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View Full Version : Rear tailgate plastic roof piece broken


MajorGeek
08-06-2007, 04:04 PM
Anyone else experience this? I am assuming the problem is a faulty cut piece.

The top plastic tailgate piece on the roof (that the third brake light sits in and has a piece of rubber to keep water out) came off. I got a new plastic rivet and it came loose. 2 plastic rivets hold the ends down on each end. This plastic piece was hitting the roof nudging it loose with a cracking sound when it happened. So we used a stronger rivet, same thing.

By now, the plastic had bent. We heated it and got it straight, reattached it and used 3m tape to hold it down as a backup. Went through the car wash, no problem. Next day on second use, it busted loose BOTH sides. I am now ordering a replacement piece hoping it was faulty by design and just bad luck. Dont see how it is that we put it on securely with clearance and it still moves to hit the body and snap loose.

If it fails again, I will take it to the dealer, but my experience with this dealer has been to not let them touch the bodywork as they had done poor paint work on my previous H3.

tower
09-03-2007, 12:07 AM
There are 4 screws holding it in place, beside the 2 plastic rivets. When you insert the plastic rivets, you need to make certain that they seat in the hole in the sheet metal of the body (and not just the plastic replacement part) BEFORE you push in the plunger on the plastic rivet.

MajorGeek
09-03-2007, 12:14 AM
Got the replacement part, never had a problem since, 2 weeks, 6 car washes :) It was defective, the new one even fit a bit differently.