[Tazio Nuvolari]

Moving forward I can’t wait till my Ford gets built soon can trade in the rav and be done with Toyota.

Thanks for the repair info in your post. You may not be aware Ford has recently had several recalls on hundreds of thousands of vehicles in various model lines for some pretty serious issues. You should research this online.

 

[RJEd]

2020 RAV4 XLE
I'm having the same issue with my liftgate hinge. This seems to be a common issue and I hope Toyota will address it. I only use the lifegate and never manually close my truck so this definitely is a structural issue.

 

[jazhanel]

Is there a correlation of hinge failure and country of manufacturing? Wonder if there is a bad supplier.

 

[MJStoecklin]

Thanks JBoL. I believe the issue is related. I am one of two who started this thread. Here is the sequence of events: •November 25th 2020 or thereabouts, I noticed that my power lift gate would not close. I would press the button and it would start to close, then It would resist and reopen. •next day same issue. I finally got fed up and used the handles to close the lift gate manually. This is when I noticed that the gap on one side was an OCEAN and the other side was non-existent. At this point I had not noticed the hinge had come unhinged from the body/rivets. •called Toyota and they looked at it and they noticed the hinge on the right side came off the rivets/weld. Service manager tried to tell me that I probably jammed an object inside. I told him the gate would not close if there is an obstruction. I would hope this be the case as I would hate for my leg or arms to get crushed and amputated if I happen to be sitting on the sill while the gate closed. •he recommended me to a body shop who directed me to Rav4World as there was an exact same issue with another 2020 RAV4. •end result, I had to pay for this damage. Not as expensive as I anticipated but it was still $400. •fast forward to today and I got an alert from Rav4World about new items in this same thread. •this leads me to believe that this is NOT an isolated issue, but a faulty design. Either the hinges are too small or the motorized closure system is faulty, or both. I agree that we need to keep this thread going as I think more and more owners will see this as an issue, and Toyota needs to address this. I’d be curious what the 2021-2022 hinge design looks.

I juSt found this thread after the same thing happened to my 2013 RAV4. I had the intermittent tailgate closing problem as well before finding out that the passenger side tailgate/lift gate hinge was broken. I don’t know if the initial problem is the liftgate motor or the liftgate struts. As a 53 years young woman, I’ve never had much experience working on cars so this might seem like an odd question. Is the bottom connection of the hinge riveted or is it removable bolts? I just saved myself over $500 replacing the taillight assemblies and brake light assemblies myself. It was fun and felt really good! I may be feeling over confident but I want to try to replace the hinge and support struts myself. Especially since the shop tried to tell me that would cost over $1800. If they are riveted, I guess I’ll let the idea go and hand over the $$. If they are bolted. I’ll pull back the trim and go at it! 😁

 

[MJStoecklin]

Installed the manual shocks myself and replaced the bent hinge took about 2 hours and I love the truck again and also did JBL coaxial all around. View attachment 177789 View attachment 177790 View attachment 177791 View attachment 177792 View attachment 177793

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Cool! I’m going to try this on my 2013. I was going to do the power struts but manual seems like the way to go here. I can’t find any videos on replacing the hinge. Do you have any hints on what I should look out for? Thanks in advance!

 

[Tazio Nuvolari]

Is the bottom connection of the hinge riveted or is it removable bolts?

I seem to remember an earlier post in this thread said they are bolted under the headliner. Maybe you should scan through this long thread to confirm. I also think there were photos and instructions either here or a similar thread.

 

[jof]

My wife's 2019 XLE is having a similar issue with less than 30k miles. The issue started out of the blue when the tailgate intermittently would not go down. About this time we noticed a rattle in the back and thought it was the license plate holder. Right now the tailgate looks off-kilter with it almost rubbing on the passenger-side. I do not see any damage to the hinges. When the tailgate is activated you can see the driver side shaking like it is trying harder than normal to go up/down. It manages to go all the way down, but upon going up there's a long beep at the end.

