2004 Nissan Murano latches & locks problems

The rear hatch of my 2004 nissan murano se has a hydraulic lift that causes the rear hatch to move to a fully opened position without any human assistance (beyond pulling on the external rear hatch lever to initiate the process). On sunday, september 12, 2004, the rear hatch hydraulics failed on 5 separate occasions to lift the hatch open by more than a few inches. When I manually lifted the hatch to an open position, the top center edge of the hatch caught on the rear center edge of the roof, causing body damage.

Yesterday after work, I opened the hatch to the back of my vehicle to remove jumper cables. When I went to close the hatch door, it would not stay closed. I looked closer at the mechanism that locks the door in the closed position, and it was not moving back into the proper position. I thought initially it was due to the cold weather, but even after it was given time to heat up it continued to stay in the open position. I made due by duct taping the hatch closed to make it home.