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Power Liftgate mod recommendation ?

puuhapet

New member
Location
Finland
Car(s)
Golf MK7 TGI Variant
After a year without problems with the electric hatch on my estate I'm having problems. Almost every time I try to open the hatch it opens a little bit and stops. Pressing the close button inside the hatch sometimes opens it completely or little bit more. There is a video link below. Can anybody tell me what the beeping indicates? The seller sent me the updated firmware for the control box but is not willing to help me more by saying that the kit is not compatible with the estate. Updating the firmware did not help.

My guess is that the electric poles draw too much current in the beginning of the opening and the built in collision feature in the control box stops the movement.

Does somebody have this same issue?

https://streamable.com/kc300b
 

IWMTom

Autocross Newbie
After a year without problems with the electric hatch on my estate I'm having problems. Almost every time I try to open the hatch it opens a little bit and stops. Pressing the close button inside the hatch sometimes opens it completely or little bit more. There is a video link below. Can anybody tell me what the beeping indicates? The seller sent me the updated firmware for the control box but is not willing to help me more by saying that the kit is not compatible with the estate. Updating the firmware did not help.

My guess is that the electric poles draw too much current in the beginning of the opening and the built in collision feature in the control box stops the movement.

Does somebody have this same issue?

https://streamable.com/kc300b
Looks frosty. What's the ambient temperature?
 

puuhapet

New member
Location
Finland
Car(s)
Golf MK7 TGI Variant
Temp was approx. +5 C. Previous winter the temp was lowest -20 C and the hatch worked ok.

Now after summer it has been colder and more damp.
 

puuhapet

New member
Location
Finland
Car(s)
Golf MK7 TGI Variant
Yes I have tried that. I'm going to try it again. Maybe I'll get lucky.:)

I might try to re-lubricate the poles. I believe they are basic spindle motors. Need to remove them and investigate can they be dismantled.
 

Doge

Go Kart Newbie
Location
MI
Car(s)
2016 GTI
9 months update:
So my latch was not unlocking before the hatch started to open so I manually had to unlock the latch from the backseat. It’s been happening for the past 2 weeks so I replaced the latch itself first thinking that’s the problem. The problem persisted so I took the hatch apart again and this time as soon as I removed the trim pieces I started to smell something burning. I traced it back to the control box that was in there and I took it apart to find a part of the circuit board burnt.

Has anyone else experienced this before?
 

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IWMTom

Autocross Newbie
9 months update:
So my latch was not unlocking before the hatch started to open so I manually had to unlock the latch from the backseat. It’s been happening for the past 2 weeks so I replaced the latch itself first thinking that’s the problem. The problem persisted so I took the hatch apart again and this time as soon as I removed the trim pieces I started to smell something burning. I traced it back to the control box that was in there and I took it apart to find a part of the circuit board burnt.

Has anyone else experienced this before?
Oh no! Have you contacted the seller?

I haven't experienced this.
 

Doge

Go Kart Newbie
Location
MI
Car(s)
2016 GTI
I did contact the seller today but given that it’s Sunday in China I don’t think I’ll get a response for a day or two. I’m hoping they’ll replace the control box for me because I think everything else is working fine.

Even if they don’t honor the warranty I think I’ll just buy another set from them and have some “spare parts” in case something else breaks. The wiring’s done so I just need to replace the hardware if any other parts fail in the future
 

IWMTom

Autocross Newbie
I did contact the seller today but given that it’s Sunday in China I don’t think I’ll get a response for a day or two. I’m hoping they’ll replace the control box for me because I think everything else is working fine.

Even if they don’t honor the warranty I think I’ll just buy another set from them and have some “spare parts” in case something else breaks. The wiring’s done so I just need to replace the hardware if any other parts fail in the future
Makes sense! Hopefully they honour the warranty!
 

Doge

Go Kart Newbie
Location
MI
Car(s)
2016 GTI
So the seller did honor the warranty and sent me a replacement control box but the part took about 2 months to arrive. I got the control box a few days ago and replaced the control box and everything seems to work well again. Really missed having the power liftgate!

Noticed the software was updated and not sure if this is placebo but the buttons seem to respond better now. Like I have yet to press the buttons twice for the buttons to register (yet... 🤞)
 

Pbrowne

Ready to race!
Location
Clarke County, Virginia, USA
Car(s)
2021 GTI
Makes sense! Hopefully they honour the warranty!
I'm curious about one installation step -- installing the struts. It looks like they must be fully extended to install but they come compressed/closed; can you manually pull the struts out or do you need to make them operate electrically? I don't want to break them.
 

IWMTom

Autocross Newbie
I'm curious about one installation step -- installing the struts. It looks like they must be fully extended to install but they come compressed/closed; can you manually pull the struts out or do you need to make them operate electrically? I don't want to break them.
Ummmmmmm, all I can remember is just fitting them, so presumably they were fully extended? Not sure.
 

oyster

New member
Location
Poland
Car(s)
Golf Sportsvan
Hello! Very interesting thread. I have a Golf Sportsvan and I installed a similar electric tail gate system from Aliexpress. I just have different fixtures. Unfortunately I encountered 2 problems I was hoping maybe you could share a light on.

First, the system opens the tailgate only when the engine is on. When I stop the engine, the system sometimes opens it a few times but then it stops. And sometimes it won't open it at all. It starts opening, opens a tailgate for about 1-2 cm and stops. It usually closes the tailgate with the engine on and off but sometimes it won't pull it with the lock. I used thicker cables but it didn't help.

The second problem referst to the fixtures. I installed them according to the manual but the upper parts of the struts seem to press on the car body. I painted the struts with a pen and put a paper tape on the car. There are clear marks where they touch. Please see the pictures.

Do you think the fixtures could be the reason of the problem? And with the engine on the current is big enough to overcome the resistance of the carbody while with the engine off it is too low? Unfortunately they won't send me different fixtures because they could damage the car... Any help and ideas would be very appreciated.
 

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Cuzoe

Autocross Champion
Location
Los Angeles
I can't help with any of the physical/body questions, but as far as only working reliably with engine running or shortly after... Are you sure they system does not consider battery voltage? Maybe there is logic in the control box so that opening/closing cannot drain the battery 🤷‍♂️. If your battery has not been changed in some time voltage might be okay for a few open/close after engine stop.
 
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