Trunk Lid Tension Adjustment

I don't know about a tension adjustment. That would be great if it had one.

What I experienced recently was at a rented home I pulled into the driveway which was at an up angle. When I opened the trunk it came down hard on my head. From that point on we backed up the driveway for the rest of the vacation.

I didn't look. Does the Clarity have gas shocks? if so they are cheap and easy to replace.

 

My 3 1/2 year old 2018 works just fine. Actually it is easy to see the torsion bar springs that hold up the trunk lid but I did not see any adjustment. Torsion bars can get weak over time. The parts are not that expensive but replacing them might be tricky. The mechanism is identical to that in an Accord or Civic (different part numbers) so a dealer should be able to do it easily.

 

I have the same issue. When I park on our driveway, the trunk barely stays up.

Since I have a 2020 with only 6k miles, replacing the tension arms should fall under warranty, correct?

 

If it's any consolation, these parts are very low cost...


Of course, if they failed this soon, they will likely fail again. I have not watched the DIY videos yet, but I would think with a little care, this seems like it should be a quick and easy DIY job. Given this, it shouldn't cost too much to have the dealer do it either. It will be interesting to find out how much they will charge. They should be able to give you a very accurate price because it looks virtually identical to the setup in the Accords.

 

Only if the dealer determines that there is a manufacturer defect or that the components have failed to perform as designed. If you pull into a flat dealer parking lot, open the trunk, and it stays open, it is operating properly. If you do persuade them to replace the parts, the new parts will probably allow the trunk lid to close when parked in your driveway, as they will be no different than the old parts.

 

On level ground I just measured our 2019, which we’ve had for a little over 2 years. It will hold when the bottom of the latch/tab on the lid is at 50” or more. Fully open it is ~64”. At less than 50” it will drop, but not close completely. It is roughly 6” from closing. On the bottom end, it will hold from just open up to 35”. Put another way, it will not hold when the tab is between 35” and 50”. I’d estimate that the trunk has been opened at least 300 times.

 

I just checked my 2018 for comparison. In doing this, I believe it has become apparent that @Landshark and @vicw are using a different point of reference (correct me if I'm wrong).
@vicw is measuring from the floor to the 'lip' of the trunk lid (in the center). @Landshark is measuring from the floor to the bottom of the latch. The difference between these two methods gets larger as the lid is raised due to the angle.

There is nothing wrong with either method, but in order to compare apples to apples...
My experience is that measuring to the 'lip' is a little easier because as the lid goes down, the latch becomes partially hidden.

I measured them both ways to illustrate the difference:

Height to the Lip

Wide Open - 69"
Holds Position - above 53", or below 36"​

Height to the Latch

Wide Open - 65"
Holds Position - above 51", or below 34"​

 

You bet. It definitely sounds like your springs aren’t holding up.

 

I did realize that after taking measurements and reading your post again, that we had measured from different spots. Being that the difference between our 2 vehicles, in where the lid no longer held was roughly 10”, I deemed an inch or two to be insignificant.

I’ve also opted to ignore posts from certain members on the forum. So whenever you reference one of those posts, I will be unable to offer feedback.

 

Since more data is beneficial, especially when it differs from earlier reports, I thought I would offer comparative measurements on my clarity (2019 base model, purchased Jan 2020, and low miles). Parked in my garage (so no wind, and with a slight slope to the floor of about 1-1/4 degrees, with car parked nose up) I do not get any drop at any position when gently placed. all measurements are relative the the bottom lip. My wide open height is 68-1/4". Below 36" there is no drop even with slight downward momentum, similarly above 46". In between those heights you can get some drop if you nudge the lid, but it does not move very far before stopping again, at most up to 6"? It certainly never drops to "closed" on its own - in fact, we have to close the lid firmly every time (some might say a "mild slam") in order to get it to latch. When new I thought the trunk lid was quite stiff compared to the 12 year old Accord we traded in for the Clarity, but now we are sort of used to it. Given that we not only have to push firmly down to close, but also have to assist with the lift to get the lid fully open, this behavior is definitely not due to the counter balance at all, which, BTW, is not a gas shock but a pair of torsion springs, easily visible as a pair of about 1/4" diameter rods extending from one hinge to the other across the top of the trunk (At least on my clarity, there are no trunk lid gas shocks!). My guess would be that we have higher trunk lid hinge friction than is present on the other cars measured and reported so far in this thread. On mine, I can't really see whether the hinge pin is a bolt or just a captured rod, but there is lube visible (and washers) between the square tube holding the truck lid and the stamped metal parts (one per side) that serve as the pivot points. If a bolt, maybe they got over torqued. If just a captured rod, maybe the stamped housing came out too tight, or the end of the square tube got a bit "fat" when the rest of the tube was formed into the required curve. Either way, with so few data points, we don't know for certain yet what is "normal", and which of our cars are the "outliers", but we do know that there are significant differences...

 

I kind of wonder if this is intended to be as close to neutral as possible (ie: the torsion rods could be designed to neutralize the weight of the trunk lid regardless of position). Then just a little friction can allow you to place the lid anywhere you want it. When in the zone where the lid does not hold position (between 36 and 53 for me), it only barely wants to move. It will not close or fully open on it's own.
This approach kind of makes sense except you probably are better with a small (but definite) up-force when raised so there is no chance that it will fall on your head as experienced by @vicw.

 

Thanks for the info. Yours and mine appear to be operating similarly, with the exception of the ~15” window, where yours holds unless nudged and mine will drop slowly. I can’t imagine a scenario where I would ever want the trunk lid to be in any position other that fully open or closed and latched. Anything in between is just a parlor game.

If it holds when fully opened, the simple solution is to be sure it is in that position prior to entry.