Help! Hatch will not open....

Hello all! I have a 2007 Level 3 Prius with about 110k miles. I now have a problem that I am not sure how to fix.
We moved to central Florida a few years ago and perhaps because of the warmer weather the rubber that you press to get the hatch open has gotten kind of sticky. Sometimes your fingers will get some sticky black on them. I was starting to think that I should look into replacing this rubber. The hatch was sometimes getting hard to open.

Well, we just took this big 1300 mile drive from central Florida to western NY. We are now in 9 degree weather. I cannot get the hatch to open at all. The other day it stuck but after a few attempts and carefully pressing down on the hatch without hurting the spoiler I got it to open. I first thought it was just because things were packed tightly, but now nothing is back there and I cannot get the hatch to open.
I think I have resigned myself to the fact that I wont fix this until I'm back in sunny warm weather. Any thoughts on how to get this to open? And if I do get it to open will I be able to close it again? It feels like there is no longer any "give" to where you press the rubber to open the hatch. Any help would be very appreciated!!

 

Thank you SO MUCH for this info! I am currently up here in Freezing NY, so when I get back to sunny warm Florida next week I will look into this. You are correct....this switch cover IS all melted. Perhaps this is just a fluke that this happened when we got up here...I was hoping it is just frozen and it would start working again when I got back south....but the switch does seem like it does not move at all.
I really need this to work, as I now use this car for my Home Inspection business and keep all of my ladders and tools in the back. So.....maybe I can get my dealer to fix this. If not, because this forum saved the day again worse case I can fix this myself. Any additional info is appreciated....I will keep you all posted!! Thanks, Frank D.

 

OK....I have a dumb question. I just read the very good thread on this subject, and to fix this they say the first step is to open the hatch. SO.....if my hatch cannot open how do I open the hatch to fix this? Is there any other way to get the hatch open of the rubber switch is not moving? Thank you in advance for any help.......

 

Thank you all! I will wait until the weekend when I'm back in Florida and do this if I need to. Thanks again!

 

I spoke to Toyota customer service and now have a case number. They told me to check with the dealer and find out the cost. The part with the smart key option is $57. and the labor is $142, so the total cost would be about $200. I'm over my extended warranty but since I told them truthfully that this has been a problem for awhile and most likely due to a bad batch of switches made in late 2006 they told me they may be able to cover some or all of it. Online I can buy the part for around $44. so worse case, I could do it myself next week when I return to Florida. I thank you all for your good info and I'll keep you posted. I feel like I came late to a party everyone else knew about, as this seems to be a common issue.

 

Ok...here is an update. Upon returning to warm weather, the hatch switch started working again with no problems. Of course, it is still somewhat gooey, but it works. Toyota customer service told me to go get it fixed at the dealer and then they would review perhaps covering all or part of the repair.
I went to the dealer this morning. They started to fix it, but then ran into a problem. The three screws holding the smart switch part were rusty and could not be unscrewed. They told me that I would now also need to replace the long plastic piece the switch mounts on and the new cost would be around $400.00
I told them that they could use the non-smartkey switch and leave the screws alone and just splice in the two small wires. They replied that they did not know how to do that and it was not an option they would be comfortable with.
So.....after being there almost 4 hours we decided to not spend $400.00 They charged me $56.00 diagnostic fee and left the interior trim and the plastic piece off. I am currently soaking some PB blaster on the 3 screws. At this point I will either get those screws off and buy the switch myself and fix it or just put some Gorilla Tape over the gooey rubber part, replace the two license bulbs, put it back together and never drive up north with it in the winter. Oh well....