Power liftgate metal failure

Well with 2 failures on this forum alone - one would guess this is a potential weak spot on our CX9's.

I don't use my hatch often so I doubt it will happen on mine - but if it does I think I will just disable the auto hatch. With the smart key being left in my wallet all the time, I never use it to lift the gate anyway.
 
Second case on this forum I have heard about this, and in both cases, Mazda replaced the entire hatch. That is good for owners.
However, I use it at least twice a week, and last time I checked, it looked normal to me. I will keep an eye on it.
 
Second case on this forum I have heard about this, and in both cases, Mazda replaced the entire hatch. That is good for owners.

...good for those still under warranty. Of course, this vehicle is expected to be on the road for an additional 10, 15, maybe 20 years. I imagine we'll see many instances of this issue as the cars age.
 
My 07 powerliftgate recently failed. The nut on the inside of the liftgate came off falling inside the gate causing the arm to disconnect from the liftgate. My mechanic drilled ahole behind the leftgate trim next to where the lifgate attaches so that he could hold the nut to tighten the liftgate arm back onto the liftgate.
 
Second case on this forum I have heard about this, and in both cases, Mazda replaced the entire hatch. That is good for owners.
However, I use it at least twice a week, and last time I checked, it looked normal to me. I will keep an eye on it.

Looks like we have the same issue on our 2008, we also have kids so the lift gate gets used many times a day. In spite of what the metal fatigue experts think, it's a poor design and eventually. Many will have this issue. Theres a ton of pressure on that square inch of thin sheet metal-needs reinforcement
 
Just had the power liftgate arm of my 2010 CX9 rip out of the liftgate. Exactly the same issue as reported here. The dealership expressed disbelief that it was a metal failure and originally said it wouldn't be covered, as my vehicle is out of warranty. However, after they contacted Mazda, the replacement will be covered in full. Obviously this is a known issue! I love my CX9 but this was pretty shocking.
 
No metal failure here yet, but they tailgate will now not close with the button, the mechanism tries to close it - and the left side pulls it down , but the right side stays up. Before you know it, it beeps and cancels the movement.

The power mechanism works fine when opening the tailgate.

I don't see anything wrong with the gas struts, or the two main hinges.

Any suggestions on what to try next ?

Thanks...
 
My 2008 looks just like the OP's photos. I'm the original owner; nothing exceptional happened - just normal usage. Nice. Time to see what a body-shop can do.

-Jeff
 
Well sorry to bring up such an old post just had mine fail except my nut did not pull through the hatch frame but did pull the nut or whatever it is consider off the inside so now waiting to hear back from Mazda and the dealer 2010 cx9 touring awd 52k miles
 
oil liftgate hinges ?

Hi guys,

just a thought about the liftgate hinge failures, could it be that the hinges are not lubricated properly, and the linkage mechanism is acting like a "stiff arm" against the trunklid and causing metal fatigue on the link joint ? "Stiff arm" as in like a football wide receiver stiff arming a tackler.

Anyway, I started hearing squeaking when I opened the lid, and started thinking that the rotating joint is not lubricated enough and not rotating smoothly and "stiff arming" the joint on the trunk lid. I lubricated the link joint with household door oil as shown and the squeaking went away immediately, just thought I share this with the members, might save some headaches from lid failures.







 
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Well just to update you guy Mazda has agreed to cover labor but not the parts. Also avidien thanks for the suggestion but its not a binding issue. My liftgate never showed any signs or issues prior to it failing just loud banging and the issue if I had to guess it was the weld failing and then the nut being pulled from the stud luckly the nut stripped or broke before completely destroying the hatch and breaking trim glass act.. But am not happy with my end result paying for labor and not the part which failed because of a design flaw pisses me off to be frank. I am considering contacting them again to discuss the issue but afraid it would hurt me in the long run .what do you guys suggest.?
 
I think Mazda would just tell you to go pound sand. I dont use my pwr gate button anymore for this reason. Oh btw I spotted rust between the gate garnish and the gate...very very tiny but I know it will grow. #awesome
 
Another power lift gate failure.

Well just to update you guy Mazda has agreed to cover labor but not the parts. Also avidien thanks for the suggestion but its not a binding issue. My liftgate never showed any signs or issues prior to it failing just loud banging and the issue if I had to guess it was the weld failing and then the nut being pulled from the stud luckly the nut stripped or broke before completely destroying the hatch and breaking trim glass act.. But am not happy with my end result paying for labor and not the part which failed because of a design flaw pisses me off to be frank. I am considering contacting them again to discuss the issue but afraid it would hurt me in the long run .what do you guys suggest.?

