I've open and closed my tailgate several times in the last couple of weeks. Normal you say - it would be except some "gremlin" has lately been sneaking up and has locked it for me . In the 4 years that I've owned the truck I don't believe that I have locked the tailgate more than a dozen times, that is, until my little friend sneaks in behind me and sticks his key in the lock just to hear me spout some undeleted expletive, especially when the key is in the pocket on the same side that I'm carrying something to put in the bed .

Has anyone else ever had this same "gremlin" locking their tailgate as well? The last 2 times he visited was when he locked me out of my '94 'Bird. Twice! And I had to call AAA to jimmy the lock.

 

gremlin????
if you are talking about it just locking by itself, yes i've seen this problem with my dad's f150. If i recall correctly he may have hit it up with some wd40 not sure though. i couldn't tell you what the problem is

 

I have an 02 FX4 and have the same prob! Its a prob from the factory that Ive been told they wont fix. I have yet to try it, cause it has yet to be a huge prob, but I put a post on here about a yr ago with the same problem. One of the "postmasters" replied, and if I recall correctly, he said leave tailgate unlocked and dissasemble the latch and simply put back together. As Ive said, I have yet to try...but he knew exactly what I was talking about. You might do a search on here, and put "Tailgate Locks on its own" and you might find my exact post from last year...he had specific directions on what to do! Hope this helps!

 

I had the same problem when I first got my truck (6 years ago), I was told at that time to empty a can of WD40 into the latches, worked fine and haven't had a problem since.

Colin

 

Phew - sounds like the "gremlin" isn't only picking on me. I'll try the WD-40 along with doing another search here for the problem (didn't find it before, but probably used the wrong wording)