Luggage Compartment Actuator

[Svoruz]

I believe I have a trunk actuator go bad on me. I have an 01 996 (electric trunk release). Over the past few months I have had issues where the trunk would not open when pressing the remote release or using the switch inside the car. When using either method I could hear the actuator pulling but it would not fully release the lid. I could get it to work successfully, but very intermittently. Now it will not fully release the lid no matter what I try. I found the emergency release, thanks to Rentech.org!! Now that I have the hood open, I pushed the latch into the locked position with a screwdriver and I see that the actuator does try to pull the release but it just can't pull far enough to let go of latch that would hold the trunk lid down. I tried reading the voltage at the connector but my volt meter isn't fast enough to take a good reading. To me since it started to be an intermittent thing that eventually turned into a full time failure I thinking that it is the actuator that got tired. Any thoughts?