As a few of you know, we have had a frisky weather front going over the north east in the last few weeks. Last week we dipped to -25 Celsius / -30 Celsius up here in Quebec (that's -stupid cold in farenheit for you metric system challenged) and yesterday I discover that the air chucks used to keep the rear hatch open lost all there holding pressure. Did any of you ever experience this and if so did the holding pressure got back with the warm weather or are the internal seals permently damaged meaning I have to give more money to my friends at Acura.

Thanks

JPP who had to keep the hatch opened with his head while he was trying to load the trunk.


[Modified by JPP, 10:39 PM 1/27/2003]

 

AHH Air Chucks=Struts

Mattj

 

Would "dampeners" be a more appropriate name?

 

I would imagine the extreme cold has just lowered the pressure inside the struts enough to prevent them from holding up the hatch. They should be alright once they warm up, since there should be no reason why they would have "blown" any seals.

 

they will be fine when the weather warms up. the dampeners even have trouble in our toasty 10deg nj weather.

 

I had this same problem in our very recent -10F weather in chicago. The hatch won't stay up for very long before slowly falling back to its original position. I ws also holding it up with my head/neck.

I have noticed that the rubber grommets/stoppers that are attached to the inside of the hatch have gotten so hard and have contracted slightly so that the hatch/trunk makes a good deal of noise when I drive on bumpy roads in this ridiculous cold weather.

Chris - who has a squeaky steering rack and clunky hatch in this ridiculous cold , but good compression numbers (220-215-215-220).

 

same thing happened here 2 yrs ago.
im glade had both replaced under warr.

 

Damper.

Warren

 

Damper? I damn near killed 'er!




[Modified by Aleph, 11:16 AM 1/28/2003]

 

Just a reminder to be careful with plastic trim pieces and whatnot in this extreme cold. I learned the hard way how brittle plastic can get in the cold.

Scout's rear window on the soft top = owned