lol, your welcome...guess i could have posted up some pics huh :tup:

So far my experience is the polar opposite of yours. My wife has an '04 Toyota Sienna we bought as a lease return in '05. Still under warranty. Less than two years old the cable from the automatic sliding door breaks because it has RUSTED through. Where we live it doesn't dip below freezing very often so we don't use salt on the roads that much. There isn't much rusting of cars here so we are puzzled by the cable issue. Look it up on the internet and it seems to be fairly common. Take it to Toyota and they will not fix it under warranty. Show them its a recuring problem and they still wont fix it. Call our mechanic up (very trustworthy and helped us out more than once) and the part for the door is $2100! So while I really like how the Sienna has performed - the fit and finish and all the rest of the mechanical reliability - I will never buy a Toyota again because of their horrible customer service.

Back to the springs.... I went to my Nissan dealer locally and told him about the latch issue and that there were replacement springs to resolve the issue. He came out and checked it and the first two times it didn't work. I showed him the springs and how they rotate out. Closed it and opened it and out of the 1000 times I've opened the hatch that its never poped properly it opened all the way! Tried it and it opened again. He said he saw it not working the first two times so we were OK. It's never worked properly again since. Figures the two time it works is when I'm trying to show the guy! Anyhow I gave them the part number for the longer springs and they are going to order them in to fix the problem. I also showed them a molding flaw on the steering wheel on the plastic which they said they will order in a new cover, wheel, airbag or whatever is needed to fix it. Once the parts come in and its actually fixed I'll post and let you guys know.

Thanks to kdo2milger for the part number!

I didn't have the problem for the first week and a half, but now it's happened twice in a row.

I had alot of issues with the rear hatch on my 350z (05) so this is nothing new. Sometimes it wouldn't open and also I had to replace the shock/springs that hold the hatch up after 20k miles.

C'mon Nissan this is not a complex engineering problem. Basic stuff here. Sheesh. :mad:

What is the part number of the shorter spring lifts? I'm trying to determine which ones I have. Are there actually 2 different spring lifts Nissan makes for the 370z???

not sure what the pn for the shorter one is...the parts manager told me that the longer one in the picture on the first page is the pn that replaced the shorter one...

seems like nissan recognized the issue, made a longer spring, but chose not to release a TSB for those of us with the stuck hatch issue :shakes head:

my 350z did this and i've noticed the 370 hatch doing it a few times recently.
this might be a mod i see in my very near future.

Sheesh, thought I was alone in this. My Z is about 3 weeks old and ~1700 km's and I've just noticed this happening everytime I go to open the lid. Will try to the penny trick - thanks for the link @bluzman!

I love this forum :).

Okay, did the three penny trick.... took about two minutes total.... worked great! Pops up with some AUTHORITY now!!

Thanks for the quick fix!

Tony

[QUOTE=FricFrac;181419]So far my experience is the polar opposite of yours. My wife has an '04 Toyota Sienna we bought as a lease return in '05. Still under warranty. Less than two years old the cable from the automatic sliding door breaks because it has RUSTED through. Where we live it doesn't dip below freezing very often so we don't use salt on the roads that much. There isn't much rusting of cars here so we are puzzled by the cable issue. Look it up on the internet and it seems to be fairly common. Take it to Toyota and they will not fix it under warranty. Show them its a recuring problem and they still wont fix it. Call our mechanic up (very trustworthy and helped us out more than once) and the part for the door is $2100! So while I really like how the Sienna has performed - the fit and finish and all the rest of the mechanical reliability - I will never buy a Toyota again because of their horrible customer service.

Back to the springs.... I went to my Nissan dealer locally and told him about the latch issue and that there were replacement springs to resolve the issue. He came out and checked it and the first two times it didn't work. I showed him the springs and how they rotate out. Closed it and opened it and out of the 1000 times I've opened the hatch that its never poped properly it opened all the way! Tried it and it opened again. He said he saw it not working the first two times so we were OK. It's never worked properly again since. Figures the two time it works is when I'm trying to show the guy! Anyhow I gave them the part number for the longer springs and they are going to order them in to fix the problem. I also showed them a molding flaw on the steering wheel on the plastic which they said they will order in a new cover, wheel, airbag or whatever is needed to fix it. Once the parts come in and its actually fixed I'll post and let you guys know.


Can you give us the part # for the longer springs.

i thought it was stuck then i pushed the other button

first page read the bag

Funny thing with mine is that when the car was delivered, there was NO grease on the locking mechanism.

My issue only occured when the car was locked for a while. You had to press it 2 times to open up properly. However, after this point, it opens every time, so it would be hard to prove as they cannot replicate it.

Today I took it the non purchasing dealer for service, and they greased it. So far, it only takes 1 press to open, but who knows.

They told me to monitor it and advise them if it stuffs up.....

