It's nice for once to share information instead of always seeking help, although this write-up comes from the people that did help as I did not solve this myself. I am sharing this in the event it helps someone in the future.
At LOG this past weekend I had a trunk issue. It was closing fine. Then at the concours it was a little harder to open. Then a little harder again. I had to apply "medium" force to lift the hatch (glass back, not carbon pack). Finally, after driving back to the hotel and going to unload the trunk, it would not open. At all.
What better place than at LOG? Multiple people came over, including several GT owners, to help. They had seen the problem before. They tried all kinds of remedies - pushing down then "gently-ish" lifting up, pulling the cable release, etc. You could hear the mechanism cycling inside the car when the button was pushed so it was not an electrical issue. Literally the trunk would not come up. And some of these guys were pretty big, although thank goodness knew how to try lifting without ripping off the spoiler. I also drove the car up and down a big hill with sudden breaking to perhaps try and dislodge anything near the trunk mechanism (I had a full trunk from going to the LOG concours and back).
As I said, thank goodness for being at LOG. I talked to Dave Simkin (God's gift to Lotus) who off the top of his head at the banquet Saturday evening not only was able to describe my specific lock mechanism from memory, he also knew it had changed between models and there was an information bulletin about it. He gave me something to try which I couldn't do until I was home. So I left LOG happy the car could move under its own power, feeling down about the troubles and wondering if I would ever be able to see my wallet again (yes, officer, it is locked in the trunk, I swear).
The solution? Apparently the trick is that the trunk lid needs to be moved as far to the right (toward the passenger side, this is a LHD car) as possible. Since leverage is tough, again, without breaking the spoiler, it was challenging for any of the guys trying to help. The trick was air wedges. I put two of these between the trunk lid and left fender, pumped them up and...on the first try, with no more than "medium" effort, the lid came open. You could not imagine the relief.
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It appears the culprit is when I closed the trunk one of the times at concours a plastic buckle on my backpack was caught. The metal trunk mechanism shattered the plastic buckle. While I thought I had cleared out all the pieces, there was one very tiny piece stuck in the hatch-side piece of the trunk latch itself. I cleared the plastic out with a pick (thank you, Joe) and the trunk works perfectly.
![Image]()
I had worst-case thoughts running through my head as multiple people much, much smarter than me about Evoras stood around my car for a long time trying to figure out why the trunk was so stuck. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. If it does, I swear by the air wedge/shift right trick. Air wedges and fellow Lotus owners for life!
At LOG this past weekend I had a trunk issue. It was closing fine. Then at the concours it was a little harder to open. Then a little harder again. I had to apply "medium" force to lift the hatch (glass back, not carbon pack). Finally, after driving back to the hotel and going to unload the trunk, it would not open. At all.
What better place than at LOG? Multiple people came over, including several GT owners, to help. They had seen the problem before. They tried all kinds of remedies - pushing down then "gently-ish" lifting up, pulling the cable release, etc. You could hear the mechanism cycling inside the car when the button was pushed so it was not an electrical issue. Literally the trunk would not come up. And some of these guys were pretty big, although thank goodness knew how to try lifting without ripping off the spoiler. I also drove the car up and down a big hill with sudden breaking to perhaps try and dislodge anything near the trunk mechanism (I had a full trunk from going to the LOG concours and back).
As I said, thank goodness for being at LOG. I talked to Dave Simkin (God's gift to Lotus) who off the top of his head at the banquet Saturday evening not only was able to describe my specific lock mechanism from memory, he also knew it had changed between models and there was an information bulletin about it. He gave me something to try which I couldn't do until I was home. So I left LOG happy the car could move under its own power, feeling down about the troubles and wondering if I would ever be able to see my wallet again (yes, officer, it is locked in the trunk, I swear).
The solution? Apparently the trick is that the trunk lid needs to be moved as far to the right (toward the passenger side, this is a LHD car) as possible. Since leverage is tough, again, without breaking the spoiler, it was challenging for any of the guys trying to help. The trick was air wedges. I put two of these between the trunk lid and left fender, pumped them up and...on the first try, with no more than "medium" effort, the lid came open. You could not imagine the relief.
It appears the culprit is when I closed the trunk one of the times at concours a plastic buckle on my backpack was caught. The metal trunk mechanism shattered the plastic buckle. While I thought I had cleared out all the pieces, there was one very tiny piece stuck in the hatch-side piece of the trunk latch itself. I cleared the plastic out with a pick (thank you, Joe) and the trunk works perfectly.
I had worst-case thoughts running through my head as multiple people much, much smarter than me about Evoras stood around my car for a long time trying to figure out why the trunk was so stuck. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else. If it does, I swear by the air wedge/shift right trick. Air wedges and fellow Lotus owners for life!
