We were just rear ended. The trunk is deformed upwards, and we cannot open it. It is a Chevrolet Cavalier. My daughters books and stuff are in there, and she needs them for school tomorrow. Any advice or tricks? Can you get in from the passenger side without tearing stuff up?
In some vehicles, you can get at the truck via the back seat. Have you tried that?
The rear seatback should be removable w/out tearing stuff up, even if they aren’t fold down seats.
What year car?
First. the seat bottom has to be removed:
The seat bottom itself should be held on by clips that are fairly easily worked around. Once out, the seatback should be held in place by two bolts near its base. You will have to do some pulling, wiggling and inspecting.
Pretty sure the bottom has to come out first.
It’s a 2003. The rear seats do not fold down. I really don’t want to screw anything up, though.
Not all cars have accessible trunks from the back seat. Some do, some don’t. Some cars have back seats that are accessible from the trunk, but the trunk is not accessible from the back seat.
Look at your owner’s manual.
Does it mention fold down rear seats? If so how do they fold down? From inside the car, or inside the trunk?
Is there a ski pass though tunnel? (center arm rest in the rear seat folds down, and a hatch opens to allow long things like skis to be carried inside the trunk) If the car has a ski tunnel, you may be able to snag the stuff you need and pull it out though the tunnel.
I have opened customers trunks when things went south on some cars by using a couple of very long extensions and a socket and unbolting the trunk catch from inside the car. In this case, that won’t help. (and you probably don’t have 5’ worth of socket extensions either)
The drop back if all else fails method is go get a great big freakin screwdriver (One suitable for prying up manhole covers, I’m talking 2 feet long at least) and go pry the trunk open. It not like you are going to damage anything that would otherwise be in good shape.
A bungee cord will hold the trunk closed afterwards until you hit the body shop.
It’s already screwed up, go ahead and get your aggressions out on it.
The trunk lid is already damaged and will be replaced if they don’t total the car.
Borrow a bumper jack from someone. Set the base on the car bumper and jam the hook under the trunk lid and work it as close to the catch as you can.
Carefully jack the lid up until it breaks loose. Do not attempt to reach inside to recover anything until the lid is free, broken arms are more trouble than they’re worth.
The frustrating thing is that I just read the owner’s manual and the rear seats fold inward, you just need to pull on this loop thingy FROM INSIDE THE TRUNK. I slid my hand between the seats and felt around, but couldn’t come up with anything to pull.
Just get a sledge hammer and smash around the latch area.
Two words.
Crow.
Bar.
That seems odd, a “loop thingy” is usually located inside. Coming out of the seats near the top center of the back seat, usually a color similar to the seats. At least it was in my 2004 Cavalier.
Yep, Rick nailed it… if your trunk is bent so bad that you can’t open it anymore, then your vehicle is probably totaled, so there’s not really much point in “trying not to screw anything up”.
As long as you don’t go out of your way to cause any damage to areas that aren’t already damaged (your hood or front quarter-panels, for example), the insurance adjuster will understand.
Be warned: once you do get the trunk open, it’ll probably never latch shut again until the autobody mechanics get through with it. In that case, find yourself a length of rope or some kind of chain to tie your trunk lid down tight enough so that the car is at least driveable.
I’m going to presume that’s the ‘get out of the trunk when you’ve been locked in’ release pull loop. Using same is also predicated on the normal alignment of latch and lock, and there may be sufficient preload on the latch that Mighty Joe Young wouldn’t budge it. You could try a flashlight and hook to snag it, but other than that, it’s forcible entry time. Unfortunately, you’re not close enough to my fire house to stop by so I could use the hydraulic spreader.
All the get out of the trunk releases I have seen operate the trunk lid. The OP mentioned folding the rear seat. So either the OP has mixed up two different functions or the rear seat release is in the trunk. Having the rear seat release in the trunk is not unusual. Some car makers do this so that when you lock valuables in the trunk they are secure. A valet (w/o a master key) can’t open the trunk, and if a bad guy breaks into the car, he does not have access to the trunk.
The OP could probably stop by a local fire house and ask nice. The firemen I have met love to play with their toys.
No, it is definitely a seat back release, with some cheesy illustration that gives you no idea whatsoever where the loops are located. My best guess is very close to where the seats meet the shelf under the rear window. Stopping at the local fire house sounds like a good idea. The thing is that the car is now driveable, and I really don’t want to change that situation.
No reason why it would not be driveable after opening the trunk. That is why OG invented bungee cords.
The trunk access loop on the Cavalier is hanging from the center of the seat back, near the top of the seat. It’s a piece of fabric that matches the colour of your seat. You pull on it, it opens a latch and the seat folds forwards.
(Ironically, my Sunfire has a trunk lockout feature so the valet can’t open the trunk with the button under the dash. But the ignition key opens the trunk, and anyone can pull on the seat back loop regardless.)
You probably have a valet key that won’t open the trunk, though I’m not sure about lowering the seat.
Before going to the firehouse to ask for help, think a while and remember what you might have in the trunk in addition to the school books.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/12/11/barred_1212.html
It’s possible that any SD books you have in the trunk might be seen as terrorism manuals.
Forget your aluminum foil deflector beanie?