Hatch garnish loose only at driver's side edge

The logo you grab to lift hatch ? You're hand pulls the metal piece out of the garnish slowly over time . Remember hard pulled in freezing weather etc . 28 nuc on Amazon in a few colors. . wen I replace I add two small black screws right next to plate lites I've detailed pictures hard to make happen here . Yes inner hatch plastic rips off notice holes behind to access 10 mm nuts . Two clips too . That all generally breaks off hence the replacement part .

 

The garnish is held to the hatch with a couple threaded studs and a couple (few?) clips.

I have a relative with a broken one. It's cosmetically ok, no visible break, but one of the threaded studs has broken from the molded structure on the back.

I had a nightmare experience ordering an aftermarket replacement part. Found an eBay seller offering a very appealing version with a metal reinforcement built in. Good price, color matched, what could go wrong?

First time, they sent me a damaged one. Maybe the damage happened in shipping. Sent it with basically no protection in a flimsy cardboard box. The garnish came to me bent in a sort of V shape, with the reinforcing web on the back all crumpled to match. Went through eBay's multi-step process to send photos of that, waited for the seller to say how to handle it, they actually wanted the now V-shaped one sent back. So I did that.

What they sent me the second time was an empty box. Fortunately, I didn't discover that, the shipping company did. When I hadn't received it, I looked in the tracking history and the final entry said noticed package was empty. (Even so, eBay's refund process didn't start until I reported that they should look at the final entry of their tracking history.)

I haven't bothered trying to order one again.

Last time I looked at it closely, the places where the threaded studs attach are structures molded into the plastic, where it looks like I could cut a small block of nylon or something to fit into the structure and drill/tap it for a little stud, and call it fixed. I think that's what I'll try next time I'm visiting there and the weather is warmer.

Or HDPE. I think somewhere I've got a little slab of, like, 10 mm thick HDPE that I could carve some little blocks from. That'd be just about right.

 

You have a chance that it's just the nut backing off. You need to remove the large plastic trim cover that attaches to the inside of the hatch. Lift the hatch, if you have an extra person, have them hold the hatch open. Press the fingers from both hands on the driverside side edge of the plastic cover and pull firmly downward. The trim should pop loose. If no extra person, you may need to use one hand to hold the hatch. Do the same to the other side and then just remove it the rest of the way. The garnish has 4 studs that attach to it. Those studs penetrate through the metal of the hatch and each gets a 10mm hex head nut threaded on. I've found many that are just loose. You'll need a 10mm socket, small extension and a ratchet. Just verify they're snug. If they're already tight, then it's most likely cracked at the backside of the garnish, but removing the garnish and epoxying the broken one now is much easier than waiting until all 4 break. garnish replacement is a 10 minute job if you already have a replacement.

 

My dad also had a 2007 and that part actually got to the point where it broke off completely. That is, the whole assembly with the logo and trunk handle came off. The only reason it didn't separate from the car completely was that it was still connected by the wire harness for the trunk switch. This was awhile ago, but if I remember correctly the trim had pins and foam glue affixing it to the car. The pins and the holes they went into were broken, and the foam glue had melted from our So Cal summers (and made a gross goop in the process). My dad used heavy duty adhesive to get it back on but it did sometimes break off again and we would reglue it. Of course that's the worst case scenario, and my dad is not the kind of guy who would normally replace trim pieces on his cars. What I'm wondering is if you replace the whole assembly do you have to replace the trunk switch as well?

 

The switch is extremely easy to swap from one garnish to another. Just a couple screws.
The rubber cover for the 2006/2007 switch tends to turn very gummy for some reason and just turns into a horrible mess, like used chewing gum all jammed up into the switch assembly. Most likely a manufacturing defect with the rubber. After market covers are available for about 10 bucks, it just takes a lot of time to remove all the gunk from the original. I typically remove the garnish and use picks and small scrapers to remove the majority of the goop, then use spray cleaner and a toothbrush.

 

Boy do I remember that mess.
Fixing the little stuff like that makes a big difference in how nice your car feels IMO.

 

Ain't that the truth.

 

Yeah I find the '04 '05 switches are always in real good shape The rubber is real nice and still has the logo stamped in it and all that stuff so I usually grab those when I'm out and about at the yard. I haven't tried any of the aftermarket covers to see about that or aftermarket whole switch assembly I don't know

 

Once I get the new one mounted and all them place and everything's like sposed to be . I drill two pilot holes and put two black screws of the sheet metal type right through this plastic thing and into the body of the hatch those two screws help keep it stable even when the hatch is frozen That's usually when people pull this thing to pieces. And I'm generally careful I usually get it and start the car and get it warmed up first before I start trying to open the hatch so if I'm going to need stuff in the morning when the car is frozen to be in the hatch I put it in the night before things like that so then when I get to driving and get where I'm going to my service call or whatever by then everything is pretty much unfrozen and will cooperate.

 

Or just stuck. My relative's hatch was really sticking to the weatherstrip. I was trying to show "here's how you can just push the release button in the garnish but really pull the hatch from the bottom" and it was so stuck I wasn't sure the latch really released, until I really heaved. No wonder the garnish broke.

On my next visit I took a tube of Shin Etsu grease and did the hatch weatherstrip all around.

 

Oh the memories...

 

Not that I've noticed. Rubber weatherstrips are pretty much what it's for. It's kind of wet going on, of course, but doesn't stay that way, just helps keep the rubber 'live'.

 

Hope it’s ok to add this to this thread. Came onto the site today for this issue - although mine is loose and coming off on the passenger’s side. Seems that a white clip (or whatever it is) is snapped in half - partly attached to door and partly attached to latch piece. Would this warrant a whole new rear lift gate hatch piece? Or do I just need new bolts / new L white clip thing?

attaching pics.

 

On the other side of the sheet metal you will find a nut threaded down on that stud.

Remove the nut from that side, and them that broken-off plastic piece with the stud anchored in it will be out in your hand.

That's how the garnish commonly breaks. Usual fix is to buy a new garnish.

For another might-be-alternative that I'm meaning to try but haven't yet, see #3.