I have a 99 Legacy OBW and was wondering if anyone has add a Hatch release or trunk popper?

Are you referring to some electric release for the hatch or trunk? As far as I know that option was not available on any Subie model in 99.

You are right the sedans had a pull lever like the fuel doors. I am looking for an aftermarket hatch popper to add and was wondering if anyone has done this to their wagon.

your just adding weight and complexity to a reliable system.However, if you desire it, who am I to question you. Try searching the minitruck sites.Someone may have a weak/small door popper that you could adapt to be a trunk popper.

If you take off the back paneling of the hatch you'll see the mechanism. It is pretty simple. Mine froze up on my '99 obw a while ago and I had to take it all apart and make it work again. But you could easily put a cable, or electric actuator in there to have a button or lever to pop the hatch.

i know for a fact. they make little motors to tension the cable and pop trunks.... i saw em when i instaleld my remote start...

All you need is a door lock actuator. Make a junkyard run and grab one out of practically any car. Or you could find a car (look in GMs) that has an electric release and grab that one.

If you want something that will kick the back hatch open, you'll need something sturdier than a standard door actuator. What you need is a door pull solenoid. For your hatch, you'll probably want something in the 40+ lb range. A good one will likely run you somewhere around $100. That solenoid will be able to pull hard enough to open the catch. These hatches are a bit heavy, though, so you may want to add a spring to the bottom of the hatch. That way, the solenoid will release the hatch and the spring will push it open just a bit so that when the solenoid quits pulling, the catch won't just re-close on the latch bar. There are even ways to make that work on your factory keyless entry system.

 

If you have questions about how this works, let me know.

Thank you all for your help!! So what about a mini van hatch? Do they have hatches that pop open? I could just pull all that stuff outta one in the junkyard. I wonder what mini vans would be a good fit for the subbie?