Body/Trim: Rear hatch door - safety feature or just coincidence

[steve788]

Hi. I have a 2011 7-seater D5. The additional rear seats only get used very rarely. Yesterday I opened them up for use. Now, the rear hatch door won't open. Is this supposed to be a safety feature i.e. safety for kids in the rear seats? Or is it just a coincidence i.e. the problem arising for the first time just when I happened to open the rear seats? Or am I, stupidly, staring in the face an obvious explanation and resolution? Thanks in advance!

[AB-UK]

Rear "hatch door" should open/close as normal with seats 6/7 in place.
(At least it does on my car)

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by steve788

Is this supposed to be a safety feature i.e. safety for kids in the rear seats?

To test if it's a feature, why not just return the seats to how they were and check again?

I suspect there's a problem with the catch.

[steve788]

AB-UK Yep that's what I thought. Thanks.

[steve788]

Cheshire Yep will get to that later today. Thanks.

[steve788]

I've solved the immediate problem (i.e. getting the boot open) based on a thread on here. Simple (and to some, but not to me! - obvious): Pull the release grip back manually into the 'boot closed' position, unlock using the fob and then squeeze the grip into the open position as per normal. The boot then opens. So fundamentally the problem is that the boot release handle doesn't pop back automatically into its standard position. Clearly there is a deeper problem and I've found other threads on here concerning replacing the mechanism (or part thereof) which I'll now investigate and apply as necessary. But the immediate problem is over - phew. Nothing to do with the 3rd row of seats - their deployment was just a coincidence which threw me off for a while.

[volvo for ever]

Common fault build up corrosion use small flat screw driver scrape rust then lubed it and work it should free off