Jaguar X-Type Boot Won't Open, Trunk Release
On the X-Type a lid that won't stay shut is usually the latch closed with the lid up — one press of the boot button on the fob resets it. A boot that won't open at all is the release motor, the button on the lid, or a broken wire in the rubber tube to the lid, and the number-plate lamps tell you which. There's no key barrel on the lid, so never leave the keys in the boot.
How bad is it · Safe to drive
Drive it — just keep the keys out of the boot
Nothing here affects how the car drives. A boot that won't open traps whatever is inside, and with no key barrel on the lid that can include the keys.
Which one applies to yours depends on your symptoms, your model year and what has already been done to it.
Likely causes, most common first
Read the check cost before the odds: a free check that rules a cause out beats a likely guess that costs money.
The latch has closed with the lid up, or is sticking
The latch jaws can snap shut while the lid is open, and then the lid simply bounces off them however hard you slam it. A dry latch sticks the same way. Early cars had a run of lid and latch trouble, covered by bulletins XT501-04am2, XT501-17 and XT501-20, and the lock was redesigned for early 2002 cars.
The lid won't stay shut, or catches only when slammed hard. The release button still works.
Look at the latch on the lid: if the jaws are closed with the lid up, that's it.
Press the boot button on the fob once — the latch cycles open and the lid shuts normally. If it keeps happening, open the jaws with a pencil, then clean the latch and give it light grease or a spray of light oil.
The alarm goes off when the boot is opened from the fob
With the car locked, the remote releases only the boot, and the alarm then expects to see the lid open within about 10 seconds. If you're slow, or the lid doesn't rise far enough to switch on the boot light, it reads as a break-in.
Sometimes, not always, the alarm sounds after a remote boot release; a dealer finds nothing wrong.
Press the boot button and lift the lid straight away. If the alarm stays quiet, there's no fault.
Lift the lid as soon as it releases. To make it pop higher, give the rubber lid buffers a couple of turns — they're threaded and screw up and down.
The keys are shut inside the boot
Opening the boot from the remote releases the boot alone; the doors stay locked. Put the key down in the boot, shut the lid, and it's locked in. There's no key barrel on the lid and no release you can reach from outside, and without split-folding rear seats there's no way through from the cabin either.
Doors locked, keys last seen in the boot.
Fetch the spare key first: everything else means taking something apart.
With the doors open, take the rear seat base and back out to reach the boot from inside; the alarm will sound. The last resort is the left tail lamp: cut through it to reach the release inside the boot, then fit a new lamp. To avoid it, unlock the doors before opening the boot and keep the key in your hand.
Estate: the tailgate glass lock pops open by itself
The lock on the opening rear glass of the estate is a common failure in itself, not a programming fault. Water in its switch does the same.
The rear glass releases every time the ignition goes on, and now and then on the move.
Shut the glass firmly and switch the ignition on: if it releases again, it's the lock.
A new glass lock cures it. A home-made spacer has also been used instead of replacing the whole unit.
Estate: the glass struts are too weak to lift it
Two small gas struts lift the opening rear glass; the whole tailgate has its own, larger ones. Tired struts leave the glass heavy or unwilling to stay up.
The glass unlocks but has to be pushed up by hand.
Unlock the glass and see whether it rises on its own.
New glass struts, under half an hour: unclip the two plastic brackets at the back of the headlining (Torx), take off the rear sail panels, ease the headlining down a little out of its seal, pop the front end off its ball and slide out the small plastic pin at the rear.
A broken wire in the rubber tube to the lid
The wiring to the lid runs through a flexible rubber tube at the hinge, and the earth wire in it breaks from years of opening. The release motor is fed from the GEM under the driver's side of the dash (connector CA87, pin 2, orange wire).
Nothing at all at the lid — no sound on fob or button — and the number-plate lamps are out too.
Lights off, press the release and watch the number-plate lamps. If they flicker, a temporary wire to the lid may open it.
Worth trying: find and join the broken wire in the tube, then the release works again.
The release motor in the latch has failed
The boot is released only electrically, by a small motor in the latch. When it fails, neither the fob nor the button will open the lid.
A relay ticks in the driver's footwell when you press the fob, but nothing moves at the lid. It may open once after a night's rest and then not again.
Lock and unlock the car, then press down hard on the middle of the lid above the latch while someone presses the release, so the latch isn't loaded.
Worth checking the wiring first; if the motor still gets no response, get into the boot and replace it.
The button on the lid has failed
If the fob still opens the boot, the motor is good and the fault is in the lid button or its wire. The button reports to the GEM (IP5, pin 16).
The fob opens the boot; the button on the lid does nothing.
Put a meter on the switch, then check its wire back to the GEM.
Worth trying: clean or replace the switch. It comes out with the chrome trim, after releasing the fabric lining inside the lid.
A broken popper spring at the hinge
Two black plastic poppers on the inner side of the hinges lift the lid about an inch so it clears the latch and the car knows it's open. With one broken, the lid sticks to its seal and looks still latched.
The latch releases but the lid stays down until you pull it.
Look at the hinges with the lid up: a popper missing or snapped off.
Worth fitting the revised, stronger poppers from a dealer; they may come as a pair.
The order to check them in
The point of the order is money: each step either rules a cause out or makes the next one worth doing. Green is free, amber costs a little, red is the one to arrive at last.
Try the fob and the lid button
If the fob opens it and the button doesn't, it's the button. If neither does, listen for a click in the driver's footwell.
freeTake the load off the latch
Lock and unlock, then press down on the lid above the latch while the release is pressed.
freeWatch the number-plate lamps
Lamps out and no sound at the lid point to the wiring in the rubber tube, not the motor.
freeIf the lid won't stay shut
Press the boot button on the fob once to cycle the latch; if it sticks again, open the jaws, clean and grease them.
freeIf the alarm sounds
Lift the lid at once after a remote release, and screw the rubber buffers up a turn or two.
freeGetting in without the release
Spare key first. Otherwise from the cabin with the rear seat out, and as a last resort through the left tail lamp.
free to a new tail lampOnly now the release motor
Once the wiring and button are cleared and the motor still does nothing.
a new latch motorWhat it usually isn't
Don't spend money here first:
If none of this finds it:
On jagaux.com
- Jaguar X-Type Door Won't Open, Central Locking Not WorkingIf the doors won't lock either, or the locking died after work on the boot lid.
- Jaguar X-Type Key Fob Not WorkingIf the fob won't open the boot or lock the doors, but the button on the lid works.
- Jaguar X-Type Battery Drain, Flat After StandingIf the boot release died along with a flat battery.
- Jaguar VIN decoderConfirm your exact model year, engine and factory options before ordering parts — free.
Ratings, fuse numbers and torque figures vary by model year and market. Read the legend on your own car before pulling anything, and use the figures in the manual for your car, not the ones in a video.
Check your VIN: exactly which car you have and which bulletins apply to it.