Follow Up - '18 Terrain- rear hatch pops

689 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Andy, 6 mo ago

Andy

Discussion Starter · 6 mo ago

last year I posted about a quirky rear hatch pop every time the doors were unlocked or the car was put into park.

I ordered the switch last year and just procrastinated fixing it. Well recently the wife was out of town for the weekend so I was able to take the car out of service for a couple hours to replace the switch, thinking it was just a flaky/water-damaged switch.

As I started taking the trim off the inside of the liftgate, I could hear strange electrical-type noises as a jiggled the trim. almost like something, a solenoid or something trying to fire. After only breaking 1 tab off the trim I got it all off and found the wires to the switch were routed across one of the slots in the body for a trim tab to insert into.

so I cut the damaged section out, spliced back together, then installed the new switch ssince I had it all apart anyway. back together and it works as expected now.

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Reactions: 4

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repairman54

· #2 · 6 mo ago

Thanks for the follow up and pictures.

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hron61

· #3 · 6 mo ago

Good find.
I wonder how many other 2018 Terrain owners have that issue?

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Andy

Discussion Starter · #4 · 6 mo ago

kind of interesting sequence of events- we bought this used, formerly a rental. The switch was always kind of flakey, which is why I originally thought it was just the widely reported water penetration into the switch. whatever was damaged in the wires, it told the hatch the button was always pressed down. So as soon as it was 'armed' to unlock it would unlock and pop open.

Wife and I started running back when it started to act up- and the first time it did the pop-hatch at a stop thing- wwife was buying gas during a road trip wwithout me. A road trip that included lots of luggage. I think what happened, the back was stuffed and it pushed the inner trim tab just enough into the wires to deform them and cause the constant pop. for a while it wasstill just flakey, would happen once in a while, but after that trip, and 2 more trips with a car full of college-kid dorm room stuff, it got to the point of doing it all the time. unlock the doors? hatch pops. put it park? hatch pops.

Fixing it completely transformed the ownership experience.

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