2004 ford freestar rear hatch latch broken

You have a defective door ajar sensor switch. the switch is attached to the door latch inside the door, to access the switch remove the door panel and the rear glass run (in most cases for access).

It is difficult to access the rear door latch. The actuator or the cable may be at fault. The process is bit painful. Contact a repairer to open the trunk for you.

I guess ford was trying to make a couple more bucks by not putting key locks on all doors. Anyway, if you crawl inside and pop the small cover(about 2"x2") off the inside of the hatch where the latch is located you can reach in with a screwdriver and manually move control arms. The lever on the back/far side of assembly is in the locked position, you need to move to the opposite side left or right of it's current position, this will unlock the latch and should allow you to open the door. You mave have to pop acutor arm loose to move it. My problem ended up being the outside cover {license plate frame)seal had been damaged by a ford mechanic, that or it was defective. Water got in and damaged the the lock acuator. Had to replace entire assembly as ford does'nt offer just the acuator. Sealed the outside cover with clear silione.

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tailgate 2004 Ford Freestar

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2005 ford freestar back hatch door wont open

Replace the broken door latch handle and it should work just fine.

If you need further help, I’m available over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/michael_2496c4f07ad24453

What year? Was the recall done on the glass supports?

The lock assy

drill the lock out and by a new one

there is a rod that connects the solenoid to the lock assy. from inside the van you can move it with your hand or pliers and then open the hatch. you will need to clean up the lock because ther will be corrosion and then use a white grease to lube the whole thing. operate by hand a few times before you close it up. there is an access port by the lock inside the door so you dont need to take the whole panel off.

There is a tendancy for the Triggers from the handle to Disengage internally to the Latch due to Wear and Tear, or sometimes Stressing the Mechanism when the Tailgate is Locked and someone forgot.
Gently unfasten the trim panels around the Tailgate, from the INSIDE, and if you THINK about the project, you will be able to release enough of this All in One piece enough to trip the triggers by hand, and open the Tailgate. Continue to unfasten the moulded grips, and remove the whole panel. This will then give you the access to fix the Release mechanism, mounted on the Tailgate inner body.
Regards, DT

The above info was correct to a point , My door also would not open. I took off whole back panel and sprayed wd-40 over whole mechanism and was able to open door but if you lock it it will not reopen unless you manually move lock. So there must be a cable that comes down into latch that I manually moved. I would hope someone can verify that before I take panel off again or if a whole part must be replaced to come on here and respond and name the part or part number. It would be appreciated. The whole design has major flaws period. It should have a key latch in rear cargo door just in case . Also drivers door has no key either what were the ford engineers smoking when they came up with that. OR is it planned obsolescence !