TL;DR Power elevator door locked with constant door chime on, no beep, just on. It cannot be selected manually or electronically. Had to disconnect battery to resolve. Anyone else had a similar problem? Does anyone care to read and offer any tips/suggestions I may have missed along the way?
I use my liftgate at least 4 times a day, for my work computer bag as my back seats have child seats. Today, I had trouble getting out…my routine is to park, put on the electronic brake, push the push button to turn the ignition off, the radio is still on but turns off as soon as I open my door, I hit the elevator door button on the lower left panel, close the driver door, grab the work bag, press the door button at the bottom of the door and drive away, hit the key to lock as soon as I see/hear the door close. I’ve put 2K+ miles on the Ascent Premier with upgraded wheels and moonroof package as my daily commuter and family, and once at work this morning, the liftgate jams and only raises about 10 inches. No problem, I’ve worked with the “set height” button before, but this one wasn’t desperate. I have worked though times when I felt the elevator door should open and it didn’t. Fortunately, I just pressed the liftgate button on the bar again and the liftgate closed. I held the elevator door button down again and up the elevator door went up. Good at work.
Fast forward to home, same routine, but when I hit the lift gate button to open it and then release it after a few beeps, the gate beeps a few extra times and then goes on a steady beep. I look back to see that the door hasn’t moved, it’s still closed. I try the manual handle (the phobia is always in my pocket) and nothing happens. I try the fob, nothing, go back and start the car, turn the car off, nothing, drive around the block once, nothing, I can lock and unlock the 4 passenger doors of the car using the fob and the alarm goes off, but nothing affects the locked door of the elevator that had this loud ringing the whole time. It’s not that loud to hear it once or twice for in and out, but with this non-stop sound, it’s insane. I get into the car and see if I can easily find a fuse for the lift gate under the lower left panel on the dash, no I can’t seem to as this is my first Subie vehicle and the first quite smart one – lift gate nothing listed, nothing, and it’s not in the owner’s manual from my quick jump from reference to reference. But the manual showed me how to peel off the small center liftgate panel and try to manually move the door lock mechanism, but the lever wouldn’t move beyond a cm. After scraping the edges of the elevator door panel opening with my skin in an attempt to force the mechanism to unlock, and also unsuccessfully trying to disconnect the only white electrical connection in front of me, there was only one final option.. .current source power. And yes, disconnected the negative battery terminal only when the incessant ringing stopped. I replaced said link and the car was back to work, all was well with the world and my lovely new Ascent, didn’t even lose my radio station settings.
This situation is troubling, always the “what if” situation when I ask for back door entry? Worst case scenario, with the tailgate inoperable both electronically and manually, everything I need in there is lost. Soft case scenario, I can try to pull stuff from the passenger doors, but what if I have a storage cage, or just stuff that only fits in the tailgate.