We took it to the service department at Toyota of Richardson, which is where we purchased the vehicle originally. They checked the hinges like they knew what to look for then claimed there were no codes and no TSB regarding this issue. They even ran a Carfax inquiry on our vehicle. Never been in an accident and they had no answer for what they think is a warped tailgate or body frame. They did recommend the battery be replaced, as they noted there was some bulging on it. We just replaced the battery, as they recommended.
Anyway... They were of no help. Last car we'll be buying from there and probably the last Toyota.

Could this be an issue with only one of the struts and not the hinges? This thread on Reddit seems to point to the struts being an issue - https://www.reddit.com/r/rav4club/comments/py70as Anyone else fix this by just replacing one of the struts (or both)? This seller on Amazon is selling a single strut for $92 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0978ZKGYD/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_4?smid=A8N2JEQQ24FLX&th=1. And this guy on Youtube explains how to convert from manual to electric tailgate, which shows what all is involved in the strut installation -

.

 

[rennerc426]

Unable to tell for the picture. Is this the drivers side outer side of the hinge bracket? If so, it's strange that only one side of the hinge lifted. It as if something got stuck between the door and the body. You know, between that side of the hinge and the outer part of the vehicle. Maybe during manufacturing. Otherwise, the hinge bracket would be bent in a U shape. Basically lifting on both side of those rivets. I would say that something got between the upper part of the door opening between the lifted area and the outer edge of the car. If it was lower, the lift would be top and bottom of the hinge. You said that it closed by itself, so I'll assume it's a power lift gate. There is a lot of leverage in my scenario location of having something jam during closing, but the power lift gate would have either stopped or reversed its travel due to the strain.

Anyway, to your question, since they riveted (bolted) the bracket in place, the white material is probably a sealing paste of some kind. It can't be a structural weld since they have rivets or bolts securing the hinge.

I have a 2019 Rav4 with 24100 miles on it and started having problems with the hatch this past fall. Here in Spokane, we have 2 dealerships. Took the Rav4 to both dealerships and was told by both that I needed to take it to a collision shop to have them fix it. Was never told that this is a current problem with some Rav4s. Car is under a extended warranty and Toyota will not touch it.

 

[rickwol]

Car is under a extended warranty and Toyota will not touch it.

Ask them to specifically show you where it's excluded from your extended warranty. I would follow up with a call to corporate and open an incident report. If it's not the hinges and I doubt its the motor then most likely the struts themselves. They are obviously being made cheaper. If one fails, the second is probably not far behind.

 

[ohJim]

Big thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread.

Mine is a 2019 Hybrid XSE with power lift gate. Intermittent issues: starts to open then halts with beep code. Or starts to lower than halts with beep code. Lift gate currently has poor fit - driver’s side lift gate tail light is 1/4” proud of the body light bezel when closed. Found this thread then found the usual crack/tear in the driver’s side hinge.

Plan to follow the steps from @GaryBIS’s excellent post #65 (thanks for that work!). Also found this tidbit in the TIS adjustment procedure:

"Centering bolts are used to mount the door hinge to the vehicle body and door. The door cannot be adjusted with the centering bolts on. Substitute the centering bolts for standard bolts when making adjustments.” (With a diagram showing the difference in the profiles of the two bolt styles)

But can’t find any kind of part number to match the ‘standard’ bolts. Anybody happen to know the part number? Or, the stock centering bolt spec (thread size and length)? If not I’ll measure and report back once I have the covers off - just waiting for the part to arrive.

Also didn’t find any sign of a TSB or CSP in the TIS relevant to this (apparently common) issue.

 

[rickwol]

Has anyone been able to verify whether Toyota started putting in beefier hinges in the 22' and 23' Ravs? If so, I wonder if anyone has experienced the same condition (fractured hinge mounts) with the new ones. Seems there might have been a post that hinted at this but it wasn't 100% clear.

 

[pennyod67]

Have you heard any update about this or do you have any names or resources to reference? My dealership is trying to make me pay a body shop to get my hatch fixed so I’m hoping to gather some good talking points for when I talk directly with Toyota corporate on the issue.