Mine has gotten stuck maybe 20% of the time. I usually just hit the release one more time, sometimes while holding down just a little on the hatch. I've never had it not work the 2nd time.

There was a delay getting the Nismo 370z floormats for my car (it came with Nismo 350 mats) so I'll be talking to the dealer about getting the larger springs once my mats are in next week.

hey Mr Ed, do you know what type of grease they used?

Just reporting back - put in 3 pennies in each side and she pops open beautifully. Will have to keep an eye out for water leaks, just to make sure.

nice to here...i havent had any water leaking issues in rain or washing the z...

talked to my service writer buddy at Nissan today...I asked him about this issue, and he told me they just need to replace 2 springs (which we're talking about here)...he apparently knows of the issue and he said it will be covered under warranty...

really!

i need to revisit my dealership...

I'ma leave him my car next Monday and walk 30 feet back to my office...

how many 370z's have you sold?

this happens to me ALL the time. i usually push the button, it comes up slightly, then i push it again while pulling up on the lid and it opens. i can push the button a million times, but if i dont pull up after the first push, it wont open.

im going to try the 3 penny thing simply because i wouldnt let any of these dealers touch my car - too many bad experiences...

Been a week since I installed the "3 penny" fix - NO failures. Priceless, well almost.:tup:

i actually had to hit mine twice yesterday for the first time since the penny trick...maybe the springs are wearing out now...im gonna give it some more time to be sure...

i was dissapointed, i thought i had this thing nipped...

Well if the 3 penny trick doesn't work anymore, I have a new fix. The FOUR penny trick. No but seriously, I haven't tried three. Four may not fit.

I work for Toyota...the Nissan dealership is right next to my dealership...

ahh...gotcha...

When I got my car, the dealership 'forgot' to oil the hinge and locking mechanism.

The issue I had was when it was really cold, Pressed it once, it half popped up, pressed it again and I heard metal on metal (clicking sound), pressed it third time it opened.

I took it to another Nissan service place and they lubed it up.

They were unaware of a Nissan TSB. They said to monitor it.

They said if the problem persists, they will adjust the height of the boot so it opens up first time. However he advised that there maybe sealing issues.....

Perhaps when Nissan USA issue an TSB, I can get mine resolved or worst case scenario, but the parts that Nissan USA use. It sucks, but Australia is such a small market that Nissan Australia wont give a damn.....

Seems like the 350Z's had the same issue too!

i may lube mine, i havent gone that route yet...

and ya, the 350z owners were having the same issue too, infact thats where i got the penny trick idea from...

The only problem with lubricating the latch is that I use the latch to pull down the hatch to avoid putting my hand on the paint each time, which in my case is 4 times a day.

same here, thats why i havent lubed it yet...

wow - you guys are harrdcore

i just press down on the bootlit

mind you, the Z is not my daily driver. i only drive it after work or weekends. we have 3 cars between 2 of us.

ya...its my daily driver :tup: wouldnt have it any other way

Had the SHR Issue as well and fixed it with 3 coins each.
However, for size reasons I had to use 2-€-cent coins...
So again, us poor old-worlders are charged more than twice as much, even for the cheapest fix...:icon17:
I´m gonna test my dealer and Nissan Germany and try to get the longer springs under warranty anyway, just to see their reaction.

Today I went to my Nissan servicing dealer re this matter. I provided him the serial part number for the longer springs.

He looked it up and it is NOT AN AUSTRALIAN part. If I want it, it will cost me $60AUD each.

The dealer was happy to look into it for me. He asked me to contact Nissan Customer Service.

I contacted Australia Nissan Customer Service and spoke to some arrogant person who did not want to know about it. The fella was an absoultely useless moron and it makes me sick

[B]
He said, Nissan warrant certain parts, and this spring lift is not standard on Australian cars. If I want that part, it will be at my cost.

However GTRFAN got the longer springs. Will be interesting to see how he got it?

I subsequently contacted my servicing dealer and he will start a Techline and speak to Nissan Warranty.

Above all, the servicing dealer was excellent and thoroughly recommend Highway Nissan for people in Brisbane Australia.

im not sure if it was a fluke...but i have not had any more issues to date...

I removed the weight that is on the hatch near the latch underneath the trim. It seemed to fix the issue for me (for now) and the hatch doesn't really seem any more difficult to close.

what weight?

you may want to be careful adding more than 3 pennies as some 350Z owners that went to 4 pennies dented the car where the springs and pennies rest when the hatch is shut.

As far as the weight goes it is for vibration dampening. I took mine out of the 350 and put it back in a week later as I was getting weird hatch noises until I replaced it.

i still have three on each side, i havent gone to four pennies because i read the same thing about 4 being too much over there on the 350 site...

and i dont plan to remove the vibration dampener either...

I stopped having this issues a while back the dealer replaced the dampeners