Dizzyhawk

Hi, new Audi owner here. The used dealership from which I purchased car agreed to "fix" the liftgate. It is a power liftgate and doesn't open 1/2 the time. When it does open, you have to time it just right and assist it as it moves upward.


My question:
1) Should it open with sprit all by itself (I suspect I should NOT have to help it raise)?
2) What should happen when I press the trunk open button on the remote? Should it unlatch only or completely open via motor?


I want to make sure it's fixed correctly and not buy into the "they all need help lifting" line.


Thnaks.

FL C6.5 Avant

Welcome.
yes.

it should raise by itself, unassisted.

ALSO, VERY IMPORTANT!
unless retrofitted, your liftgate will destroy the windshield washer hose and it will then spew on your bose amp and fry that B!t$h.
Pull the access cover on the left side under the D-pillar, and look inside for any signs of wet/blue green residue.

Dizzyhawk

Thanks for the reply Florida.


It should lift by itself then.


Re: water - I don't see any water damage signs in the amp compartment - I been looking in there recently trying to figure out why the Bose sound system sounds crappy (weak power, no bass). Car Toys tech thinks it's the amp. The car has a clean carfax report including a recent dealer service that included cleaning drain lines. Does the "retrofit" you speak of come in the form of TSB or is this something we owners are left to perform?


Thanks again.

Richard Levy

If it is opening but not all the way (wont stay up) it could be just the pistons, they are relatively inexpensive to replace. If you hear gears skipping inside it is the motor. Unfortunately those will set you back quite a bit. As I recall the dealer wanted over $1200 for the motors alone. Never let anybody pull the tailgate closed.

There is also a way to set how far it opens (less travel for short people) but that doesn't sound like your issue.

ajg617

There are two motors, one on each side. They are sold by Audi as a set. You can set the height that the tailgate raises to by lifting it up to the the height you want it to open to and holding the return button for a few seconds (says how many in the manual). Sometimes that setting gets 'lost'. There is also a latch assembly that is electrically connected and can impact how the motors perform. In my case, I wound up replacing all three components. First the latch (cheapest), then the struts, and last the motors. Mine also would not raise up all the way on any given occasion. Motors finally cured it. Even though it was out of warranty, I complained to the dealer that I shouldn't have to pay for Audi's inability to not diagnose which of the three components are faulty. They covered the entire cost out of warranty and with 75K on it and I also bought mine from a used car dealer with a clean fax.

There are two TSBs, one for the windshield washer hose (which leaked and ruined my amp - not uncommon) and another for the gate dropping on its own (not sure that applies to many 06's). My guess is the motors. But the latch is pretty cheap and the reset procedure simple. Personally, if you have to replace the motors, you might as well do the latch and struts as well.

Dizzyhawk

Good stuff thank you very much

isaac.reddinger@gmail.com

To piggyback on this, as it is somewhat related, I just purchased my '07 3 days ago. I seem to have an intermittent issue where upon closing, the motors pull the liftgate completely closed, but then push it out, against the latch. This causes a "Trunk ajar" notification, and when trying to lock the vehicle, there is no audible chirp, due to a door being ajar. It has been intermittent over the course of the last 3 days. Thanks!

ajg617

My 06 also did that (as well as partial opening than stopping similar to prior posts). Might be worthwhile when open to make sure all the gasket seals are in place and visibly look at the latch mechanism in the gate and in the lower latch hook for wear or mis-alignment. It doesn't take much for the latch to sense incomplete closure. I put a towel down once before I went to the dump and it overlapped the chrome bottom trim just a bit - that was enough to make it re-open. A stiff strut can cause the problem as can a defective latch mechanism and unfortunately also one of the motors if it has weakened. None of them will throw any codes - that was my beef with Audi because the techs could only diagnose by starting to replace parts, cheapest first. Also, if you don't have the spoiler on top of the lift gate (with the center brake light underneath), I had a problem with water getting in during rain through the poor seal around center brake light (it's about 1/16 inch of cheap foam rubber) which hardened and let water into the outer frame of the lift gate. I could hear it sloshing every time I opened or closed the gate. Eventually, enough water collected in the channel to spill over and corroded the button in the lift gate and I couldn't close it after that (even after new motors, struts, and latch assembly). The first time I noticed water was some dripping out of one of the lift gate lights after a torrential rain. I don't know if that affected the latch also because the dealer had already replaced it.

isaac.reddinger@gmail.com

I did check these items already. I checked to make sure there wasn't anything in the receiver area, or in the seal/jamb area around the entire liftgate. Everything seems to be fine. Can it really only be a matter of throwing parts at it? :-(

isaac.reddinger@gmail.com

So here's an update to my issue. When I took it to an Audi tech friend, I told him about this. He checked the striker pin, and was immediately able to tell that it had failed. He showed me what he saw. The pin is to be all the way out against the cover plate, mine is recessed in the "Lock" position (ie where the pin would be when the liftgate is fully closed. With it being sunken in like that, it cannot grab the part on the liftgate to pull it closed properly. The part is about $250 from Audi if I remember correctly. The workaround for it until I can replace it is to push the liftgate shut when it has about 4 inches to go, forcing it to catch on the pin.

I hope this helps anyone with the same issue!