My nephew just arrived for the weekend and the trunk latch hook is loose. It’s held in place by a couple of torx screws and they are both loose. We need to remove the plastic fascia peel that covers it to gain access to the screws. We read that the battery cover at the bottom of the trunk is removed, then you pull on the bottom of the fascia panel towards the front of the car. This releases the panel from the clips and the repair is easy from there. We want to make sure we don’t damage the plastic clips. Is we do, they will need replacement. Is there anything more than simply pulling forward, like pulling down on the panel? Just trying to make it work without breaking anything else.
Fixed it. We removed the 12V battery cover then removed the rear fascia in the trunk. We weren’t going to wait for it to get any hotter than it already was. Kinda painful. First lift the trunk floor coverup and unhook it from the battery cover. Then remove 4 nuts that require deep sockets. I don’t have a deep 10 mm socket so we made due with normal depth sockets and just barely gaining purchase in the socket with the wrench. The cover pulled out easily then we pulled off the trunk rear fascia. The clips are robust and didn’t break. II t turned out that one of the nuts holding the torx screws in place on the latch hook was missing. We tightened the other one and that seems to keep the latch hook in place. I told my nephew to keep the other T30 torx screw in his glove box and find a replacement nut at a hardware store. Not a hard job but in oppressively hot and humid weather it’s no fun.
Too late now. Blue lock tite also. I was going to mention that a 10 mm nut is pretty common so having short and deep sockets plus wrenches should be a good addition. Harbor freight is your friend for less than $30.
Not too late. One nut fell off the screw and we couldn’t find it. After he buys a replacement, he can use the loctite or a lock washer. He can do it to the screw we tightened up too. Thanks for the suggestions. Mostly we wanted to affix the latch hoop to the body for the trip from MD to Charlotte, NC.