Hatch Lock Broken Options

[evanthebruin]

Hi Everybody, this is my first post.

I picked up a '97 GT a few weeks ago. I love it. It has 170K on the clock but is pretty damn clean and runs well. When I bought the car, everything worked on it but I've run into my first problem. Yesterday I put my key into the hatch lock cylinder and jiggled it around to pop the hatch. The key turned 90 degrees CCW and kinda just didn't feel right. The key came out but now the cylinder is stuck in that position and I can't pop the hatch. I can't pop it from the driver's seat either. When I pull the lever it just feels like it's not catching anything. I'm assuming something's loose in the hatch mechanism or something but I haven't had time to crawl back there and check it out yet. Anybody have this problem before? Thanks for your help.

[tfrock]

Aaah yes..I have the same problem and was told that it is the "valet feature". Apparently, the lock on the hatch is set up so that you can lock it and give someone else the key to get in & start the car but they can't open the hatch. I'd like to meet the genius that designed this because he obviously didn't think about just putting down the back seats. Anyhow, I have the same problem. I can't even open it with the master key or the hatch release switch anymore. The only solution I could think of was to replace the lock cylinder with a "regular" one. Hope that helps you somehow.
T