The electronic lower boot in my 2015 Sahara "did nothing" when the handle was pulled.
The plastic gap-cover simply pulls out (half a dozen press-fit clips hold it down)
Removing the 2 bolts inside the boot cover allows it too to simply pull off (even when closed - tricky but doable) - again - lots of plastic clips in there.
I tested my microswitch on the handle - was working fine.
To get the boot to open, you can remove the plugs to the motors and connect alligator clips in there then manually power them with 12v (I used a pair of 18650's at 8v initially, which was OK for one side, but the other side needed the full 12v).
Reversing the wires swaps the motor direction.
Remove the power when it reaches the end of travel - powering them this was is bypassing the limit switches.
You can then open the boot at last!
My boot had filled with dust, which turned to mud in rain, blocking the drain holes, then adding years of more rain and dust accumulated a few kilos of mud in there. Enormous amounts washed out of both lock mechanisms, which so-far as fixed the problem.
It's worth noting that before I washed them out, simply powering them up to release them, actually cured the whole problem - they worked fine opening and closing properly... 3 times. Then the "does nothing" problem returned.
Since the mud+dust removal, they're working fine again.
My guess is that when your lower boot is not opening, there's filth gumming up the microswitches that detect closing etc, and some safety circuit kicks in the disable them until the signals make sense again (which removing the filth and manually operating the motors seems to have done for me).
Good luck! I hope this helps someone. I couldn't find anywhere on the internet describing how to solve this problem!
p.s. Closely examining the mechanism did not show any obvious manual solution for opening these things - unlike later models which I gather have a place to tie string you can pull for manual release: the models upto 2015 don't appear to support this feature. Electricity or bust basically.
The plastic gap-cover simply pulls out (half a dozen press-fit clips hold it down)
Removing the 2 bolts inside the boot cover allows it too to simply pull off (even when closed - tricky but doable) - again - lots of plastic clips in there.
I tested my microswitch on the handle - was working fine.
To get the boot to open, you can remove the plugs to the motors and connect alligator clips in there then manually power them with 12v (I used a pair of 18650's at 8v initially, which was OK for one side, but the other side needed the full 12v).
Reversing the wires swaps the motor direction.
Remove the power when it reaches the end of travel - powering them this was is bypassing the limit switches.
You can then open the boot at last!
My boot had filled with dust, which turned to mud in rain, blocking the drain holes, then adding years of more rain and dust accumulated a few kilos of mud in there. Enormous amounts washed out of both lock mechanisms, which so-far as fixed the problem.
It's worth noting that before I washed them out, simply powering them up to release them, actually cured the whole problem - they worked fine opening and closing properly... 3 times. Then the "does nothing" problem returned.
Since the mud+dust removal, they're working fine again.
My guess is that when your lower boot is not opening, there's filth gumming up the microswitches that detect closing etc, and some safety circuit kicks in the disable them until the signals make sense again (which removing the filth and manually operating the motors seems to have done for me).
Good luck! I hope this helps someone. I couldn't find anywhere on the internet describing how to solve this problem!
p.s. Closely examining the mechanism did not show any obvious manual solution for opening these things - unlike later models which I gather have a place to tie string you can pull for manual release: the models upto 2015 don't appear to support this feature. Electricity or bust basically.
