Boot locked up on Fabia Estate

[HillSkoda]

Hi

I have recently come across what could be a serious issue on some Fabia Estates. Mine is a 57 reg. and over the weekend the estate door locked shut but is shown as being open (red warning light on on dash plus boot light on permanently).

It stuck when our dog was in the boot - luckily behind a grill screen rather than in a dog cage - so we were able to release the dog by removing/lowering the back seats.

Seeking to resolve this I checked the manual and found reference to the manual release lever situated beside the drivers seat. Great - except when I looked for it it wasn't there - only the petrol cover release. Search on the web revealed that Skoda had REMOVED this ESSENTIAL SAFETY FEATURE:thumbdwn:. I couldn't believe this.

On advice from my supplying garage I crawled into the boot area and tried to figure a way to release the lock but couldn't find any that wouldn't involve damage so it's going into the garage this afternoon.

However, this is one of five potential emergency exit doors in the vehicle and it does NOT have a manual release lever. If I had used fixed dog cages in the car I would NOT have been able to release the dog - with potentially serious consequences.

I cannot understand why an important manual safety feature has actually been removed from the design - one of the primary considerations is that no electronic system can be considered 100% operational (they will always fail at sometime). So, even a battery failure will render the boot door inoperable.

Does anyone have any suggestions for manually opening the boot door quickly and easily from both inside and outside - to replace the feature that Skoda obviously felt was superfluous to good safety design?

Perhaps someone from Skoda could comment?

[ap0gee1978]

I disagree, since:

1. The manual release on my wife's Comfy is only accessible with the driver's door open (not present on my vRS) - so if you can get out that way, why bother going out of the boot?

2. As demonstrated by Clarkson's Lambo's filler cap on their Top Gear special, a cable release is also far from reliable.

3. The deadlocks are electronic, so you'd be unable to open the boot (or any other door) on a loss of power anyway - manual release or no manual release.

4. The boot isn't a normal passenger space, so while I'm sorry you had such a scare with your dog, I think your requirements are very much in the minority. In fact, thinking about it, I think your issue should be with any dog cage manufacturers for not including a hatch at the back seat end for use in situations such as yours, seeing how there are 101 reasons why a boot might fail to open...

I really am sorry, but I personally think you're barking up the wrong tree (no pun intended)

[skomaz]

You can get the boot open from inside if you need to... there is a flap in the trim by the lock mechanism at the base of the opening that can be opened with the hatch closed to allow access to a release lever on the lock.

[ap0gee1978]

You can get the boot open from inside if you need to... there is a flap in the trim by the lock mechanism at the base of the opening that can be opened with the hatch closed to allow access to a release lever on the lock.

So that's what the little lever on the side of the lock mechanism does!

[HillSkoda]

Hi

Thanks for the useful advice - did check the lever (presume that's the small orange lever on the right hand side) but the metal lever on the right is jammed firmly over it and it won't move, whereas lever in lower part that, I suspect should move the metal lever that's jammed is completely loose.

So, apologies, it looks like the mechanical parts have failed in this case. The electrics seem to be functioning ok.

Thanks

[David Norrish]

I have had this problem many times on my Nov 56 fabia estate.

The cause seems to be that the catch on the body of the car (to the left when looked down on) bends slightly out of alignment. The metal is too thin, and using pliers very carefully you can align again with the mechanism on the boot lid. I always keep the catch oiled well too. I know this problem has occurred on other Fabia estates.

But as you state it is very annoying. Especially when boot is full, and everything has to be taken out via the real doors. I now have the "knack" of climbing between the lowered seats and moving the mechanism by hand!!

THE PHOTO SHOWS THE POSITION OF THE LATCH IN WORKING ORDER

Edited 15 October, 2008 by David Norrish
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