T6.1 tailgate was opening by itself and now won't open at all

[Deaston]

For a couple of months, my tailgate would unlatch itself - usually as I was at a standstill at traffic lights or waiting to turn. On one occasion I noticed in my wing mirror that the tailgate was fully open - thankfully nothing had fallen out.

Now the latch doesn't work at all. I have to use the key to get into the rear of the van.

I've had the panel off from the inside of the tailgate and can't see anything immediately untoward, but how can I work out what need replacing? I've tried shorting the cable and the mechanism doesn't fire at all.

 

[kevinm]

I have a friend that had tailgate lock issues on a T6.1, turns out the wiring was pinched in the factory by the rear left tie-down eye. Might be worth checking that

 

[St4n99]

For a couple of months, my tailgate would unlatch itself - usually as I was at a standstill at traffic lights or waiting to turn. On one occasion I noticed in my wing mirror that the tailgate was fully open - thankfully nothing had fallen out.

Now the latch doesn't work at all. I have to use the key to get into the rear of the van.

I've had the panel off from the inside of the tailgate and can't see anything immediately untoward, but how can I work out what need replacing? I've tried shorting the cable and the mechanism doesn't fire at all.

So this sounds like exactly what was happening to my tailgate, every time I stopped at traffic lights or I was parking up I would hear my tailgate open and would have to close it again, it unfortunately got to the point were it stopped opening from the outside but I have a shuttle so I was able to use the inside switch for a while until one day I heard the tailgate opening sound all the time constantly while I had stopped and then it failed completely that day and even the inside button wouldn't work ,I believe initially it was the outer handle switch that failed, but because I didn't fix it in time before it decided to go a bit crazy unfortunately the actuator also failed possibly by overuse I'd imagine,so I had to replace the outer handle and actuator ,when I bought the outer handle I noticed the outer cover doesn't come painted but old one was held on with two screws and double sided tape so was easy to place old cover on , i do have pictures of the old handle and actuator and you can see the corrosion where the rubber seal had failed and water was unfortunately getn inside ,if I remember correctly I also replaced the lock mechanism aswell as they had one in stock but old one was fine but did have signs of corrosion aswell ,if your one is still opening and closing then the actuator will still be ok which is the white electric part

 

[Heath1984]

Not a post I wanted to contribute too but for a last month I have had the same issue, tailgate actuator developed a mind of it's own. Every time we have been away camping I have had to leave it open otherwise it keeps waking you up. VW couldn't fit me in for nearly three months which is an absolute joke, I'm even more fuming as over the weekend it fully opened while doing about 40mph, bbq and gas cooker was all over the road, luckily it didn't cause an accident. Now I have it strapped down to the r&r bed until they can look at it. Since covid it's like dealerships and doctors don't work anymore, what's going on..