One day the trunk would no longer open with the release latch. The left (driver's side) latch would release, but not the right side. This is a problem as the trunk is no only storage but engine access, and there is no way to access that compartment except through the trunk opening.

This turned out to be quite the odyssey. The work was split up three steps

1. Get the trunk open
2. Fix the latch problem
3. Modify the latches so this doesn't happen again

Get the trunk open

There are a couple ways to do this. Some recommend removing the license plate and drilling a huge hole in the body so you can reach your arm through the hole activate the latch manually. I wasn't keen on damaging the body. Others recommend jacking up the car at various corners to tweak the body and hopefully get the pin to shift in the latch and release. I did have to do this, but that alone wasn't enough. 

I ended up cutting off all the bolts / rivnuts holding the trunk floor down. Once you climb under the car you can get access to all the bolts. There are 7 or so, some easy access, some not so much. Once they are all removed, you can push the floor up and get your arm up in the trunk to activate the latch mechanism manually. This worked for me, though it is time consuming and painful on your arm. And often, once you activate the latch manually, you still need to jack up the car to get the pin lined up to release.

Fix the latch problem

I was expecting to find a broken cable. Not so. My problem was three fold.

1. The latch itself was bent. See the pictures. It will make sense. This was the root cause and happens when pulling on the release lever too hard.
2. The pin itself was also bent, which likely contributed to people pulling on the release lever harder and harder to get a release.
3. The entire trunk was lid was adjusted too far back on the passenger side, allowing rubbing between the trunk lid and body it was supposed to close into. I had to loosen the six trunk lid bolts to slide the trunk lid further forward. This directly adjusts the position of the release pins on the trunk so take caution to also adjust the latch before closing. As a bonus, this balanced out the body panel gap on the left and right side of the trunk lid. It used to be big on the left side and narrow on the right. Now they are both about the same which visually looks better.

I bent the pin back as straight as I could. I straightened out the latch itself. I also cleaned up both latches in the ultrasonic cleaner to get all the gunk off them. I think they were greased at some point, but I don't think they should be. The metal on metal contact is loose and the grease will only serve to one day bind up the latch.

Modify the latches

I like that the release is purely a manually operated cable, no electronics. And yet, there is one cable that operates two latches which can lead to some fiddly adjustments to get them both working correctly. I did some research online about alternatives.

1. Linear actuator to release the latches - enough power but complicated timing control and not DIY friendly
2. Solenoid cable puller - more DIY friendly but needs to be very high powered and takes up space
3. Using typical hood latch, like a J hook - there simply isn't enough space to do it
4. Using manual hood pins - on the 1990 Steven's Esprit, the latch is under the spoiler support. You can't put a pin up through it.
5. Replace latches with electro-magnets - No one else has done this but I think its the only option that would work for this application. Apply electricity to demagnetize. If my trunk gets stuck again, I would seriously consider this approach and would route an emergency power cable out the floor.

After looking at the alternatives I decided to stick with the factory latches for now. The latches are weak. They look like thick steel but bend very easily. They must be some very mild steel. I could bend them with my bare hand and some pliers.

I manually bend the latch back into place. I then welded a couple nails into the sides to create a triangle to distribute the load. Now if you pull too hard, it should be far less likely to bend the latch due to the extra support. Time will tell if this helps.

Overall

This fix was a pain. I got the trunk open, thought it was just a misaligned latch, fixed the alignment, closed the trunk, then couldn't get it open again. Back under the car to manually release, then jack up the car again to tweak the body to get the trunk to release. Round two, I fixed the latch being bent. Stuck again. Round 3, adjust the trunk lid alignment. Stuck again. Round 4, straighten the bent pin, re-fix the bent latch but this time weld on reinforcement, further adjust trunk lid alignment. That finally worked.

I now have nightmares about the trunk getting stuck again. For now, I have left all the bolts out of the trunk floor so I can quickly manually operate the latch if needed. If the trunk works reliably for the next few months, I will bolt the floor down again. This time I will probably use slot headed bolts so I can more easily unscrew them even from under the car.

Preview Image Size Thumbnail Small Medium Large

Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg the jack can tweak the body so the pin releases from the latch	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg dirty but still slides okay. Eventually I will clean the latches	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg This pin is bent, eventually I removed it, bent it back into shape, and reinstalled	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg The cable itself is frayed on the end but still working
Smll Med Lrg The cable pastic guides are shot. I don't think they do much anyways	Smll Med Lrg You can see the right latch is bent from pulling the release latch too hard	Smll Med Lrg 5 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner got them spotless	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg latch bent back into shape	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg trunk lid misaligned allowing contact on edge of lid. You can see the wear mark	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg Loosened all six bolts and better sligned the trunk lid forward to back and left to right	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg With trunk lid aligned, there is no more body contact. But now latch position also needs to be align	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg This is an okay design but made out of way too soft metal	Smll Med Lrg Welded on a couple nails, ground down, to triangulate the forces	Smll Med Lrg Shouldn't bend nearly as easily as before	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg Fully open	Smll Med Lrg Fully closed the sliding portion doesn't contact the new supports	Smll Med Lrg Finally removing the bent pin. Should have done this earlier
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg Manually straightened as best I could	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
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