boot not shutting.

[degsey]

HI, GOT A '00 bEETLE BUT THE BOOT HAS DECIDED NOT TO SHUT. AT FIRST JUST NEEDED SLAMMIMG. NOW WON'T LATCH. ANY IDEAS? ALSO THE SWITCH NEVER SEEMS TO OPERATE IT, I HEAR IT CLICKING, BUT DOES NOT OPRERATE IS, ALWAYS HAVE TO USE THE KEY. THANKS!

[Frelon]

Sounds as though you need a squirt of WD40 into the lock mechanism, and then put it through a number of cycles (open and close a number of times). Mine would only open to halfway when I used the key or boot release, and had to do it a second time to achieve success. A squirt of WD40 did the trick!!

[Crasher]

We see this quite a lot and if spaying some grease inside the catch does not help, you will have to replace the lock unit in the lid, 1C0 827 505E 01C which is about £30 from VW.