Tried to close my trunk the other day and the automatic motor would not operate and the lid stayed open. After I arrived home I tried it one more time and the lid did go into the locked position. Now I am wondering why it acted up and how will I know where the problem is? How is this checked for the operation and is there any routine maintainance that would prevent problems in the future? Is there a way to disable the automatic feature and operate the trunk manually?

If it seems to be working again just ignore it. There's not really any routine maintenance for it but you could try taking the latch part out and regreasing it if you're really worried about it. If it does die or you want to diable it all you have to do is take the latch part out and twist it down by hand and then just unplug the power wire for it so it won't go up anymore. There are a lot of posts about these trunk pull down motors around here so if you do a search you should be able to find a lot of information about them.

Welcome to the forum:welcome: