New to me ‘21 Denali lift gate “ kick-open” quit.

[Howdee500]

All other options for raising the hatch work as they should.
Any tips on repairing the “ foot wave” option greatly appreciated !
Howard

 

[RST Dana]

Was it turned off accidentally? That’s the first thing to check.

 

[jfoj]

Does the GMC logo light come on as you approach the vehicle in the dark?

The other thing you can do if you find it is turned on, is toggle it off for about half a day, then turn it back on and see what happens.

Last resort is disconnet the battery for 15 minutes and reconnect if nothing else works.

 

[Antonm]

The kick open hatch thing is more of a gimmick than a useful feature. We bought ours new and the salesguy was trying to show off the kick open feature and it took him like 5+ tries to get it to work.

The Tahoe was sitting inside on the showroom floor and he used a lame excuse that it was the bright lighting of the showroom interfering with it. Even sitting in our dark-ish garage or in a shopping center parking lot you have to a do a freaking river dance behind the thing to get the lift gate to "kick open".

IHMO its a "feature" they put on just to say it has it , and it doesn't really work. But if you take it in to the dealer, they'll do the little river dance for five minutes behind the truck and say its working just fine.
...

 

[blkfalc4]

That's discerning, considering I'm thinking of moving into a 25' Denali. My 17' works flawlessly, always has to. And I find it quite useful when needed.

 

[Stbentoak]

Does the GMC logo light come on as you approach the vehicle in the dark?

The other thing you can do if you find it is turned on, is toggle it off for about half a day, then turn it back on and see what happens.

Last resort is disconnet the battery for 15 minutes and reconnect if nothing else works.

Wether the light comes on or not is irrelevant. It has to sense the key fob 1st. And then the motion sensing feature has to be clean enough to understand something is moving underneath it. The light is just for your convenience to find it. First thing I would do is get an underneath there and clean everything pretty well. Then see if it acts any differently.
In a proper condition it works flawlessly. Have used it daily for 4 years. Doesn't miss a lick if you keep it clean and sensor isn't defective.

 

[Silverado4x4]

I turn that off 3 weeks after we bought the Tahoe. Everytime I washed the vehicle water dripped down and opening the gate cause I had the fob in my pocket had to remember to remove the fob and if you think about it if your hands were full the last thing you want to do is stand on 1foot and wave your other foot around throwing yourself off balance and falling to the ground.

 

[jfoj]

Wether the light comes on or not is irrelevant. It has to sense the key fob 1st. And then the motion sensing feature has to be clean enough to understand something is moving underneath it. The light is just for your convenience to find it. First thing I would do is get an underneath there and clean everything pretty well. Then see if it acts any differently.
In a proper condition it works flawlessly. Have used it daily for 4 years. Doesn't miss a lick if you keep it clean and sensor isn't defective.

The light coming on is absolutely relevant. If the GMC logo does not light up it means either the feature has been turned off or the keyfob has not been detected for some reason. While the GMC light is not the senor, it is an indicator that the feature is turned on and the keyfob has been detected and the feature is active. It is a good troubleshooting tool to use.

Understand that the feature can be turned off using the overhead console control. Also do not know how long the keyfob batteries last since the keyfob seems to have some activity even when buttons are not pressed.

Hands Free Power Liftgate

 

[jfoj]

I turn that off 3 weeks after we bought the Tahoe. Everytime I washed the vehicle water dripped down and opening the gate cause I had the fob in my pocket had to remember to remove the fob and if you think about it if your hands were full the last thing you want to do is stand on 1foot and wave your other foot around throwing yourself off balance and falling to the ground.

Read the "Note" at the end of #3 in the link I provided above.

" Note: Sweeping the foot side to side or stepping on the logo projection will not activate the sensor."

It should just be a straight forward kick, not a side to side wave of the foot.

 

[KMeloney]

The kick open hatch thing is more of a gimmick than a useful feature. We bought ours new and the salesguy was trying to show off the kick open feature and it took him like 5+ tries to get it to work.

The Tahoe was sitting inside on the showroom floor and he used a lame excuse that it was the bright lighting of the showroom interfering with it. Even sitting in our dark-ish garage or in a shopping center parking lot you have to a do a freaking river dance behind the thing to get the lift gate to "kick open".

IHMO its a "feature" they put on just to say it has it , and it doesn't really work. But if you take it in to the dealer, they'll do the little river dance for five minutes behind the truck and say its working just fine.
...

Mine works great and is extremely useful when you've got your hands full.