Thanks for the tips! joeym, I sent you a private message with my fax number. rsmcmahon, I assumed that moving the latch down would help minimize the gap between the trunk lid and the body of the car, but perhaps you're correct and it's too far down and needs to come up a little so the power assist can engage. Of course now I'm out of town for a few days so it will have to wait until I return to try it.

One more question- the lever I mentioned in my original post for manual closing of the trunk lid ("push sliding switch to left, press eye of latch in, push sliding switch to right, close trunk lid") - what should that do? Mine doesn't seem to do anything when moving the lever to back and forth...and when you press the eye latch in, what should happen? Again, mine just slides a little, but based on the owner's manual description, it sounds like it should lock in or 'click' or something. Thanks!

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1994 S500 coupe
2005 ML500
2007 E350
(en route) 2005 CL500