Well, I think it's jammed.

It's a 56 plate 1.4Tdi S (slanty-eyed facelift model) we've had for about 4 years and the boot never would unlock on the key when the rest of the car was locked.The barrel of the lock turns but there's no motor noise.

It was also finicky about opening on the central locking - after you'd unlocked the car you'd have to sneak up on the boot; a slow, gentle pull on the handle was the order of the day when it would usually open on about the third of fourth try. You could hear the motor whirring but there was no unlocking going on, and you definitely couldn't rush at it or it would take fright and refuse point blank to open.

We learned to live with this (we thought it gave the car character . . . ) but it was off the road for three months recently while we were saving up for gearbox repairs and since it came back the boot just won't open at any cost. Still getting the whirring noise but the boot stays firmly closed.

I've seen a couple of similar threads in the forum where it says you can get at it through the boot - but IIRC that applied to the 6Ns. Can you do the same with our 9N? Big job?

Thanks in advance!

There's 2 screws in the grab handle recess, then the trim panel can be pulled off to get at the lock mechanism & c/locking motor

Thanks Nige - I'll have a look at it as soon as the wheels stop turning . . .

SWMBO has a day off today so I emptied the back seats and crawled through into the boot. Removed the two screws as instructed and that's as far as I can get.

There's nothing to get hold of to remove the hatchback trim panel - even the grab handle recesses are upside down with the boot lid shut, and everything else is just a smooth surface. Had a look at Haynes which tells me there is a series of clips holding the trim panel to the hatchback which need to be disengaged to remove it, but I can't get to them because of the interior boot trim . . .

I've had a thin, flat chunk of aluminium flat bar between the boot lip and the lid to see if anything gives, but no luck.

Is is just me being dim or is there something I've missed?

Removing

Remove bolts -1-.

Unclip lower rear lid trim -2-.

Thanks (again . . . ) Nige!

The answer lies in brute force and ignorance - I found this YouTube video which shows the process to perfection:

OK it's a Golf but looks exactly like the Polo from inside the boot.

Took me longer to get myself into the boot backwards and into the 'brace' position than it did to wrench the panel off.

Just got to fix the problem now . . .

Thanks again

OK - all done (fingers crossed . . . )

Once I'd opened the boot lid I could operate the mechanism which the motor acts on quite satisfactorily. I was able to open the boot easily from inside the car, and the motor would try and operate the latch when I lifted the outside handle. But when I closed the boot and lifted the handle the motor wouldn't release the latch.

The latch didn't feel stiff to open manually, but in any case I took it off the car and had a look inside. The case it lives in looks like it's passivated, but where it had got wet *somehow* it had bubbled up into white granules. I got a thin stick and wrapped it in 180 grit wet and dry, smoothed the corrosion down everywhere I could get to it and lubricated it liberally with moly gun grease with the same stick shaved to a chisel point. It was noticeably easier to operate manually after this, so I replaced it and the boot opened every time for a couple of dozen times.

Looking around, I discovered why the rear washer wasn't working - the pipe was off . . . That would also explain how the latch was getting wet, so I replaced it and tried the washer, which also now works . . .

Took half an hour, including removing the trim panel from inside and putting everything back together, put the seats back up and replace the parcel shelf.

Hope this helps someone else . . .