[s-cars] avant rear hatch won't unlock

[David Giannandrea]

I just unlocked a similar situation on a 97 A6 Quattro (the 5-door model). I
didn't know about the mentioned 'hidden panels' and I don't recall that I
had such access. I tried climbing over the rear seats to remove the interior
hatch panels but didn't get too far. 

I lucked out though. I used one of my pry/hooking tools to reach through the
rubber grommets sealing the outside handle, upward, found something to pull
and one of the latches released. Tried the other side and the other one
released.  The way the latch mechanism works is to pull downward on a lever
that pulls inward on the release rods. The latch had broken loose from the
actuating arm. We didn't know that until we were inside the hatch.

I hope a diagram and my explanation gets you through this.

David