Liftgate issue: won't latch
 

I know this isn't a new issue, but I had trouble getting all the information together in one place.

Friday, for no apparent reason, my liftgate refused to close and lock. I could lower it, but (a) the latch wouldn't engage and (b) the dashboard info screen stayed on to let me know the gate was open. No matter what I did, including pushing it firmly, latched the gate closed. I knew this was a software issue, and looking around on the internet confirmed this. There's a fairly known fix for this, but the write up on how to do it was all over the place.

Here's what I did:

1. Raise the hood
2. Locate the fusebox.
   https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...247191df9a.jpgThe fusebox is right of the cylinders and behind the battery. It's the smooth box cover you see on the right of this photo.
3. Remove the cover: it has little pinch-clasps on the long sides. Squeeze them and the cover will pretty much come right off.
4. Locate fuse number 50. It's a pink, 30A fuse. If you need help, the fuse layout is printed on the underside of the box cover for your convenience.
   https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...65ec616893.jpg
   The fuse is the one of the two bigger pink rectangles near the center of the picture. See big "office tower" in the center of the photo? The pink ones are just to the right of it. (Ignore the circled red ones: I knicked this graphic from somewhere else.)
5. Pull out this fuse. (Refer to the diagram under the fusebox cover to ensure you pick the correct one!) Jeep gives you a fuse puller: in the picture above, it's the white blob located just under the two light blue rectangles. Lift it right out, and use it like tweezers to pluck out the fuse. It's not a great fuse puller, but it worked easily enough for me.
6. Reinsert the fuse. Refer to the pink fuse next to it in case you forget which way it came out.
7. Replace the fuse puller and box cover.
8. Close your hood, if you're so inclined.
9. Open and close the liftgate manually, or just push the "liftgate lock" button on the handle of the liftgate.

Worked for me; hope this works for you if anything like this happens to you. Pushing the lock button on the lift gate immediately screwed the liftgate into place and it's given me no problems whatsoever.

This worked perfect for me. Thank you so much!!

Why, that's awesome news! Thanks for letting me know.

Another fix
 

I just pressed the lift gate button inside the car...fixed it 1,2,3

Just a thank you
 

Watchful,

I just wanted to say thank you for finding that thread for me. I found other threads on here, but not this one. I need to work on my search skills even after reading the sites "how to." Unfortunately pulling the fuse did not work for me :(. Once again, thank you again for the help.

Thanks for the tip!
 

It worked just like you said. I added a step where I dropped the fuse puller and it went under the fuse panel, never to be seen again. I suggest leaving out that step.

Sweet! Except for the dropping the fuse puller part. Most unfortunate. I'm sure that will wind up jammed in a fan blade.

But wait, there's more
 

The fuse trick appeared to have fixed the hatch issue, but when I went to start the car the next day it wouldn't turn over. It went through the motions of starting, all except actually starting. It was demonstrating some other odd behaviors, so I figured it was a software issue. Had to have it towed in, now they say there's a defect in the fuse panel and they have to replace it ($700). At first I thought my messing in the fuse panel created the problem, but now I think it was actually the root cause of the hatch issue to begin with. I'm just glad that it was sitting in my garage and not at an interstate rest stop when it decided not to start.

Liftgate issue - AGAIN~!!!!!!!
 

Well - my fix did not work - it happened again. Will try the fuse trick. This is so totally ridiculous. Never again - no more Jeep for me. I'm done. And I'll be spreading this wherever I can....New Trans, New radio, New steering wheel, New environmental system....the list goes on and on. Sorry to rant, but let's face it, having to mess around with a fuse to fix a hatchback defect? C'mon....on a $40k vehicle?????? Time to face facts - this is not acceptable and it might be time to dump this lemon.


Sorry for the rant....just too many issues and no compensation.

Question
 

Have you had a repeat problem or did this fix it forever?

It's been a year, and the problem hasn't returned.

Thanks - I pulled the fuse - put it back in - we'll see if this is a total fix. I don't really see how it could be....really not doing anything other than maybe resetting some buggy software...again...thanks.

You're totally welcome. It seems to have helped me, and it appears it's helped a couple other people here, as well.

I will add that my wife's Nissan Pathfinder hatchback is way more glitchy: sometimes fails to open (but makes all the appropriate sounds and light flashes), and sometimes--worse--when you open it, it just "dings" and drops right down. The fix for that is to force it open and closed to reset it; I gather the software thinks the gate is open when it's closed and vice-versa until you reset it. And that problem comes back every few months.

My Trailhawk has been, so far, a one-and-done.

I wish you a lot of luck.

I owe Watchful a beer! This worked for me on a 2016 Cherokee Latitude 3.2L. The fuses are in a different location than the photo, but the fuse number F50 is the same. For me, I had to remove a couple of adjacent fuses to easily get to F50. Once I pulled F50 out I replaced all fuses and like magic the lift gate and latch worked again.

Thanks for posting! A trip to the dealer would have been a pain and $$$$.

Wallace

No beer required. You're quite welcome!