Cracks in tailgate

[deisz001]

From a German site:

die risse in der heckklappe enstehen, wie hier im forum vor lngerer zeit bereits vermutet, nicht durch hochdrcken in die 2. stufe, sondern durch die unterschiedliche materialausdehnung. klappe aus kunsstoff, scharniere aus stahl. wurde von mazdaexperten bei der konstruktion einfach falsch berechnet.

dies hat mir mein hndler vor kurzem, als meine repariert wurde, besttigt !

Translation: the cracks in the tailgate appear, as has been guessed in this forum for some time, not because the tailgate is pushed towards the second position, but because of different expansion of materials: tailgate made of plastic, hinges made of steel. This has been badly designed by the Mazda engineers.

My dealer has confirmed this recently when my Mazda5 was in for repair.

Meine Theorie ist folgende:
Farbe SCHWARZ, bzw dunkle Farben, absorbieren mehr bis das ganze Licht und reflektieren fast keine briggebliebenen Spektralfarben.

Heit im Klartext: Schwarz heizt sich schneller auf als andere Farben, das ist ja wohl jedem klar, oder?

Somit spinn ich hier mal rum und behaupte, das die Risse vorwiegend an schwarzen Mazdas auftreten, diese durch die Farbe bedingt, hheren Temperaturschwankungen ausgesetzt sind.

Durch die Temperaturschwankungen dehnen sich Materialien aus und ziehen sich wieder zusammen, ist auch jedem klar.

Somit ergibt sich diese Theorie, da sich eine schwarze Heckklappe mehr ausdehnt und zusammenzieht als zb eine weie und dadurch an der schwchsten Stelle reisst.

Translation: My theory is the following: Color black, and/or dark colors, absorbs more light and reflects nearly no remaining light. This is called in plain language: Black heats itself faster than other colors, that is probably clear to everyone. This makes me suppose that the cracks mainly occur on black Mazda5's, since these, due to the color, have higher variations in temperature. By the variations in temperature materials expand and pull together again, that's also clear to everyone. Thus this theory results that a black tailgate expands more and pulls together more than e.g. a white tailgate and as a result cracks in the weakest place.

******* en of translation *******
I find this interesting, since:
- My Mazda5 is Phantom Blue, which is reasonably dark.
- Last summer, the cracks almost disappeared while the car was in the sun and they reappeared when the sun disappeared.

(Please excuse me for any mistakes in the translation, I'm Dutch and though I can read German, I'm far from a native speaker

 

[thaxman]

So then, new poll: for those with a cracked tailgate, what color is the car?

Mine is also blue (Mica or Phantom, IDK, bought used). Its a medium metallic almost teal blue. 2006, AZ desert car.

 

[Northern]

I checked and I have a crack on left hinge. Time to call the dealer...

thaxman: mine is strato blue, ie. darkish blue.

 

[deisz001]

Cracks have been glued

Just got my Mazda5 back from the dealer: they glued the cracks, painted it and it looks like new.
Now I hope those cracks won't re-appear...

Cheers! Stefan.

 

[coolmazda5]

Thanks Stefan for all the updates. Not the best fix at first sight, but on the other side I'm not sure if I would like the dealer to mess with the install of a new spoiler, especially as the model I have has the brake light and sprinkler attached to it.

Anyway, it is not a complex thing, just paranoid perhaps, my experience with people messing with uninstall-reinstall/reattach parts to fix other things has not been very positive. I'm on a "don't touch what is not broken" mode...

 

[thaxman]

Got a postcard - my tailgate is in. Well, at least I heard they only replace the whole thing. We'll find out.

 

[deisz001]

Thaxman,

Could you post a photo of the cracks? (Posting photo's may help future "victims" to convince Mazda that this is a factory-defect)

Stefan.

 

[thaxman]

Just washed it, so I can do that.

 

[thaxman]

FYI the tailgate comes unpainted AND without the rear glass. I was told it would be a quick swap, but my consultant never opened the box, and instead it spent the whole day @ the paint booth for color matching and I will get to bring it back in a few days. Good thing Mazda is only 4 miles away.....

 

[brg]

I'm in Winnipeg and have a black 2006 Mazda5 and just had the tailgate replaced off warranty They managed to reuse the window. Was in the shop for 3 days. They had me come in and meet the Mazda rep when he was in town and he arranged to have the work done. T

 

[deisz001]

Finally: The TSB

Hi all,

Finally, I got hold of the TSB describing this problem

Cheers! Stefan.

BTW: My tailgate has been just fine since it has been glued...

 

[batmick]

Just discovered bad cracks like this in our tailgate, both hinges (2006, black). Problem is that I had a bike rack installed and can't tell if that caused the cracks or just made them worse. And the car is well out of warranty so I doubt the dealer would fix it for us.

Does anybody have the instructions on how to remove that part of the hatch? I am pretty handy with the epoxy and could probably do a decent job of gluing myself.

 

[Davicho]

You can't just remove that part of the hatch. It's the entire hatch that needs to come off to be repaired or replaced.

 

[thaxman]

Or if you can find a front-damaged 5 at a salvage yard....maybe a way to get a Touring tailgate upgrade while you're at it.

 

[rat240]

if you buy one at the salvage yard try to find the gt model

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAZDA-PREMA...Parts_Accessories&hash=item337702744a&vxp=mtr

 

[batmick]

OK, I think we will have to live with those cracks. I do not want to spend that kind of money.

Thanks for the tips, though!

 

[SandmanXP]

'06 Silver Mz5, no cracks.

I've hung a bike rack with two bikes from it several times before getting a hitch rack (tried to distribute some of the weight to the bumper) with no obvious ill effects.

 

[speed5]

Dang! I just noticed I got those cracks on my rear spoiler this morning when I brushed off the snow. Yes I have an 06 black Touring. Outside temp was 18 deg F.

 

[deisz001]

Welcome to the club :'(
Since this is obviously a technical design error, Mazda should repair it for free. My cracks haven't reappeared yet, so glueing seems a good solution.

 

[Secondtyme]

Mine has the famous cracks on both sides. I bought the car with 110K on it, may contact a local dealer and see what they are willing to do for me. I don't want to wait and see how much worse the problem can become.