Spoiler vs Garage Door

Fortunately, I didn't do what you did. I had my garage door opened and gently and slowly opened the hatch. When it was all the way open, it just barely kissed the garage door mechanism. That was enough to leave a small ding in the plastic. Not anything serious enough for me to want to shed tears over, but a small ding, nevertheless.

I think the plastic should have been just a little bit harder. Others have remarked about how easy it is to ding it.

Stu

 

I had something else happen that seems like it fits in this thread:

I opened the hatch in the garage with the garage door open. I must have a low garage door because the spoiler caught a bolt that was protruding on the inside of the garage door (other side of the handle) and made a scratch.

So to those reading this... be careful how high the hatch opens inside of your garage!

 

Same issue with the Gen II spoiler/hatch. And the Gen III opens even higher.

 

Many of you must have low garages. Both the Prius and the RX350 hatches can open fully clear in my garage.

 

Hi all-

I remembered reading about a similar issue in an earlier thread. Perhaps it will be of interest to some. Unfortunately, I have no garage, though.... but for those that do -

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...821-warning-rear-hatch-opens-very-high-5.html

 

Suggestion for the Garage Door dilemma....I too have a overhead door and it does not allow adequate clearance. So what I did was on the backside of the garage door I installed Foam Material, (Like you use in cushions or similar) and used adhesive to attach it to the door. I cut it obviously for the door folds and now at least should I need to open the hatch it lines up perfectly and will tap the 2 inch foam piece. You don't see it obviously from the front of the door only protects the PRIUS' hatch and spoiler quite well. About $5.00 for the foam, adhesive and time... well worth it.

 

Had a bit of a different door/spoiler incident. Brand new P-V! Only miles on it were the ones to get it home, so you can imagine, I'm not too oriented yet. First thing I did was program the garage door opener so I could get in and out of the garage. I used the #3 button because I figured it was CENTRALLY located on the mirror and would be the easiest to use. Then I pulled in the garage and was sitting there adjusting the seat and mirrors! You guesses it! While adjusting the rear view mirror, I accidentally hit the garage door button and the door came down on the spoiler! I heard a crack and the door reversed direction. I didn't even want to get out of the car! When I did, I found NO DAMAGE and immediately proceeded to program the OUTER button! Sheesh, what a near-heart attack!

 

There are two typical heights for the garage door. Standard hight is 7 foot and luxury homes or some larger homes often has 8 foot door.

8 foot door will clear the open hatch fine but it's very close so I can see people having issues with 7 foot door.

 

This might also fit in this thread...
I was at a Lake Tahoe Hotel with a parking garage beneath the hotel. Low ceiling situation, I opened the hatch on my 2010 and let it rise on its own, not paying attention, and the hatch hit the ceiling. No damage, but I didn't expect it to go that high. I am much more attentive to hatch clearances now!

 

Same thing happened to me, the garage door was opened while the hatch was opened, and the metal reinforcement bar caught the spoiler. Then after a loud crack, from the spoiler, the garage door stopped. Now the spoiler wobbles around a little bit.

After examing under the spoiler, where it contacts the little rear window, it appears that there was an adhesive on the far left and right hand side fastening the spoiler to the window. I am now wondering if that's all that broke. If so, maybe all I need is a $5 tube of some expoxy glue, and maybe that explains why the spoilers are so prone to becoming loose.

Would anyone mind looking at the same on their Prius?

 

Normally, I don't open the garage door while the hatch is up, but, did it once and the garage door took a little nick out of the spoiler.

One criteria for a new car was to have a 5 door that could be loaded in the garage without opening the garage door. The Prius easily meets that requirement. Can't remember why I decided to open the door while loading the car.

 

been there, done that. brain fart, senior moment, call it what you will.

 

We just built a carport addition to our garage in May and June of this year. In late August we bought the Prius and got really lucky--the fully-opened hatch misses the ceiling by a mere 1.5 inches.

Thanks for all the suggestions to avoid parking garage ceilings and such--I don't know if I would have even given it any thought w/o all your comments and cautionary stories. Sorry to hear about the dings and scratches though...the first cut is truly the deepest!

 

When we had our garage door installed right after we bought this house, I asked if there was any way to have the garage door clear the Odyssey hatch. The installer said he had two different parts he could use for the curved part of the rails, with the difference being the radius. The wider curved one allowed the Odyssey hatch to open all the way, easily, and we can even open and close the garage door with the Odyssey all the way open. The Prius is now the same.

For those of you with this problem, I wonder what it would take to change out the curved pieces, assuming you have the ceiling clearance...

 

So I took some time today to try to remove my spoiler and find out what was broken (see quoted above). To my surprise it only took twenty minutes or so to remove the spoiler, fix it, and put it back on! :rockon:

All that was broken was one of the green clips, the same green clips that hold on the rear, interior plastic molding. (If you've ever taken a car door panel off, there's those clips that hold on the plastic molding)

Also, I'm almost postive that there was some adhesive on each side of the spoiler where it contacts the little rear window. I'll need to find out what I can use there, but the spoiler is much more stable now and I am pleasantly surprised that it was so easy.

Word to the wise, reduce the upstroke power on your garage door opener to prevent it from taking off your spoiler, in the case that you, or someone you love, makes this apparently common mistake!

 

I posted this in the Gen II forum accidently, so reposting here. I have the same issue, when the garage door is up, the hatchback will hit the garage door when open. So I looked into the cleanest, most elegant way to solve this...

I ordered some shorter struts that should limit the height of the hatchback when it's opened.

The stock struts on a '12 are about 19 7/8" long fully extended. Closed, they're about 7 1/4" shorter, or about 12 5/8".

I just googled hatchback struts and tried the first company, autopartsbylou. They didn't have the part # for a '12 Prius, but from the markings on the stock struts we figured out they were 45N (or 103 lbs.) of force.

I wanted struts that were about 1 3/4" shorter than stock, so I ordered up a set of 18" (extended)/12.1" (compressed) struts that were 105 lbs. of force. Came out to $60 shipped and should be here in a few days.

I'll update this thread with my results. I'm sure they're nowhere near OEM quality, but they're cheap and I'm willing to try it for $60 to protect my hatchback from hitting the garage door. Hopefully they'll work fine, if so, I'll post up before and after pictures.

 

Not sure how to post this, but if anyone is interested, I have a very slightly scratched rear spoiler for sale (2102). In fact, the scratch has been touched up and is hard to find unless you know where to look. About 1/2 long, center rear edge. Otherwise, the spoiler is like new.
PM me if interested, I can supply photos. May put it on ebay as well.
Thanks,

 

May I ask which struts you ordered? I would also like to install shortened struts, so I look forward to reading your results. Thanks in advance.