2001 Lexus RX300 trunk door wont open

[riverrat4ever]

So my trunk was really full and I tried opening my trunk today. Sometimes when it is full, I've had to use a lot of force. This time, something snapped and I no longer felt resistance when pulling the trunk latch. 

I removed the panels from the inside and took a look at the opening mechanism. The cable is still intact and i discovered how to open the trunk from the inside. However, there is no connection from the latch to the rest of the locking mechanism. When I used force, there was a part that broke. 

The first picture shows the part that is broken. The black rubber and plastic parts used to be one part. The elongated plastic part used to be inside the car, while the black plastic part used to be behind the latch on the outside of the car. The square hole near my thumb behind the latch is where the rubber used to sit. The last picture shows where the elongated black plastic part used to connect to. The last picture's orientation is looking up. The black plastic part used to lift the silver metal part extending the wire. The wire would then pull the golden part in the third picture to open the trunk. The fourth picture shows an overall picture. If you look carefully at the fourth picture, there is a black cable that runs down the cavity in the center of the trunk door. That is the same cable that pulls the golden part of the mechanism, opening the door. 

Essentially, the mechanism is no longer connected due to the broken part. The latch is not connected to the first part of the mechanism and thus, the second part of the mechanism is not working and I cannot open my door from the outside. Anyone know where I can get a replacement part and whether I can install it without opening any screws? 

[favoredwun]

 I'm having the same issue.  How did you get it open? That's what I've been trying to figure out.

 

[Stacy Andrews]

On 5/27/2016 at 10:31 AM, favoredwun said:

 I'm having the same issue.  How did you get it open? That's what I've been trying to figure out.

 

 

[Stacy Andrews]

Hi, did anyone ever respond to your issue about the trunk lock for your RX 300?  Mine had the exact issue this week.

[JabobJEFF]

 

[RX400h]

The original post creator mentioned that he removed the inside panel. Once you do this, the manual method of unlatching the door should be fairly obvious. Once you determine what broke, you may want to take a look at this page to see if the part is readily available.
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