as it says push the button and nothing happens , worked one minute then nothing . i have dismantled the right side and found the plug with all the white wires in it and i think it is the pink wire that i need to put power to to power the solenoid , is that right .is there another way to open the tail gate or is the big hammer time:😂 . if the solenoid is dead is there a way to somehow operate the top door lock without damaging anything .

Pink should have power on it to the solenoid, Green/Red has a ground from the RH door latch which goes to one side of the pushbutton, the other side of the pushbutton goes to the solenoid. Tailgate will only open when the RH front door is unlocked as that supplies the ground. There's no way to get the solenoid to operate from outside as the wiring goes via the pushbutton which you can't get to. Usual problem is the pushbutton spring rusts which prevents you from being able to push it in far enough to operate the switch, which would explain the intermittent operating. Jabbing on it with your finger can often move it far enough for it to open.

If you can't do it that way, get in the boot, pull the flap down at the bottom so you can get at the 3 quarter turn screws that hold the inner panel on the lower tailgate. Pull that out (you'll need to bend it to get it out but it is possible), then you can manually operate the solenoid and, once open, you can take the pushbutton out and take it apart. If the spring has rusted it's pretty obvious.

i have fixed the button some time ago and its free and appears to be working correctly , not sticking and it has worked until now , its never been intermittent has always worked it just stopped . iv even tried sneaking up on it 😊 . i will have a wrestle with the rear cover and see what happens , i do have a spare in the event of a failure .

I had a similar issue on mine and after the hassle of getting into it and looking at the rusty gunky mess behind the nice shiny button I just decided to buy a new one. Good luck!!

I have fitted a pull cord for the lower tailgate as a precaution, just in case the lock fails or the battery is flat and I can't get into the back.
Just a simple nylon cord that comes out of the carpet at one side through a brass carpet ring. About 3 or 4" protrudes.
It is quick to install and the cord doesn't get in the way.

have dismantled the bottom tail gate and removed the button, the button is fine no rust or crap , looks like new even the spring is shiny . will try putting power to the solenoids later when it stops raining.

ok i have played with the solenoids and all is working so i put it all back together and it's working again only i really didn't fix anything but i did clean and re grease the spring in the switch, thats the only thing i did other than check things .
i did find that the wiring on the opposite side of the car has been hacked, around the left tail light cover . it appears to have had those crappy press on wire joiners fitted and removed and taped over . this plug has 4 wires on it but doesn't appear to actually do anything , there is even a plug on the side of the body to plug it into but goes no ware, has no wires attached to it , is this some accessory i don't have as mine is a base model. is there a reason someone would want access to it .
i also noticed that i have RH side light failure on the dash but all lights seam to be working , which light is it exactly, i maybe looking at the wrong one
not happy not finding something as it says it's going to happen again 😂

The 4 way plug behind the LH rear light is there in case you want to fit dual socket electrics for your towbar. It has reversing light, ignition switched supply, permanent supply and ground. I've used it to provide an additional power socket in the boot and a feed to a reversing camera. Sounds like someone has done the same in the past. The plug blank is there to stop it dangling. RH sidelight failure (does it say front or rear?) is telling you a bulb has gone. Sidelight is English for tail light, this is a picture I did to help out an American woman who didn't know which bulb to look at......

thanks for that , i was looking at the right one will have to look a bit harder , i will change the globe and see if that dose anything
as for the wiring issue there is cut marks on the cover so the PO must have used it for something . i might do the same .what would the power capacity be from that plug.

The permanent supply comes from Fuse 14 which is 20A but it does feed the CD changer as well (if you've got one). Ignition switched supply comes from fuse 8 (30A) via a relay inside the BeCM.

I had recently a similar issue with the push button on the tailgate (although at the end it was a fuse), and upon dismantling the button I've found corrosion on the spring.
Replacement springs have some hefty price (at least 15gbp!), nevermind the entire button assy, which rarely goes awry.
As I had some materials for clean and re-zinc, I gave only the spring as well, and a finger of grease afterwards.
Excellent result.

I have a couple of button-switches hanging around, might give them the same refurb treatment and offer them up here :-)
The process is fairly inexpensive for such a small and light part.

If someone manages to collect a buch of springs from there and send them over to me ... we'll have working push buttons for decades to come! :-)

FYI if you want to have springs made, most lock smiths can make them for you from the original .

You live in an advanced part of the world :-)))
Here is 'reuse and recycle', before "making" :-)))

I took the spring out of an LPG cap which was too small diameter and carefully opened it out until it would fit and used that. Took ages to do it with a vice and a couple of pairs of pliers but it worked.

don't worry Loelito to purchase anything is a last resort for every thing in my house ,not just the car . people are to quick to dispose of things in today's world.

well surprise surprise, it happened again ,only this time i left the cover off . so it's not a big thing to get at . as soon as i touched the opening actuator it starts to work again , i would prefer it to just stop, so not happy . pushed the button a couple of times , in frustration and it ratcheted a couple of times so i will replace the opening solenoid and see what happens (insert several swear words). Can we get a pissed off imogey?

well who would have guessed the solenoids are different from 95 to 97 model, as in the plug is different, so that didn't work . tried to fix my tail light to as the globe was black but still worked so i replaced it with a dud that didn't work , went and found a new one that dose work to find out i still have the alarm on the dash , so that didn't work either . i also removed the pressure switch for the air con to fix air con , im holding on to the pressure switch as that might be to much for the oldgirl in one day, i have obviously upset her somehow so will start again another day (insert pissed off imogey x2)

I wasn't aware of all those small differences in detail, like connectors ... I am a bit varied in model years, there may be / are six editions of the electrical workshop manual around ... nearly every model are some small changes until 99 my Iirc ... I realised several times, devil´s in the detail ;-)
Thanks for sharing!