Just had my lift gate hardware rip through the sheet metal of my CX-9 (2010). Made an appointment for Monday morning. Preparing for the worst.
 
I also have a CX-9 Grand Touring 2010, also had Just had the power lift gate bolt rip through the sheet metal, the bolt and joint looked rusted. So may be if it had been lubricated annually this issue may have been avoided.

I went to the dealership where I bough the car, WAYNE MAZDA, they wouldn't pay for it (6 yrs and 97K miles) they sent me to their body shop where they quoted me $1050. $60 of that is parts and 14 hours of labor. They explained that you have to disassemble the glass, cut the metal, weld a plate, install the bolt, repaint because the heat will destroy the paint, reinstall the glass and assemble the arm. Also I was told by the body shop that they have never seen this happen in a CX-9 before and Wayne Mazda is the dealer with most Mazda sales in the US. For the time being I will ask for quotes at other body shops but if anyone finds an official policy from Mazda pls share.
 
Design flaw: Mazda CX-9 power lift ripped out of the sheet metal (hatch)!!!

This is unbelievable!!! I pressed the button to open the hatch using the power lift and heard terrible noise. The coupler where the power lift is attached to the hitch got ripped out of the sheet metal, the plastic trimming covering the area got removed, too. I was stunned to see that happen. Having background in mechanical engineering, I am having a hard time understanding how can such a thing happen. All calculations [should] include a safety factor, a "term describing the load carrying capacity of a system beyond the expected or actual loads." While inconvenient (I hope that Mazda fixes this at no cost as this is a design flaw), should I be worried about our safety in this car? Are other parts also as poorly designed as the hatch power lift coupler?

Here are some pictures of our Mazda CX-9 2008 with just over 80,000 miles on odometer (it makes me cry to see this happen on our Mazda that looks like new and there were no issues with the power lift mechanism before):

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I've had my 2008 CX-9 for four years, and the mount for the hatch back power lift ripped out of the sheet metal of the hatch. I use the power lift

several times each day and the sheet metal seems to have fatigued and given out. We purchased an extended warranty from the dealership (when we bought the car), and it's with First Extended Service Corp. We were told that it covered everything that the original warranty covered, but are now being told this problem is not covered. Mazda estimates $2-3k for this repair!

Anyone else with this problem, and how did you resolve it?
 
I hope this has been addressed on the facelift version...any 2013 models above experienced this?
 
that is just unbelievable, agree with you on this +1 : great statement,

"Having background in mechanical engineering, I am having a hard time understanding how can such a thing happen. All calculations [should] include a safety factor, a "term describing the load carrying capacity of a system beyond the expected or actual loads."


it doesn't look like they analyzed the stress and loads and fatigue over time correctly, even I know it's not a good idea to have a constant load bearing, heavily everyday used part rely simply on a hole in a thin sheetmetal, Mazda should have at least added a thick load spreading bushing so the hole in the fragile sheet is not stressed over time..... doesn't seem like it's rare issue, it's all over the internet..

I have a 2013 @80,000 miles and I use the hatch everyday, no problems (knock on wood), honestly, I don;t have much confidence Mazda fixed it and still same design as previous years. c'mon, they didn;t even bother with adding a simple drain plug in the transfer case, still same crappy transfer case since 2007/2008
 
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that is just unbelievable, agree with you on this +1 : great statement,

"Having background in mechanical engineering, I am having a hard time understanding how can such a thing happen. All calculations [should] include a safety factor, a "term describing the load carrying capacity of a system beyond the expected or actual loads."


it doesn't look like they analyzed the stress and loads and fatigue over time correctly, even I know it's not a good idea to have a constant load bearing, heavily everyday used part rely simply on a hole in a thin sheetmetal, Mazda should have at least added a thick load spreading bushing so the hole in the fragile sheet is not stressed over time..... doesn't seem like it's rare issue, it's all over the internet..

I have a 2013 @80,000 miles and I use the hatch everyday, no problems (knock on wood), honestly, I don;t have much confidence Mazda fixed it and still same design as previous years. c'mon, they didn;t even bother with adding a simple drain plug in the transfer case, still same crappy transfer case since 2007/2008

better start checking the joint, I suppose the damage does not happen overnight so there will be some fatigue on the surrounding area if it is about to fail.
 
I just found this thread, is there a standardized way to fix these? Mine looks like yourall's, ripped out of the sheet metal. I pulled the fuse so kids/wife wouldn't hit the power liftgate button and wreck things worse. But then she started complaining about not being able to put stuff back there so I put the fuse back in....hope she don't hit the button (mad)

Mine is a 2010 CX9 AWD GT
 
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