior button and the same thing happened. Thus, I tried the obvious, popping it and pulling up on the spoiler, pushing down on the trunk, etc. Unfortunately, NOTHING was opening this trunk.

I got extremely frustrated and called everyone I knew on the board and no one could offer any help. It seemed that I'd have to break the trunk to get it open. I couldn't fit through the armrest hole because my stereo gear is bolted into the trunk.

Finally, I removed the backseat, removed that metal plate and was able to remove my stereo gear through the backseat. I climbed in there and started wiggling things, removing dynamat, etc. Finally I found a gold latch on the trunk and pulled it to the left, wallah the trunk opens. I shut it and tried the popper and the same thing happened. I sat there dazed for a few minutes wondering why the popping happens in the bumper and the trunk opening happens in the trunk. I could not understand what was not working. After about ten minutes I realized that the actual latch popping mechanism in the bumper had fallen down about half an inch. I pulled it up with my hand (it's designed to slide up and down about half an inch). Closed it, popped the trunk and it opened. I then shut the trunk about ten times, I slammed it a couple times and everything was fine.

I then put my car back together and just told myself I'd get a new latch but in the mean time I'd make sure the latch was in the full upright position before I shut it. After I put all my stereo gear in and my seats I opened and closed the trunk 10 times or so and it worked fine. Then I really gently shut it and it would no longer open. Out goes the crap again and I have to push up on the latch.

Thus the conclusion, in my Maxima I cannot softly push the trunk shut because it doesn't not correctly park the latch mechanism down. It needs enough force to push it down that half inch so the latch can make contact with the gold bar on the trunk.

I've never lightly shut my trunk until that day at Fry's so I don't know if it is something that has always been that way or if something is wrong with my latch (most likely). Anyways, anyone with the keyhole still in place (trunk will open even if latch is screwed up) go ahead and try to as lightly as possible close the trunk and see if the popper works. If it doesn't work use the keyhole to open it, and reach towards the latch in the bumper and pull it up to the top of it's track. (You may have to remove the trunk liner in that specific area.

Thanks!

Anyways, I'm glad I now have my trunk, but I was SOOOOOO ****ed when this happnened, I was thinking I was out of options. I knew the trunk had to be open for me to fix it, and I knew it couldn't be opened. Thus, I thought I would have to saw the trunk apart to fix it. For a moment I thought about taking it to the dealer and trying to trade it in for a new Maxima forfeitting all my money in mods (that's how digusted I was), but forunately my final call to Anton (Sweetsound2001) was informative enough to know that I could remove that plate and climb into my trunk. If that plate was not removealbe I would have had to most certainly saw'd the trunk to get into it.

Well if this happens to any shaved keyhole people at least now they won't suffer the pain I suffered.

 

 

the moral of this story is..
if in doubt slam it.

 

seriously, can't you open the trunk with the key?
when you say "shaved", you mean getting rid of the keyhole too so that it looks good?

if thats the case, I can never shave my a s s, because I dont have the electronic opening trunk.

 

Yeah you can always get an aftermarket popper that works on a cable system.

 

Do you mean the latch that you can adjust to enable/disable remote trunk entry? Because that actually is a function of the car, not a mishap. It's a mishap that it went into the disable position w/o you putting it there...

If I had shaved the keyhole I'd make sure that thing could never disable. Though personally w/stereo equipment, I prefer it to be disabled...thwarts the common thieves that just bust out a window and pop the trunk from inside (a large percentage of the thieves here).

 

Well if I disable it I can't get into it. Hmm well mine goes into the disable position if I gently close the trunk, can you explain to me exactly how the system works?

 

dam that sucks..........when in doubt use a hammer - i would have used a crow bar though

 

I had the same thing happen to me. Luckily I haven't shaved my keyhole, so i could still get it open. However, looking at the way it's set up, it sounds like it must happen to a lot of people.

Glad to hear you finally made it in!!

Eric

 

What can I do to make sure it doesn't happen again? Also I'm trying to diagnose whether some part of my latch mecahnism is defective or not.

 

I wish I could right now, but I'd like to consult the haynes and my owners manual before trying to explain how it works (I'm at work now). I never read into it much, actually knew about it from someone else, I dunno how general of a feature it is across car makes, but I just knew that one position of the lever meant remote access was disabled, one was enabled.

The main thing I'd be concerned with and would like to read up on the mechanism a bit more about is if you wanted to do something to make it stay in one position, would that effect the operation of the trunk latch/lock? It would suck if you made some kind of fairly-permanent mod to the lever without testing and then realized your trunk didn't open afterwards...

 

I tried this, I put a block preventing the mechanism from going down and it would not pop. I do not have an explanation for this, but as soon as it was removed I was able to pop the trunk. The system needs to move a little I guess.

I still would like someone to try softly closing their trunk or pushing it shut and see if they have problems. As long as I slam mine or swing it down with a little momentum all is fine.

 

agreed.

 

just be glad you didn't shave your door handles

 

:laugh

 

I had a similer problem with my aftermarket power trunk release. When I opened the trunk with the power trunk release it would slide the latch towards the 'disable remote entry' position. But not all the way, just far enough so my remote popper would not work, but the one inside the car (with the lever) did. I never even new about this feature so I just thought my remote popper would get out of adjustment after a few uses, I would take it all apart and put it back together and it would work for a couple of days.

The latch is held in position by a small spring that sits in a notch, I put a wire tie around the spring and notch so the latch could not move.

 

Don't know about other years, but in 2002 there is a little handle inside the trunk lid to let a trapped trunk passenger get himself free. It even glows in the dark. You could probably reach it with a pole or something through the fold-down rear seats. Shavers will like that.

Guess the new max wouldn't make a good gangster car for that reason!

 

Brian, my keyhole is shaved as well but I still 'risked' it and lightly closed my trunk. It opens just fine. In fact, I usually always close it softly since my spoiler is so damn big/heavy. Hope this helps.

 

cause they don't have a keyhole. I did this on my co-worker's brand new I35 (in front our boss, too).

I had to go through the rear seat to unlatch it.

 

Hmm something is wrong with mine, maybe the spring is worn.