2008fijibluesi

They could hide the lock for a glove box under a flip down panel or something, so you don't have to look at it unless you want to.

RickL

The bottom line was that my local Honda dealer removed the rear seat opened the trunk and repaired the lock, with a whopping bill for labor. I argued that there was an inherent design problem and made reference to this site; after conversation with others, the bill was cut by more than 50%. Thanks to all of you on this site, it pays to let people know what it happening!

TrueIce

Atleast they reduced it by 50%.. I definitely think it was designed to fail to make some money in maintenance later.. It's kind of sad that cars are built with issues that happen within years.. Like the 3rd gear on the tranny lol..

duc-n-go

correct me if I'm wrong...but older Honda's had rear seat locks that allowed you to fold the rear seats down and access the trunk. The locks could only be opened with the master key...do the newer Civics not have these?

TrueIce

^^ which model to be exact.. the 6th gen hatchbacks for sure didn't but that's obvious.. I do not know about the coupes tho..

Cosmickman

I am with you. I'm experiencing the same problems and there is NO excuse for such a design flaw. Of course it's out of warrantee for me, because that's how these "issues" usually play themselves out.

I'm all about pushing for a recall. I'm outspoken and eloquent. That's confidence, not arrogance (btw). Let's pursue this.

Cosmickman

I absolutely agree with you. This is absolutely one of those purposeful design flaws aimed at extorting money out of an already struggling middle class. As I said in an earlier post, there is NO excuse for this and if we gather up enough people who want to complain about this, it will be fixed as no charge-which in itself is an inconvenience because this shouldn't have happened.

joc1394

I have an 07 Civic EX Coupe that does not have the key-lock to fold the rear seat. My 92 Accord EX Sedan had a key-lock in the rear shelf area that enabled you to fold the seat from inside the car (with the appropriate key). When I bought my Civic, this was a feature I noticed had gone missing.

Hopefully this useful feature returns in the next generation...

Babakarab

I have the same problem on my girls 06 coupe
any chance for a recall?


This is a ridiculous problem to have and if the latch is made out of plastic as someone else mentioned then a recall is definitely in order......

av911

This is not a safety issue, there will be no recalls for this.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/recallprocess.cfm

taylerd

How can this not be considered a safety issue? If, God forbid, a small child got stuck in the trunk and was scared to death they might not be able to figure out how to pull the release hatch to open the trunk. If the release is broken then the only way to get inside is through the back seat.

I drive an '06 Honda Civic Coupe EX. Last night I arrived at a nice resort and missed an entire evening of fun with my friends as a lock & key specialist worked on my car to open the trunk. The tow truck guys wouldn't even touch it. The lever on the floor by the driver's seat was unlocked and would not work. The remote button on my keychain didn't work either, you could hear a click but the trunk wouldn't open. The guy who helped me has been in the business for more than 30 years and has never seen quite the same problem. He had to unbolt the backseat to get into the trunk ~ and discovered that the plastic piece with the latch had somehow been jammed or fallen down. Basically he said it was cheap material and a cheap design, and that at the very least a simple bolt could be added to keep it in place.

Thankfully, it only cost me $60 but why should I have to pay for Honda's poor design??? Now, I'm very hesitant to put anything in my trunk without first leaving part of the backseat flipped down to make sure I can access it. It's ridiculous! I will be contacting Honda on Monday to see if I can get anywhere with this.

av911

Yes, Honda should issue a recall because people can't babysit their own kids.

If a kid tries to close a door and his fingers got stuck, there should be a recall, right?

You're assuming it happens on EVERY SINGLE CIVIC out there. It doesn't.

Good luck with the "recall".

Noodler

you can pop the speaker grill, remove the speaker, and reach behind the seats and pull the release latches and then have access to the trunk area by folding down the seats. get some skinny arms

this is in case you
A) have a broke latch and nothing else works
B) is swapping trunks and forgot to hook everything back up while testing the trunk popper/release latch(my wingless trunk donor)

2008fijibluesi

You always seem to say exactly what I'm thinking.

jrs930

Here's a simple no-cost solution to get the trunk open.

