Jury rigged trunk mechanism for 2001 VW Jetta TDI

Posted By on July 6, 2010

Jetta The electrical and mechanical release locking mechanism on my daughter’s 2001 Volkswagen Jetta TDI’s trunk malfunctioned last week and after further digging I noticed a broken plastic part. The complex linkage has both an electrical plunger and key lock that controls the latch. Unfortunately the poorly engineered (IMHO) plastic part broke off (click image below for larger view) and completely locked her out of the trunk. Thankfully the rear seatback folds forward and give access to the “boot.”

VWA4Jetta_broken_trunk_link_mechanism

I crawled in and removed the trunk lid cover (lots of screws) enough to gain access to the linkage and triggered the latch, but quickly noticed that the plastic part being pushed by the electric plunger was broken.  After removing the linkages, I realized that the stamped sheet metal and spring loaded rotating mechanism would need to be replaced as one part. (if you have a source or suggestion for the above part, please let me know)

In the meantime, I jury rigged the linkage for the manual lock and latch using a piece of welding rod – it works great for a manual trunk release, and almost isn’t worth replacing this entire component.

EDIT: Once again the TDI community at the TDIClub and CinciTDI came through with some great info (thank for the links Tim). I’ll include the videos from Alamo Defense at jettatrunk.com. (part costs $39.99) Also on a lead from another member, U-Pull & Pay has a 2000 VW Jetta with factory parts on an undamaged trunk lid.

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