2017 BRZ trunk hard to close?
 

Hi all, been about 2 months with mmynew 2017 BRZ and since i got it the trunk has been hard to close, Such a contrast fromthe doors that i just close with barely any effort, I just push the door close onthe last 2 inches of travel a light push and the door closes nicely.BUT THE TRUNK its a different story. I have to start about a foot from high and ram it down or else the trunkjust bounces back...I thought it needed time but nothing has changed.

Anyone else noticed this? any tips?

The trunks on these cars have always required a bit more effort than you like to think they should require. It's no different on my 2015. You have to half slam it to get it to properly close, and the same goes for just about every other twin owner I know, lol.

I concur.

Pressing down from the middle of the trunk helps a little.

I've never though mine was anything out of the ordinary. Mine is wingless. With a wing you have stiffer hood shocks.


I always push down on the license plate. No fingerprints

Maybe adjust the trunk latch - :iono:


humfrz

My 17 is the same way. Pretty much have to slam it to latch.

Normal.


Start working out more.

:laughabove:

Good one, I just don't want the wing to fly off, i noticed it is not attached in the middle, and I can feel it bounce each time...definetly not a good idea to push down on the wing to close it, i imagine it would dent the trunk eventually.

i suspect the rubber bumpers are on the tight side to prevent trunk from rattling... oh well. Thanksfor the replies.

Glad you can take a joke. I wouldn't be too worried about the wing breaking.

Ideally you use two hands. One holds the wing for support, and the other helps close the trunk from a bit more to the side of the middle.

But yeah, @humfrz is probably right about the latch. I've always wanted to try adjusting it myself but haven't gotten around to it.

Another thing I've noticed about my trunk that may be related is that the trunk itself isn't centered. Like if you compare panel gaps on the left and right sides, they're quite different. So it's possible even that the trunk isn't centered properly and that's why the latch doesn't catch it very well. :sigh:

edit: meant to say it's possible that my trunk *isn't* centered properly [...]

2017 86, yeah the trunk can be relatively hard to close compared to the doors that beautifully click shut.

Typically, small trunks like these have gooseneck hinges with flimsy torsion springs and once you're halfway down they almost slam shut by themselves, out little light trunks have much sturdier hinges and and gas struts, so yeah they require a more deliberate movement.

MY trunk doesn't have any problems. I would take off the plastic trim and adjust the striker plate

Inspect the striker plate as well -- the rubber bumper on mine split apart ~15k miles, and the latch was hitting the metal. The dealership had to replace the striker plate and latch to the tune of $200 (under warranty) just because the little rubber piece broke. :iono:

The 2017 MY are supposedly harder to close because they made the gas shocks harder to better support the wieght of the aluminium wing. But I think they made them a bit too hard.

My '17 takes a lot more effort than my '14 did. Stupid amounts more. Not to get it to shut, but to actually latch successfully.




If you have the wing, doing this will cause it to dent the trunk in the middle.

Learn something new every time I flip through the ole manual...

I'm guessing the middle of my trunk is pretty dented by now :D

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=11551

Yeah, I noticed mine is dented. I'm not the only one that has closed the trunk, so who knows when it happened. Stupid design.

I will check and see if the trunk is dented under the spoiler bumper. If I push down from either side instead of from the middle, it won't latch. I took the latch apart once but it did not seem like there was any adjustability unless I start modifying things...

I just went out to my car... and the rubber piece is starting to split yet again. :mad0260:

With junk in my trunk that didn't allow it to close nicely, I slammed it shut and cracked my tail light. Stupid. I would suggest not doing this...

:slap: well, don't try to store all of your old OEM suspension parts in the trunk.


humfrz

Harder struts are only on cars with stock wings.

I should also clarify, I said mine was hard relative to the doors, but it's still not terribly hard, from wide open I just put one finger in the cowboy hat and shut it in one motion. The only times I've had it fail to latch is when I tried to give it a swing and let it go, the struts just completely slow it down.

(Edited for autocomplete shenanigans)

Maybe, but OP has a BRZ, and all 17' BRZ have the OEM wing.

My '17 BRZ did the same thing when I first got it. Never had the issue with my '13 FRS but I did buy that one used.

It seems like eventually things "break in" with the latch mechanism and now the trunk lid shuts nice and smooth.

