GSW Hatch Lift Supports failed in hot weather

nathanso · Aug 7, 2019

My 2015 GSW's rear hatch is no longer being supported by its Hatch Lift Supports, this after spending a few days in lovely Riverside, CA where temps were 100F+.
My car has only 55K miles so, to me, this failure seems premature. Has anyone seen this yet on the Mk7 GSW? Also, should I expect my VW CPO warranty to cover this? I'm on month 5 of 24.

ProfBrown · Aug 7, 2019

Lol I live in an area where it is 100 quite frequently this time of year. Lower riverside county. Mine still work fine at 71.5k on a 15 Golf tdi wagen. Guess the life of the shock would depend on its usage no?

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meerschm · Aug 7, 2019

The struts are not all that expensive. they are four years old.

oilhammer · Aug 7, 2019

Your car, and every part it left the factory with, is now four, possibly five, years old.

That is a normal wear item, some last longer than others, but that does not seem too awful bad. I know I have replaced them on many cars in that range. The bigger and heavier the hatch, the shorter they last. The Vanagons and Eurovans often need them every two to three years. And obviously, the more they get cycled, the quicker they will wear out. Ask a courier. We serviced a fleet of JSW for a medical courier, and we were replacing those quite often. Not a single one of them lasted more than a year. The hatches were being cycled 20-30 times a day.

Lightflyer1 · Aug 8, 2019

Texas heat in the 2015 Beetle and no issues so far.

kjclow · Aug 8, 2019

I've had more issues in the cold frozen tundra of northern Indiana in late December than ever in the heat. I've not had to replace the rear hatch struts on the JSW but did on my beetle and the hood strut on my Passat. It's fairly simple and cheap replacement.

nathanso · Aug 8, 2019

I've ordered a couple of new hatch lift supports from Faulkner Volkswagen of Mechanicsburg's excellent e-commerce site.. $36ea. I also took the opportunity to purchase a new engine coolant reservoir (p/n 5Q0121407T) for the unexpectedly low price of $9 to allow my car to run without the worrisome silica pouch.

Datalore · Aug 9, 2019

nathanso said:
I've ordered a couple of new hatch lift supports from Faulkner Volkswagen of Mechanicsburg's excellent e-commerce site.. $36ea. I also took the opportunity to purchase a new engine coolant reservoir (p/n 5Q0121407T) for the unexpectedly low price of $9 to allow my car to run without the worrisome silica pouch.

I would have taken that to the dealership and let them fix it under the CPO warranty. It is not an anticipated wear item, nor does it have any sort of scheduled maintenance. It was not designed to fail or wear over time.

bigb · Aug 10, 2019

nathanso said:
I also took the opportunity to purchase a new engine coolant reservoir (p/n 5Q0121407T) for the unexpectedly low price of $9 to allow my car to run without the worrisome silica pouch.

Is this something people are doing to avoid future issues with heater matrix clogging? If you remove it then what, just do regular coolant flush/change periodically? Seems like the pouch was probably something added to make the coolant lifetime to avoid the issue of coolant disposal.

I wonder if we could use an ELC in these engines? I use Rotella ELC in my Powerstroke, it is silica free and good for 1,000,000 miles or 8 years.

nathanso · Aug 10, 2019

bigb said:
Is this something people are doing to avoid future issues with heater matrix clogging? If you remove it then what, just do regular coolant flush/change periodically? Seems like the pouch was probably something added to make the coolant lifetime to avoid the issue of coolant disposal.
I wonder if we could use an ELC in these engines? I use Rotella ELC in my Powerstroke, it is silica free and good for 1,000,000 miles or 8 years.

Yes, I plan on having the coolant flushed/replaced at 60K mile intervals.

adjat84th · Aug 16, 2019

Thought the silicate was needed for a reason.
No heater core failures on the Golfs that I've seen like the previous gen Passats.

As for struts, my golf's seem to be getting weaker after 83k miles. Not quite time to replace, but can certainly tell they're aging.

nathanso · Aug 16, 2019

My order arrived today, but not from Faulkner Volkswagen of Mechanicsburg which had subsequently contacted me wanting another $53 for shipping (I quickly cancelled that order). The same items came from vwpartswarehouse.com that honored their e-commerce website's $14 shipping fee without complaint.
First, the lift supports. Upon inspection (late, I know) the right side support was found to be oily, i.e. leaking, so I replaced that one first. That fixed the sagging door completely so I left the other side alone and now I have a spare.
The coolant reservoir appears to be slightly different than the one on my 2015 TDI. This one's silicate pouch is inaccessible from the filler and appears to not be a perforated plastic bag. Perhaps it's a redesigned/improved part. Or maybe I ordered the wrong part entirely.. we'll see when I try to install it.

740GLE · Aug 19, 2019

our passat coolant bottle has hard plastic pellets of what i'm assuming is silicate.

bigb · Aug 20, 2019

nathanso said:
My order arrived today, but not from Faulkner Volkswagen of Mechanicsburg which had subsequently contacted me wanting another $53 for shipping (I quickly cancelled that order). The same items came from vwpartswarehouse.com that honored their e-commerce website's $14 shipping fee without complaint.
First, the lift supports. Upon inspection (late, I know) the right side support was found to be oily, i.e. leaking, so I replaced that one first. That fixed the sagging door completely so I left the other side alone and now I have a spare.
The coolant reservoir appears to be slightly different than the one on my 2015 TDI. This one's silicate pouch is inaccessible from the filler and appears to not be a perforated plastic bag. Perhaps it's a redesigned/improved part. Or maybe I ordered the wrong part entirely.. we'll see when I try to install it.

So are you going to install it intact, with the new silica pouch inside?

nathanso · Aug 20, 2019

bigb said:
So are you going to install it intact, with the new silica pouch inside?

Yes, that is my plan.

nathanso · Sep 6, 2019

VW p/n 5Q0121407T, i.e. the coolant reservoir, fit my 2015 Golf TDI perfectly. A label on the outside of the new reservoir reads "Mit Silikat" (as it did on the original reservoir) so that much is verified. For $10 and an hour of my time, I think it's good insurance against the potential bursting of the original silicate pouch/clogging of the heater matrix.

bigb · Sep 6, 2019

nathanso said:
VW p/n 5Q0121407T, i.e. the coolant reservoir, fit my 2015 Golf TDI perfectly. A label on the outside of the new reservoir reads "Mit Silikat" (as it did on the original reservoir) so that much is verified. For $10 and an hour of my time, I think it's good insurance against the potential bursting of the original silicate pouch/clogging of the heater matrix.

So do you think the new one is updated/improved or is it just the fact that it is new and therefore less chance of failure?

nathanso · Sep 6, 2019

bigb said:
So do you think the new one is updated/improved or is it just the fact that it is new and therefore less chance of failure?

The new one is indeed different: Its silicate pouch is now inaccessible from the filler opening, and the pouch itself looks quite different. The original pouch appeared to be a perforated clear plastic, whereas the new pouch appears to be made from an opaque white paper-like membrane.

GSW Hatch Lift Supports failed in hot weather

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