I have a loose tailgate latch and there is a very annoying rattling every time I hit a bump in the road. Where is the best/cheapest place to get the replacement parts? Is this an easy thing to replace by myself and are there instructions included with the parts?

Thanks!

Have you tried moving the latch / loop on the body? A slight adjustment for me made the difference between the hatch catching or not. If it's off a bit, I could see it being the cause of a rattle, too.

Thanks. I'll try that today and see if it makes a difference.

So how was this fixed? I have the same problem and my rear hatch will pop open if i accelerate a little hard

I had the same problem, I used electrical tape to make the loop a bit bigger, be sure to stretch the tape as much as you can so it doesnt fall off, loop it around.

It worked great! I SLIGHTLY loosened the screws on the latch/loop and slid it as far as I could towards the bumper and angled it a little in a clockwise direction. I drove to work this morning with no rattling whatsoever.

One warning: don't take the screws all the way out. There is a small metal plate that holds the screws in place and on my car it fall down into the body of the car. I fished it back up with needle nose pliers and reattached the screws.

Thanks a lot!

No problem, that's what the forum is for.

For the hatch coming open: If moving the loop doesn't work, you could grab your grease gun and try applying some grease to the hatch's locking mechanism. If it's dry and sticking, it might not be catching all the way.

I'll just add to this thread that...

When attempting to adjust the rear hatch loop latch (at least on my 2001 Path LE) I noticed that it mattered which Right or Left philips head screw I snugged /tightened 'first' to achieve desired results. I read that someone said there is a threaded plate under the loop latch (which if you fully loosen the screws will fall into the bumper) so it 'might' be that there is some sort of knurling or score lines to better friction the plate in place after tightening the screws(?)
If I snugged the left screw first the loop latch would turn the loop slightly clockwise beyond where I positioned it, no matter how much counter force I applied. Almost like it was designed this way (could have been debris build up? who knows). And the opposite for the right philips head screw (again attempting counter torque). Just my experience.
While first attempting to adjust I pretty much decided to give up until I noticed this movement while snugging (didn't have my contacts in).
After allowing the left screw to move the latch where snugging took it, then tightening the right screw, I ended up with a perfect result. No more needing to slam the latch to get full engagement.

Additionally, while you could use a #2 Philips head to loosen the screws on your first attempt, the better fit is a #3 Philips head. The right screw was easy to loosen but the left was so tight I changed heads to a #3 and/but that still wasn't enough. I didn't have an impact handy so I took a large set of no-mar channel-lock style pliers to the loop latch (with right screw loosened) and worked the loop latch back and forth rotationally to free up the left screw and then I could apply enough torque to the screw driver to loosen.

If, for some reason, the handle needs lubrication, I noticed that if I lifted the plastic exterior handle up I could insert a spray straw through the gaps at most any angle. Photos from a junk yard below if it helps anyone -

Additional photos:

2001 Pathfinder Rear Hatch (cont.):
https://imgur.com/a/FluzvwW

2001 Pathfinder Rear Hatch Window Key:
https://imgur.com/a/HLpdG1v