Cornbloof

I drive a manual 2007 957 Cayenne S in the UK. Over the past year I have been getting occasional but increasingly frequent alarms whilst driving. The cabin lights come on and an open tailgate appears on the orange diagrammatic image of the Cayenne as depicted on the dashboard display. When locking the car, the cabin lights are not extinguished. Since the car is pretty basically specified (no power tailgate for example) it was easy to establish that the glass component to the tailgate was at fault. Opening then firmly closing the glass would reliably suppress the issue except that recently the fault has emerged again without provocation. Things came to a head last night when the alarm went off for no good reason. Time to act. The first thing I looked at was part #95562832004 but this only contains the switch that opens the glass tailgate and its associated wiring. The sensor detecting the open/close status of the glass tailgate is found in the main body of the tailgate adjacent to the latching point and lock of the glass tailgate. Whilst the sensor really cannot be accessed easily without stripping the trim from the back of the main tailgate and in all probability changing the locking mechanism of the glass tailgate, there is a D-clip connector carrying the wires to and from the sensor which is independent of the lock. Even better, the clip can be accessed without removing much trim. Best of all, disconnecting the clip means the system fails closed so the car cannot detect that the glass tailgate is ever open. No alarms, no irritating cabin lights when not desired. What is more, the glass tailgate opening switch and circuit remains unaffected. How to do it: 1) open the glass tailgate. If the switch below the rear windscreen hub isn’t working then it can be released manually. Open the main tailgate and prise open the 1x2 inch U shaped panel in the midline at the junction between plastic and carpet trim at the point closest to the glass tailgate locking apparatus. You can then push the metal tab with a flat headed screwdriver. See the video by U512TXS DIY on YouTube. 2) Using plastic trim tools, merely release the lozenge shaped plastic trim surrounding the glass tailgate latch. You don’t need to take off all the tailgate trim! My photos are too big to attach, annoyingly. 3) You will probably need a torch to identify the D clip as it will be lying in the dark void lateral to the glass tailgate lock. Using tweezers, forceps or long nosed pliers however you can bring the clip to the surface. 4) the D clip is a standard VW / Audi part. Squeeze it then pull back on the tab on the top part of the connector to release. That’s it! Replace the trim, close the glass tailgate then lock the car and watch the cabin lights gently extinguish. Ahhh! Peace at last.