Frunk Soft Close

[Ken R]

One of my concerns is the amount of force needed to close the frunk and it possibly denting because of that force. I had read in other threads how Model 3 owners where able to change out a spring with one with a lower rate that allowed the frunk to close more softly. So after taking delivery of my Model Y on Tuesday I headed to the home improvement store and purchased the necessary spring.

I had not opened the cover to get to the opening mechanism prior to buying the spring. Well guess what, Tesla has changed the mechanism and it now uses a spring that will be a little more difficult to replace. Here is a picture of the Model Y Frunk Release Mechanism. I'm going to start searching for a lower rate spring and if I can find one and replace it I'll post the details of that spring. If anyone else finds a solution please post it here.

 

[MY-Y]

I wonder if the spring Tesla provides seems stronger than needed is to ensure the frunk will still work with some snow or ice on it.

 

[Ken R]

I wonder if the spring Tesla provides seems stronger than needed is to ensure the frunk will still work with some snow or ice on it.

That is a good possibility, people who modified their M3, their videos showed that the frunk just had enough power to push it up slightly.

 

[Uncle Paul]

As the new seals compress over time, the hood gets easier to close.

 

[jwuwu]

Today was the first time I opened my model Y's frunk, I had a difficult time closing it down completely. I would hear the latch lock when I pressed the frunk down but there's a noticeable half an inch gap between the hood and bumper. The frunk is locked but the car still thinks it's open. When I try to press it down again firmly, there are light flexes and it felt like I am about to dent the hood. So I used my app to open the frunk up and tried to close it again, same issue. I then looked at tesla's manual and watched a bunch of youtube videos on how to close the frunk properly but the issue persisted. I repeated the procedure about twenty times and I finally got lucky once and the hood went down completely flush. Now I am afraid to open the frunk at all.

My neighbors probably thinks I am crazy just opening the frunk up and down again and swearing at it.

Is this normal? I also put a service request for Tesla after this happened. It was really frustrating.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Had the same issue with my X. At first trunk was pretty hard to close, but after some time the seals compressed and now it clicks closed with little effort.

 

[EchoDelta]

I’m sure they have good reasons to have changed the design. But it’s a bit annoying as for my Model 3 I had tested multiple spring ratings to make the frunk easier to close while giving it enough “pop” to open the trunk hood in summer by itself (i put in the stronger struts) while not popping automatically all the way in winter (cold almost equal rain in Seattle)
New research project!
But I do think the power frunk lifts may be the way I go with the Y.

 

[jwuwu]

So I figured out why my frunk was having a hard time closing. I guess the latch has to click twice to close completely.

I opened the frunk and removed the trim covering the mechanism. I see this mechanism part is different from the model 3s that I've been watching from videos.

All I did was loosen up the screws, make sure they're still aligned within the white half circle lines , tighten the screws, and I was able to close the frunk after hearing two clicks. They were misaligned from factory! If you see a small gap after closing the frunk, just loosening up the mechanism again and move it down a bit, make sure it's leveled with the half circle lines.

 

[EchoDelta]

In case anyone wants to try out different spring combos (I don't have the car so I don't care right now as it may be perfectly done from the factory for all I know), here is where I order this sort of stuff from
Spring Finder - The Spring Store

When replacing an existing spring, it's worth it to order a couple on the softer and harder side.
Please note : There may be a minimum torsion rate needed for the frunk to "pop" high enough for you to put your fingers under it, and you want to make sure the resting position & force matches the factory exactly.
For the M3 it was a typical linear spring, there was a youtube video saying "buy this one from amazon" but technically that spring was a bit too long and there was >0 risk it would fall off.

 

[jay35]

Soft close would be nice, but good to see the latch receiver is adjustable to try to make it close more easily.