First a little background:

My wife's white 2004 coupe was bought new in Nov, 2004 from one of the two local dealers.

Last Tuesday, 05-02-06, I had an appointment with a local 5 Star dealer for an oil change. The mileage was 8,904. It was the second oil change. The first occurred at approximately 4,000 miles. (I'm old and set in my ways: 7,000 miles between oil changes does not set very well with me) The dealer was also supposed to replace the headlights since they had developed the "fogging" problem.

Tuesday, 05-02-06:

I dropped it off at 0745 hours. At 1500, the dealer called to inform me that it could not be done as their only Crossfire mechanic had to leave early due to an emergency. He guaranteed that it would be done first thing in the morning. The next day, I learned that the mechanic was still off so I picked up the car and re-scheduled for Tuesday, 05-09-06. I can understand emergency situations, so it was not a thing to worry about.

Tuesday, 05-09-06:

I dropped it off at 0745 and was called at 1400 and told it was done. I went to pick it up and the clerk, not the service writer, would not release the car until she had determined that I'd turned in and paid for the rental car. I explained that I had no rental and wanted my car. After a brief argument with her, I got the service writer to explain that I had not taken a rental car. I paid my $85.00 fee for the oil change, checked the headlights, and left. I parked the car in the driveway with the hatch up and did various things. When I closed it and locked it for the night, I noticed that it made an unusual noise when I closed the hatch/trunk lid. It was late and I didn't want to mess with it at that time.

Wednesday, 05-10-06:

This morning, I noticed that the hatch/lid would move up and down, even though it was locked. I could not get it to stay in place despite numerous attempts to do so. There was 1/4 to 1/2" play in the hatch when it was locked. My wife drove it to work and called me upon arrival. She said the hatch/lid bounced so much that she thought it was going to pop open. I told her to make sure it was locked and I'd make another appointment. When I called, I learned that the earliest they can handle it will be Friday, 05-12-06. According to the service writer, it'll take 30 minutes to an hour.

My question:

Can I make the adjustment myself rather than waste time, and gas, taking it to the dealer. How do I adjust it?

I'm not impressed by the dealer. When we bought it, the second key was missing and it took two weeks to get it. I was told that it had to be ordered from Germany. They eventually found the key after I called the owner of the dealership. In April, 2005, I got a call saying that the key I'd ordered from Germany had arrived. I now have three keys, which is fine with me. (There was no charge for the third key.)

When we bought it, we were told that the luggage was a special promotion. In early January, 2006, the luggage was delivered to my house. So much for a special promotion.

The day/night we bought it and drove it home, I noticed that there was a faint yellow light on the dash. My son-in-law, who bought a Crossfire six months before us, checked it and found that it was a low tire. The brand new car, with 10 miles on the odometer, had a low tire. It was delivered that way. I can understand it because the sale was made at approximately 1930 hours on a Saturday. My wife, the salesman, and I were all tired and hungry. We were told to return it Monday morning for a final dealer prep. we did and everything was OK.

We both like the car. It handles well and is fun to drive. We've taken it on trips to CA and northern AZ with no problem other than a flat in Greer, AZ. That's another story but it worked out well.

Any tips on fixing the loose lid/hatch,/rear deck will be appreciated. I'm not looking forward to going back to the dealership and I refuse to have anything to do with the other local dealer.

John

PS: Sorry for the rant. Dealing with car dealers is not fun.

 

Hi John,

Not sure if this will help but it sounds like the problem is that the latch is only catching on the first stage of locking. You may find that it is just the rubber bump stops being out of position preventing the tailgate from closing far enough to engage the second stage of the latch. These are easy to adjust yourself, as long as you have the correct Torx driver bit. There is a bit of adjustment on the striker and latch assembly but you have to remove quite a bit of trim to get access to them. Its all in the workshop manual. If you haven't got a copy of this I would recommend you get one. It really does answer most of the questions that come up, it can just take a while to find the correct section - its 3,000 pages! Let me know if you need a copy and I will upload it to my server for you to download.

Here's the brief section on the tailgate bumpers...

 

Woody,

Thanks for the info. I took it in yesterday and adjustments were made. I do have the correct size Torx driver. It came with a gunsmith screwdriver set.

Thanks for the offer of the manual. At this point, I don't need it. In my younger days, I didn't mind working on cars but now it's not fun anymore. There are too many aches and pains involved. Bending, reaching, twisting, etc are a pain. My wild youth has caught up with me.

Rather than tie up your computer, but for future reference, where could I buy a copy of the manual?

John

PS: I saw your track videos. You Brits are crazy for racing in that weather.

 

Post the Link please.

 

Glad you got the problem sorted. It's not a problem posting the link, it won't tie up my computer, it was just that I needed to upload it first.


Here's the link:

Service Manual

Right click and 'Save As', or Alt-click if you are a mac user.
Be warned, it's 80MB so may take some time to download.



Well you can't let 'a bit of drizzle' get in the way of a good time.

 

Woody,

Thanks. I'll download it and save it. Hopefully, I won't need it.

John

 

I did that, too. Thanks very much. Now if only someone had the manual for the SRT6...

 

Woody,

I got it downloaded. Thanks for the help and the info.

John

PS: No rain here today... No rain for the past month and nothing forecast for the next month. It was almost 100 degrees F.

 

Another thing is that my hatch i just closed the other day and when it closed the interior plastic trimming all came loose and fell into the trunk. I had to open it up and snap it all back into place and now i'm getting horrible vibrations when i go over bumps. Maybe one of the fasteners is worn and not catching properly. The reason i'm stating this is that if the rubber stoppers don't seem to be the problem look into the inside of the hatch where the plastic molding trim is and feel if it's loose or wobbly.

 

BullFrog,

Thanks. I've put about 75 miles on it since the adjustment and so far, so good. My wife has finally admitted that she likes the Crossfire better than her '84 RX-7, which the Crossfire replaced.

We bought ithe Mazda new in '84 and it had 150,000 miles when we finally got rid of it. I finally convinced her that we could no longer get parts, such as brake pads, wipers, headlights, etc. I may have stretched the truth just a bit.

Both of us believe that we should keep our vehicles as long as possible. My '84 P/U has 141,000 miles and my '98 Mustang has 101,000 on it.

John