have you tried pushing the button and pulling on the hatch at the same time?

 

Rats.. I hate when that stuff happens. It may be required to Fold down a rear seat and crawl in there... There's an emergency pull to pop the trunk from the inside. I would inspect and lubricate all the trunk parts... No WD40, get the good stuff..... JB-80, followed up with some nice grease.

 

^^this would be nice except for the part where the damn seat latches are in the trunk with nothing inside the passenger compartment. If you really need to get in there (i did this on a contour once) the carpeting under the rear window can be removed (somehow. Im not sure) and you can reach down through the opening and pull one of the release cables.

Sorry, but I agree with you its a shitty design
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I will confirm. But, I thought you pull the bottom seat up, then you can access the rear? No?

 

if you pull that up you have maybe an inch to squeeze through into the back.

 

Ya, I was thinking some "grabbers" to pull the cable?

 

nah those cables are way to tight to be able to unlatch with a grabber. Even going through the top proved to be a pain but there were two large holes like where speakers could go that allowed suffiient access to the latch
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The trunk latch has failed. You will have to buy a new assembly from Ford. I paid about $120.00 for the latch and put it in myslef. This happened to my 2003 sedan as well. You will be able to transfer the lock assembly to the new latch. I was able to get mine open by using the key and wiggling the trunk lid.

 

So for sure there really isn't a way to get into the trunk from the passenger cabin?

I inhereted the 2003 focus sedan from my brother who lost the remote fob. All I have is the ignition key- which won't open the trunk no matter the amount of force or pressure that is applied. It turns but nothing happens. I would like to be able to get into the trunk and maybe replace the trunk latch. But the manual is very vague on how to do this... and after reading here, I'm worried that there is no way?

 

There is a hole in the frame beside the back seat. Just did this like 10 minutes ago. remove the molding beside back seat on drivers side. There you will find a hole in the frame. Had to get a skinny kid to reach in and pull the latch for the back seat. There is a video on you tube showing this. The video shows flipping the latch behind the seat. I went for the actual pull tab. Seat dropped. Victory!!!

 

Do ALL Focus sedans have folding rear seatbacks??? If not, I suspect one could remove the bottom cushion and find screws at bottom of the seatback to unscrew thus freeing the back to lift up and remove it. Ford non-folding seats generally hook on top and screw down at bottom inside the cabin.

Even so, the folding ones have hinge, that hinge must bolt down somewhere, loosening hinge might allow an arm to go under seatback to reach the release.

 

The screws for the 'fold down' seat backs are on the back side of the metal seat backing and inaccessible when the seat is in the upright position. The screws are flush against the rising lip of the trunk area. And the hinges are welded in place. It was the perfect design for the less than perfect problem.

I bought the smaller seat back from the salvage yard and removed the metal backing. Then put the foam cushion with the seat cover in place and no one is the wiser - no one sits on that side.

It was done in case the hatch should ever fail - and of course at 160k+ miles it hasn't failed..... kinda like the original ignition switch for me...... hasn't shown any signs of failing either. Just like the box of spare parts from that low mileage car....... very few of the original parts failed - unless of course it was a part I didn't have.

 

LOL, I certainly feel your pain, having done much of the same thing..........

 

Next to the seatback there are 2 plastic pieces that are connected to were the door meets if you pull that out there is a plastic push clip and 2 metal clips holding it in place once you remove those (or break them off like I did, and yes I'll be visiting my local pick a part to fix this) look at the back and there is a arm sized hole there push the trunk lining back and reach and find the latch for the seat release (feel for the spring and youll find it) and that's that. I just spent 3 hours doing this and I just finished. best of luck sir.

 

I did this for a friend's Focus sedan. Yes, remove that plastic moulding and you should be able to squeeze a smaller arm in there. I released the seat back, then crawled through to pull the "hostage release" latch. Took us about 45 minutes total to release it.

They were planning to replace the car soon anyway, so we rigged up a dog leash to the latch release and ran it between the seat backs so they could still use the trunk in the meantime.

 

Can you show me the video?

 

This thread is 6 yrs old.