Tailgate would not open, it was not unlocking despite multiple attempts. Took it to the dealer and it was diagnosed as a faulty actuator. SA said this is the first actuator he have seen go bad on a Ford truck and had to order the part. The faulty part will be sent to Ford for analysis. Covered under warranty. Truck has 1,500 miles, so I hope this was just a weird occurrence and not a harbinger of things to come.

 

Too late now, but I would have bet a few dollars thay if you had pushed in on the tailgate as you tried to open it, it would have opened.

 

OK, you got me interested. What would pushing the tailgate in do, if the actuator was faulty? Are you saying the tailgate would unlock regardless of the actuator?

 

Well, I could be wrong, but I had a very similar issue. I could not open my tailgate on my F150 at all. Not with the fob, or the button on the actual tailgate. When you'd hit either of them it would make no noise. So I too, thought the actuator was bad. Then, I hit the tailgate out of frustration, as I was hitting the tailgate release on my fob. Much to my surprise, the tailgate dropped down.

What was actually happening was that one of the rubber springs was rotated 90 degrees, rendering it useless. And without the force pressing against the tailgate from the inside, pushing the tailgate outwards, the tailgate would not drop. When I pushed on the tailgate, I effectively replaced the force that that spring would have applied to the tailgate. That allowed the tailgate to drop, as soon as I let go.