Anyone ever screwed up their trunk on a model Y?

[GBMaryland]

Ok,

The situation is that I had my trunk full of stuff, and a cooler in the back that apparently very slightly got in the way of the trunk closing properly.

Of course, I did what you always do. Was I put pressure on the trunk to close it and when that didn’t work I pushed on it with both hands to close it.

I go open the trunk and I realized the trunk isn’t aligned properly. Meaning, that somehow that was enough for us to actually damage the trunk in some capacity.

The question I’m with now is what exactly got damaged?

I loosened the bolts that attached the trunk to the hinges, and attempted to move those up-and-down to see if that had somehow moved in either capacity, and I’m nearly positive that has nothing to do with it.

So that leaves three possibilities:

1. I damaged the hinges.
2. I damaged the trunk lid itself.
3. I damaged the sheet metal or bracket on the inside of the car that the hinge attaches to.

Does anybody have any experience with the most likely scenario and what they’ve seen previously with the model Y trunk?

Basically, I’m attempting to figure out whether I should just order a set of hinges, replace them and see what happens.

 

[rlsd]

"Of course, I did what you always do." No. I don't do that.

 

[dhrivnak]

Ok,

The situation is that I had my trunk full of stuff, and a cooler in the back that apparently very slightly got in the way of the trunk closing properly.

Of course, I did what you always do. Was I put pressure on the trunk to close it and when that didn’t work I pushed on it with both hands to close it.

I go open the trunk and I realized the trunk isn’t aligned properly. Meaning, that somehow that was enough for us to actually damage the trunk in some capacity.

The question I’m with now is what exactly got damaged?

I loosened the bolts that attached the trunk to the hinges, and attempted to move those up-and-down to see if that had somehow moved in either capacity, and I’m nearly positive that has nothing to do with it.

So that leaves three possibilities:

1. I damaged the hinges.
2. I damaged the trunk lid itself.
3. I damaged the sheet metal or bracket on the inside of the car that the hinge attaches to.

Does anybody have any experience with the most likely scenario and what they’ve seen previously with the model Y trunk?

Basically, I’m attempting to figure out whether I should just order a set of hinges, replace them and see what happens.

It is impossible to tell without good pictures, but the sheet metal of the trunk is not very strong so it is not too hard to bend it.

 

[father_of_6]

This is like... "Someone slid a broom into the hinge side slit of my door, preventing the door from closing - so I did what I always do... I slammed the door closed with all my strength".

Possibly one or both of your trunk struts are bent.

 

[GBMaryland]

It is impossible to tell without good pictures, but the sheet metal of the trunk is not very strong so it is not too hard to bend it.

Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of…. Funny part is that I did not go crazy, slamming the trunk or anything…. I simply pushed it down with both hands.

 

[GrinchKing]

My trunk won’t always close properly. Sometimes I have to push down on it, this was the advice given to me after I took it on for this issue to the service center in Louisville, KY. When I’m on a slope with front of car facing downwards the trunk usually won’t close or latch correctly. I’ve been told I have to take it to a body shop to get it properly fixed.

A few notes are that I bought the car uses with 26k miles and it’s an early 2020 model. A friend of mine who works at a body shop says it’s the hinges that attach the trunk to the body of the car that appear bent. Just my 2 cents….

 

[GBMaryland]

This is like... "Someone slid a broom into the hinge side slit of my door, preventing the door from closing - so I did what I always do... I slammed the door closed with all my strength".

Possibly one or both of your trunk struts are bent.

so when you say trunk struts… are the struts actually that delicate?

 

[GBMaryland]

Believe it or not, my brother-in-law works for a shop that works on Teslas… he’s just 250 miles to the north.

He did tell me that to check the alignment on the hinges because they do sometimes get loose or get messed up. After that you start replacing things.

 

[father_of_6]

so when you say trunk struts… are the struts actually that delicate?

I would say no, they're not delicate. In the same way that 2 hinges can hold a very heavy door, but will fail if you shove a pipe in the crack of the door and force it closed. They're just not designed to handle force in that direction.

I'm not a pro though. It could totally be the sheet metal. That'd be an even worse problem though.

 

[GBMaryland]

I would say no, they're not delicate. In the same way that 2 hinges can hold a very heavy door, but will fail if you shove a pipe in the crack of the door and force it closed. They're just not designed to handle force in that direction.

I'm not a pro though. It could totally be the sheet metal. That'd be an even worse problem though.

Yep, that’s what I’m worried about… I’ll swap out the hinges which should be easy enough for me to do… and then see where we go from there.

Thanks folks

 

[VT_EE]

I did exactly the same thing on my Model 3. I did not put much pressure on it when closing, but it was misaligned enough from the pressure to cause paint to rub off where the trunk meets the pillars. I realigned the trunk to make the gap a little larger to prevent this in the future. In your case, I suggest taking it to a Tesla-certified body shop and pay them ~$100 to align the trunk properly and verify everything is good. This should only take them a few minutes to fix.

 

[GBMaryland]

My brother-in-law did tell me to loosen the bolts into attempt to properly align the trunk. The implication he gave me was if you loosen the four bolts and you can’t get the trunk to sit flush like it should then you have a much bigger problem and it may be that you got lucky enough and it’s only the hinges, otherwise you’re going to a body shop.

 

[Noflash]

Ok,

The situation is that I had my trunk full of stuff, and a cooler in the back that apparently very slightly got in the way of the trunk closing properly.

Of course, I did what you always do. Was I put pressure on the trunk to close it and when that didn’t work I pushed on it with both hands to close it.

I go open the trunk and I realized the trunk isn’t aligned properly. Meaning, that somehow that was enough for us to actually damage the trunk in some capacity.

The question I’m with now is what exactly got damaged?

I loosened the bolts that attached the trunk to the hinges, and attempted to move those up-and-down to see if that had somehow moved in either capacity, and I’m nearly positive that has nothing to do with it.

So that leaves three possibilities:

1. I damaged the hinges.
2. I damaged the trunk lid itself.
3. I damaged the sheet metal or bracket on the inside of the car that the hinge attaches to.

Does anybody have any experience with the most likely scenario and what they’ve seen previously with the model Y trunk?

Basically, I’m attempting to figure out whether I should just order a set of hinges, replace them and see what happens.

I do this too. Thanks for sharing. These awesome cars do have some flaws and I agree this is one. I'd take it to the service center.

 

[laservet]

Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of…. Funny part is that I did not go crazy, slamming the trunk or anything…. I simply pushed it down with both hands.

Because of the leverage you don't have to slam it to put a lot of force on struts and hinges.