 

[JFox562]

I washed my 2019 yesterday and took a close look at my hinges. They appeared to be fine. What I did notice is that they look to be rather easy to replace. Due to the weight of the hatch, it would be a two person job.

 

[jrob56]

Installed the manual shocks myself and replaced the bent hinge took about 2 hours and I love the truck again and also did JBL coaxial all around.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Did you have any lights, errors, or other issues switching to manual shocks? Did you have to change the shock mounts on body or door side?

Mom's RAV4 has a split one on driver side and start of a crack on passenger. Out of warranty and dealer said it would need to go to a body shop so looking at doing hinges myself. If it happens again, or have more issues with the auto struts I would probably convert it to manual.

Like others in the thread, she had issues with it starting and stopping while trying to close so we would just gently close it. We are in the snow belt so the snow/ice pack theory was a decent thought I saw someone post. Nothing that would obviously point to a cause of failure though in our case.

 

[mclaughp]

Thanks to all for posting on this issue. I've recently encountered the same thing with my 2019 RAV4 XSE, currently just shy of 90K km. A while ago I noticed the door would intermittently stop when opening, as though it had encountered an obstruction. This was intermittent and hard to recreate. I attributed it to freezing weather.

Last weekend the problem started occurring more frequently, and I noticed for the first time that the tailgate was not sitting square in the frame. Took it Toyota and they diagnosed a broken tailgate hinge on the driver's side, but said I'd need to go to a body shop for that repair. Here's the response I got from the body shop (really good guy, I trust what he's saying here): "Thank you for stopping by yesterday. As we discussed, see the estimate attached to compete the work on your Rav4. We have been seeing more and more like this from customers owning a 2018-2019. The struts are too strong for the aluminum gate and is over extending the hinges. We could try and just replacing the hinges and go from there but I don’t want to have you back multiple times chasing our tail. My professional opinion, this should be covered under an extended warranty. Take this to Toyota and see if they can put an inquiry to head office and see what comes out of it."

"Chasing our tail" means that it could be as simple as the hinge, OR it could mean multiple components need replacement - the door could in fact now be twisted. Quote ranges from hundreds of dollars ($CDN) for the hinge, up to $2,900 if a comprehensive fix is needed. I'll take his advice and start by talking to the dealership, but I'm not optimistic.

Quite disappointed, as a bought a Toyota product based on their reputation for quality. Within the last year I've had to replace a wiring harness at considerable cost, and now this

 

[JFox562]

The opening height is a setting that can be stored so if in fact the hatch is opening too far and lifting the hinge due to built-in stops in the hinge, set an opening height which prevents the hinge stops from being hit and damaging a new hinge.

 

[mclaughp]

The opening height is a setting that can be stored so if in fact the hatch is opening too far and lifting the hinge due to built-in stops in the hinge, set an opening height which prevents the hinge stops from being hit and damaging a new hinge.

Will look at that as part of the repair. The settings until now were whatever the factory set them at. Thanks!

 

[JFox562]

The saved setting can be programmed and erased with the button on the hatch.

There is also a setting in the MID. I've only used the button in the past so I'm not too sure about erasing it in the MID. It might just allow for you to set the highest number for hatch wide open.

Someone that is hard core like me, I might look at the hinge to see if the stop on the hinge can be filed/grind down a bit to keep the hatch from lifting the hinge. I'll have to look at mine.

From the 2019 manual:

 

[londoncallin53]

Seems to me that this would be an opportunity for someone to make a lift gate hinge reinforcement kit or stronger replacement hinges.

 

[JFox562]

Seems to me that this would be an opportunity for someone to make a lift gate hinge reinforcement kit or stronger replacement hinges.

Actually, if you look at the pictures that people have posted of the damaged hinge, I would rather the replaceable hinge take the hit than the car body.

If the opening too far is the issue, making a stronger hinge will just transfer the stress to the car body. If this is truly the case, a new hinge should be developed so a full open hatch doesn't hit a stop or move the stop to the proper location.

Hmm, maybe this is the reason for some hinges getting damaged. Maybe the supplier specs are off a bit when it comes to the position of the hinge stop.