Rear hatch cracks

[daan]

I remember seeing something on here about the rear hatch developing cracks on the hinges. I apparently don't know how to search or something because I couldn't find the thread now. Anyway I went out and checked my 06 and both sides had pretty good cracks in them, one side worse than the other. (And yeah these are terrible pictures, I didn't have my "real" camera with me.) Anyway, what's the best way to fix these? Epoxy, bondo, new hatch, etc? The hatch isn't going to blow off while I'm driving it, is it? Other than the bushing squeek and a broken brake light switch, cracks in a plastic hatch cover is the worst thing to deal with on my car I'm pretty happy with it. It has 105K on it now and it's first 20K were with a rental company, and nothing else has gone wrong with it. (so far, ha ha) THey just make cars way better than they used to.

 

[deisz001]

See http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123745338-Cracks-in-tailgate

Since your cracks go all the way to the edge, Mazda recommends replacing the complete hatch...

 

[daan]

Great. Has anyone had theirs come apart on them or is it just an appearance issue?

 

[was98strat]

I suspect this has more to do with the 2 stage struts than the hatch design itsself! Do we really need a hatch that opens most of the way, and then requires an additional push to make it go the last 3 or 4 inches!!

 

[deisz001]

I don't think the hatch will come apart, but it won't get better by itself either, so I definately would do something to prevent the cracks from getting worse. I fact, since this is obviously a design-fault, Mazda should cover it by warranty.

I am glad that the hatch doesn't open fully in one go: I once parked in a garage where metal ventilation boxes were attached to the ceiling. If my hatch had opened fully, it would have hit the sharp metal rims of the box and get scratched.

 

[daan]

Well I'd love to replace my hatch (my spouse backed into something and scratched it all up near the name badge right after we got it, so the top is cracked and the back is beat up) but I'm so far out of warranty that I'm sure it wouldn't be covered. For what buying and paint-matching a new hatch would cost the same as replacing the dead struts, so I think I'm just gonna epoxy them.