You'll need:

• A thin, long broom handle. It's got to be long enough to reach from inside the back seat to the rear of the trunk.
• A small flashlight.
• The desire to get your trunk open
• a little bit of patience

Here's what you do.
Inside the trunk is an emergency release to open it. They put this in there so that if someone were to somehow get trapped inside they can open it up and get out. It's white and has a space where a finger or two can fit into it.

If you can wait until evening or move the car into a garage you'll make it easier on yourself as you'll be using a flashlight to direct light into the trunk between the seats at the 60/40 split.

Move the front passenger seat forward and tilt it toward the dash. Take the broomstick / pole and stick it between the seats at the 60/40 split. You'll want to be careful to not just jam it through as you could damage the lining on the back of the seat. Use your fingers to open it up so it can move through freely.

Stick a small flashlight into the space just above the pole and look for the release handle. I used a single LED light. You pretty much have to jam your face against the seat to see into the trunk through the space.

Locate the release handle.

Guide the end of the pole into the release handle and push the release handle over to open the trunk.

This works even if the manual release (on the floor by the drivers side) doesn't.

Good luck.

vladd

for those of you having issues with opening the trunk, do you at least try pulling up on the trunk before deciding something's messed up? sometimes on my si coupe i'll hit the 'unlock' button on my key and i'll hear the trunk latch click, but it doesn't pop up like it normally does. however, it's unlocked, and i can just pull it open at that point.

as for kids getting locked inside the trunk, the pictures on the handles inside the trunk are supposed to glow in the dark, making the handles easier to find.

DIYDummy

Hi, just a quick question regarding this issue:
I obv. had the same thing happen, removed part of the seat, got into the trunk, and have left the rear seat down. I've replaced the trunk latch (5 minutes and a ratchet) but what I'm not sure of is the cable-- I watch it go in and out when the trunk is open and I hit the remote trunk release, but it is WAY too loose. It doesn't seem to be broken, but ineffective. It won't tension the latch to the "X" position on the back, which means when I close the trunk, it doesn't actually push the lever.

Do I just tie a knot in this and hope for the best?
Thanks!!

stevei2071

This situation really pisses me off. I brought my car to the dealer as I couldn't get into the trunk. I even tried things listed in this thread (tried to take the back seats out, tried to stick my skinny arm through to get to the latch in the trunk, tried the plastic fork / knife thing). The dealer came to the same conclusion that they need to pull out the back seats or drill a hole through the trunk to open it and then replace the trunk. The original quote of $102 to diagnose went up to $204 after he took an initial look based on the labor. The quote also went from $102 which could be applied to the work to $204 which could not. I called Honda and reported the issue hoping they would help as based on this thread I can see this is a known issue. Well, no help there. His only suggestion was to call another dealership and ask to speak to the service manager. He said he would document the issue, but since it hasn't been documented Honda isn't considering this an issue that they feel responsible for. So, I'll call one more dealership to see what they suggest for my car that has this apparent design flaw where you can't even get into the trunk from the inside of the car (duh!). If they are as unhelpful as the first dealership, I'll bring my car to my regular mechanic. I'd rather pay him to do this than a dealer that should be representing the company responsible for the issue. Anyway, the stupidity of the design of the car and the fact that this is a known issue has me a bit angry (if you couldn't tell).

I would like to ask all of you to call Honda Customer Service at 800-999-1009 and report the issue. Perhaps we can get them to finally issue a recall or something. If not, I wonder if this is a legitimate issue for a class action suit. Not sure of the process, but I am aggravated.

Thanks for letting me rant.
Steve

slondon12

You seem to be purporting yourself as an expert in recalls, unfortunately the above statement is wildly incorrect. "Every single Civic" does not need to break in order for a recall to be in order. Honda was either intentionally unethical in using a faulty plastic latch for its trunk, or there was an accidental oversight. Either way, innocent Honda customers should not be charged for their faulty product.