I seriously thought my trunk was broken or defective it was so hard to shut when I first bought it.

Interesting. Mine still has the problem, but I know the 'right' way to close it and avoid the issue most of the time (still happens occasionally).

But yeah, first night I had the car I left the trunk 'open' overnight because I thought I closed it, only to find out in the morning it hadn't latched.

:sigh:

26 posts commenting on shutting the trunk lid on a car.


:help:


humfrz

Thanks for all the replies, I did a quick inspection of the latch and I think that those blaming the striker plate are on to something.

If you look at the rubber bumper notice how the arm where it seats pivots up higher than one would expect and the rubber is contacted at an angle, almost at a 45 degree. I would think that moving the arm down a bit, maybe by putting a little rubber on the arm stop to prevent it from going up as high.

in any case the striking of the rubber is not an a ideal angle, this explains the rubber not lasting, and the effort required.

I will take a closer look soon by removing the plastic.

Yours was 27.

Now we should be at 29 :bonk:

I was able to look at the latch today and this is what I found.

First picture shows the angle of the bumper, As you can see the angle is less than ideal. the trunk doesn't strike it head on and you can see how the rubber is being deformed after only a few months. it won't take long before it breaks off, as I can already see a crack in the part of the rubber that goes thru the hole.

https://i693.photobucket.com/albums/...5474556921.jpg

This next picture shows the shim in place, I used a strip of 2.4mm aluminum sheet.

https://i693.photobucket.com/albums/...5555008621.jpg

This picture shows the new angle with the shim in place. I also rotated the rubber bumper 180 degrees to provide a new stricking surface.

https://i693.photobucket.com/albums/...5561883622.jpg

This last picture shows the latch in place.
the trunk now closes much easier. So I'm happy with the results.

https://i693.photobucket.com/albums/...5590933121.jpg

I had this happen to mine. Some how the latch on the trunk got little bent and made my trunk hard to close.

My striker plate (along with the trunk latch) got replaced by Subaru under warranty because the rubber bumper split and broke... now my replacement striker plate rubber is starting to split again.

I'm totally doing this fix -- any additional info on how to form the aluminum shim?

Also have a 17 that had a trunk with aluminum wing on it. Replaced with a Seibon CSL style CF one and the stiffer shocks on the 17's made it extremely difficult to latch. Had to slam it so hard the taillight chipped some paint off the bumper cover. Swapped shocks with a local '15 BRZ owner who I sold the trunk to, much better.

Well, I just took some aluminum sheet i had laying around and cut it using a metal shear hand cutter, about 2.5cm (1 inch) long and 2mm wide (1/16") the idea is to have it long enough to wrap it around the post and as wide as the post. Then bend it using a vise and various hand tools, hammer, pliers,..

You can try other metals, like copper if you have copper pipes. the idea is to have a shim thick enough to correct the angle, mine was 2.4mm thick, but could probably be thicker but not too thick as to cause the arm to sit too low.

5 min epoxy might work. 3d printed plug :D

One thing I forgot to try is to operate the trunk without the spring on that latch bumper installed.... It would be interesting to see how much that bumper contributes to the issue vs the bumpers on the corners of the trunk lid.

Let me know if you have any other questions and if anyone else comes up with a simpler fix. (That does not involve slamming it harder :) )


In any case, as you can see from the first picture, the design is less than ideal, with that angle. What were they thinking?

Quick update after a few days of using it, I'm liking how trunk behaves now. I just grab it by the tag and swing it down, letting it go for about 8 inches from the bottom. it continues to travel down by itself and closes without bouncing back up like before. Before, i would have to hold the trunk all the way down until it locked.

Either that or replace the latch if you really think it's an issue.

Used 1/4" ID vinyl tubing to form my "shim"

I'll see how well it holds up, as I tend to use the trunk a few times a day.

https://i.imgur.com/lXVo1Ib.jpg

It looks as though the assembly was designed for some sort of device to fit over that tab and then they decided that it wouldn't be a showstopper to drop it. Happens all the time.

Vinyl tubing started hardening & cracking in colder temps, so I switched to a zip tie.

https://i.imgur.com/vdYxveb.jpg

No problems with my boot... Actually, I have to remind my wife not to slam it.. there's no weight in it.. light as feather.....