About 6 weeks ago we got a 57 plate mondeo hatch 2.0tdci edge. One morning the boot wouldnt release. It seems a common problem looking around on forums, but eventually it opened after much persistence. I did spray some lube from inside the boot, into the latch area and left it ovvernight. I thought that might of fixed it. It's not struggled to open since...

But a few days later we had stop lamp bulb failure warnings on the dash intermittently, and frequently. The tail lights were fine though, the brake lights seemed to light every time I checked. As a precaution i changed one of the bulbs - simply because I had a single bulb from a pack of 2 in the glove box! It carried on, so i switched the new bulb with the other side. It stopped happening after that so i guessed it was cured.

Now though, the warning is back, and now the boot is popping/releasing WHILST DRIVING! you hear the boot mechanism pop, and the boot opens and the dash warning for open boot comes up. It happens most journeys now, several times. The brake lamp warning happens EVERY JOURNEY.

This weekend, I changed both brake bulbs, Halfords HBU380 21/5W - which is what the ford manual said was the correct bulb. The back of the 'bulb panel' has this labelled on it too, so I have to assume that's the right bulb.

But the problem remains! Any ideas?

Thanks in advance, Alan

Common problem mate, check the wires in the rubber umbillical between the boot and roof.

Constant opening and closing matched with brittle wire insulation causes the wires to snap inside.

I had this on my old MK1 Focus and it resulted in blowing the boot lock solenoids, rear wiper motor and a shorted third brake light.

It's easy enough to fix with crimps or soldered connections, the only fiddly bits are getting the umbillical back in place and the fact that you only tend to have a couple of inches of wire to work with.

You can do it yourself but a good Auto Electrician is recommended as they will check all the wires for condition and patch the loom far more tidily.

Hope this points you in the right direction.

thanks for the reply! I'll try and check that out tonight! cheers, Alan

Hi, I think I know where you mean, but thought I'd check.

Do you mean to 2 (left and right) rubber conduits/hoses that are visible at the very top corners when the boot is opened up? If so, how do I get into these hoses without destroying them?

Thanks, Alan

I'm assuming you have two rubber tubes? One is the washer pipe and the thicker one will have the wires in it.

You can usually just pull the end cup out of the gold into the roof area and broken wires are pretty much obvious.

They will either be totally snapped or very notchy/floppy.

If you're not confident in accessing the wires yourself or handy with a soldering iron/crimp kit then I'd advise an auto electrician take a look.

Unfortunately once one wire goes the others seen to follow shortly after.

I had the boot release, upper brake light and wiper wiper all in together and resulted in a new lock mechanism and wiper motor due to shorting.

My vauxhall wouldnt let you open the boot with the engine running, strange Ford didnt do the same tactic. i popped mine up the other day at traffic lights.