Unless you have some sort of conflict of interest (stake in Honda, Inc., Honda PR representative, etc.) I can't understand how you are sympathizing with Honda.

That being said, I doubt that Honda would be interested in a recall out of the kindness of their hearts. We would need to assemble quite a mass of Honda customers or lawyers to make this happen. The problem is, it seems like this issue is very prevelant based on a simple Google search, however, it would be difficult to capture this prevalence.

rjkays

If you are having this problem, the best answer was given by jrs930:

I just had the same problem and did the below and opened my trunk. However a couple things that can help with the below instructions:

1) Stay patient. Took me about 30 minutes to get everything right, find the exact safety latch and get everything angled right.

2) Get a sturdy stick (hard metal or wood broom handle). A cheap plastic broom handle will break.

3) Push really hard to the left on the safety release valve. I'm surprise how hard you have to push it in order to release (especially since the intent is to have a young child do it if they get stuck).


Once it opened, I played around with the truck latch cable, tightened it down and most importantly slipped the cable back into its guiders so it remained taught. There is a black plastic guider the cable sits in on the curve of the trunk, but the most important one seems to me the little blue plastic circular piece that fits into a metal holder right above the contact on the trunk latch. This seems to be the most important in making sure the trunk opens correctly.

The drivers side floor opener still feels a little loose, but both the key and floor latch opener appear to be working well now. Im going to leave half my back seat down though for a couple weeks just to make sure.

IF YOU FOLLOW THE ABOVE AND STAY PATIENT ITLL WORK...DONT PAY A DEALERSHIP 500 BUCKS AND HAVE THEM RIP YOUR BACKSEATS OUT.

Banglee9

I have the same problem with the latch being jammed. The body mechanic sent me to the dealer. The dealer was clueless until I mentioned getting in through the seat and then they said they would charge me $110/hour in labor and it'll take at least a few hours, plus possibly the cost of a new latch which they don't have in stock.

I can't reach the latch with with the broomstick as I have too many items in the trunk (emergency bag = LOL!, sleeping bag, etc.). We attempted to reach the backseat release but have been unable to do so. Next .. we're looking for the backseat screws. Hints? Anything else to try?

yoshaner

I had the same problem of not being able to get into the trunk of my 2006 Civic Si. After reading these posts and a couple other threads I decided to NOT remove the bolts of my seats but to thread a clothes hanger through the passenger side car seat hook and from there you can latch onto the cable that will release the seats. This is definitely the least invasive way to get into the trunk if your latch is not working.

IF YOU NEED TO REPLACE MOTOR of 2006 Civic Trunk Lock or any 8th gen trunk lock, do not overpay for labor. The dealership can get you the "Trunk Lock Actuator" for 50-60 bucks and you can install it yourself. You only need to worry about removing the back bolts and the computer wiring which snaps out of the left side. Your release cable also clips into the right side.

jeremyWA

06 civic, tried broom handle, had stuff in trunk blocking. here's what i did- need 10mm socket, and 12mm racheting wrench, and a flat head screw driver. Pull up on front of butt cushion to unhook/ release clips. there will be one 10mm bolt holding the cushion in. It will be left of center between back and butt cushion. remove cushion. now between the two back cushions there is one 12mm bolt holding the two seats together (it is facing left to right side ways) remove bolt and pry apart with flat head. now at this point you may be able to fit your hand up to the seat release lever. i couldn't so i removed one 10mm bolt from the far left lower braket on seat. then the whole seat folded up and it was easy to pull the seat release. i just took out the left smaller seat, it was just less seat to deal with. good luck, can add pics if needed

starbai

A friend of mine is going through this with her 06 civic coupe ex...

Does anyone know if the actuator is the actual problem? meaning replacing it (which seems fairly simple to do once you're in there) - will take care of it?

Kelli Dorris

I just tried the key on the driver side floor where you pull lever for trunk/ gas. Still doesn't work. I hear it click and doesn't open