We have a 2019 RAV4 adventure, the power liftgate started closing a little on aligned, each time it would open and close it would get more and more and aligned, now it won’t close flash, you can hear air whistling when you drive, it doesn’t seal shut, and it won’t open more than 6 inches. Now we have to open and close it manually. We had someone look at it in the hinge is about to break off of the entire frame. Toyota thinks this is our fault and wants to charge us to fix it.
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Anyone else having lift gate problems?
LMTrent
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I believe in manual mode pulling liftgate closed puts tremendous stress on the hinges and they break. The liftgate is designed with the struts to handle the opening and closing of the lift gate, the opening is not a big deal that puts no stress on the hinges at all it's the closing that trashes the hinges if in manual mode, probably even in auto as the OEM struts can't handle the weight.
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The strut to hinge geometry is such that the force of the opening is not equal through the arc of the opening. The highest force on the hinge is at the beginning of the lift gate opening where the struts have to push away from the hinge to start lifting. You can see this in the photos where the hinges are bent down and towards the latch.
In any case this is poor engineering and quality control on Toyota's part. All we can do as owners is to avoid putting undue stress on the lift gate by making sure there aren't obstructions such as snow, ice or luggage in the way and not operating it manually.
One thing you might consider doing is re-initilizing the lift gate and programming it to stop before reaching the full open position.
None of this is something that we, as owners should have to do with a new vehicle.
In any case this is poor engineering and quality control on Toyota's part. All we can do as owners is to avoid putting undue stress on the lift gate by making sure there aren't obstructions such as snow, ice or luggage in the way and not operating it manually.
One thing you might consider doing is re-initilizing the lift gate and programming it to stop before reaching the full open position.
None of this is something that we, as owners should have to do with a new vehicle.
I have the hinges on order to be replaced. I have asked if they are just replacing with the same hinges as obviously they are not high quality material. They said they are 'upgraded'. I have to pay 40% of the cost to have them changed out, even though i have tried to fight them on this for over a month now, they won't budge and are trying to imply i am lucky that they are even covering that amount. This is a defect/design issue and in no way the customers fault. I am pretty disappointed with Toyota for not standing behind this.
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Taking our to a body shop as we're told $600 to fix and NOT Toyota even though this dealership and the other two local Toyota dealerships farm all their body workout to one specific local body shop but still Toyota is involved and that I do not want.
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Another thing to consider is that it could be a safety issue if the hinges bend enough allowing exhaust gasses to enter the cabin. This whole issue may end in a recall.
Please get the part numbers for the "upgraded" hinges and share them with us. I suspect that the dealer told you they are upgraded only to appease your questions. But we can tell if there is a new part number or they are just using the old part number.
It would be great if Toyota really did upgrade the hinges, then we all could replace our hinges with the new ones to preclude having the problem in the first place.
I heard back with the new part number. well, hopefully it is new and upgraded. I asked if they had any details on materials used or material testing reports. But they do not. Even the manager at the dealership said he was curious to see the new and old ones side by side.
Anyways, the part number they have on order for me is: 68810-0R032
Fingers crossed there won't be another issue with these 3 years down the road.
So is that a new part number or is it the same? If it's a new part number I would assume that some change has taken place.
That appears to be a new part number. The old part number is 68810-0R031.
And the dealership told me that the part number that is on my car now is 68810-0R030. When i drop it off at the shop to get switched out i am going to ask to see the actual hinges they are replacing.
No no, i said the NEW part number they have on order for me is 68810-0R032. The dealership is telling me the part i have on my car now (the original one) is 68810-0R030. I haven't gotten the part replaced yet. It's just on order.
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So the question is what VIN# did the change to the new part# take place?
Ok, I gotcha. Yes, would be nice if you could lay the two side by side to see if there are any visual changes. Perhaps they just strengthened the metal but how would we know that for sure.
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True, however they replaced frames on thousands of Tacomas so who knows. My '04 in the pic cost them 13k.
If I am able to, i will take a photo and post it!
It sure would be nice if Toyota would stand behind this and not be charging the customer for something that is clearly not a wear and tear issue. I just hope that these new hinges will be strong enough to last the life of the vehicle from this point out!
My dealer had the new part number in stock today (0R032), so I bought two. Holding them beside the existing hinges on my RAV4 they look the same -- same thickness metal etc. Of course, there is no way for me to know what part was installed on my RAV4 from the factory. Who knows, perhaps I already have the new part number.
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