POP N LOCK BROKE

My tail gate latch(Pop n Lock) broke and am trying to figure out how to open my tail gate.I have hard tonneau cover which makes it hard to remove the tail gate cap and back side cover.Any suggestions ?

 

Do you not have a keyhole in your tailgate?

 

He has an '06, so no.

OE tailgate locks are a 3rd gen thing.

 

I've had to drill a hole and pull the arms manually on customer trucks

 

Ohhh dang....thats beat, at least Toyota corrected that problem with the 3rd gens!

OP are you sure it was the pop and lock mechanism that failed and not just a loose wire at the connection?

 

I had this happen to me with a POP n Lock. Fortunately, I was able to remove the cap and back of my tailgate to gain access. @99GC8 is correct, if you can't access the inside of the tailgate, you'll need to drill out the lock or part of the plastic.

 

The part that moves the locking mechanism is plastic on the Pop n lock. PLASTIC!!! Worst design ever. They break frequently. I've gone through 3 of them.

 

If you look around you'll find a high enough failure rate to keep me from buying.

Unless you have a hard cover / topper like the OP, the lock is worthless for any type of security anyway.

 

Fixed? Maybe. But unless you have a hard cover / topper like the OP, the lock is worthless for any type of security anyway.

If you look around you'll find a high enough failure rate to keep me from buying a PopnLock

 

Not totally worthless. It's a decent theft deterrent device for the tailgate itself.

 

Agreed. Junk

 

Almost 1 year and so far so good! *knock on wood...*

 

I have the manually locking one and I love it, I decided manual over automatic because of the high failure-rate of the auto-locking one. It is a pain sometimes to need my truck key to unlock it, but I love the security of it.

 

I was able to remove the tail gate cap and pull the back side cover (you can not remove this cover with the tail gate closed) back enough to get to the rods that open the tail gate.I think it was the Tacoma rods that jammed up and broke the latch.Now I'm trying to get Pop n Lock to send me a new latch handle but their customer service sucks.when you call them it goes to voice mail and they are not good about returning calls so wait and see.

 

I had luck by just emailing them from their website. Mine broke after warranty ended but they sent me a new one. I had a good experience with their customer service people but I can't say the same fo their designers. It wouldn't be that hard to update the design of that PLASTIC part that pushes against the metal latch releases so that it doesn't break as easily.

I try to add new lube to that plastic piece every few months and so far haven't had any issues so far

 

Knock on wood, mine is still working after 2 years. However, after seeing all these failure threads, I think I'm gonna drill a small hole and tie a string to the latching rod as a manual override.

 

I saw someone do a write-up of this on the forum somewhere. I just can't find it anywhere...

 

Weird, I thought it was the other way around......I may need to re-research it before I buy one.

 

Well it's the same plastic bullshit that will break on both but the tailgate unlocks/locks a lot more with the auto-locking one.

 

After wiring my PopNLock to lock and unlock every time I locked / unlocked my doors, it didn't take long for mine to break. After breaking a couple more, I decided to get smart. I had my 12volt guy connect my tailgate to the "accessory" option on my alarm. So instead of locking and unlocking several times per day, it only unlocks when I press and hold the accessory (trunk) button. I should get a couple more years out of it, but I have no doubt that I will need to replace it again. PLASTIC!?!?