PRIORITY/ACTION REQUIRED
To: All Honda Service Managers/Advisors
From: Technical Research & Support Group
Re: Request For Visit: 2006 Ridgeline Tailgate Does Not Open in Swing Mode
Print this iN message and provide a copy to the Shop Foreman and all Service Advisors.
Background
American Honda (AHM) would like to inspect certain 2006 Ridgelines with a customer or dealer complaint of the tailgate not opening in swing mode.
NOTE: To fully understand the cause of this occurrence, AHM would like to inspect the vehicle prior to you attempting a repair of any kind.
NOTE: The 2006 Ridgelines AHM is interested in must have a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) that is after/higher than 2HJYK1…6H506000.
If you have or know of such a vehicle, please refer to Action Required below.
Action Required
Call Technical Research and Support (TRS) Group at 1-800-880-1072. TRS will coordinate with you and the factory to arrange a mutually agreeable inspection date and time.
My VIN is lower than the one asked for but I have had this problem a few times. I have to open the regular way first then open in swing mode as the latch appears locked at first try. It hasn't bothered me enough to do anything about it. Maybe on the oil change I will ask about it. My only issue after 3,300 miles.
Be sure to be insistant on them getting someone to act on this ASAP. Print this notice and take it with you if you have to. I'll back you up if I need to, just don't let them take it lightly.
This happened to me last night, but it was just because I closed it the "regular" way to softly. After letting it down and putting it up a little harder it worked fine in swing mode.
RidgeOwner is right. If you don't close the gate hard enough, it will lock-out the swing opening. It's a safety feature. You don't want that baby falling off doin 75 mph...............
FYI...my handle for swing mode stopped functioning all together today. Pulls freely without just a few clicky noises but no reaction. Anyone know how to fix it? If I can't fix myself I'll reluctantly take it to a dealer and will post whatever they do.
I have not had this problem.I am constantly opening my swing tailgate to load my saddle and misc. equipment. Maybe my luck is that I use that mode all the time.
I too have this problem occassionally, but closing it harder in normal mode has always fixed it, so far. I hope mine doesn't quit working altogether, that would suck. Just turned 2000 miles over this past weekend, btw. Looking forward to 3000 so I can put Mobile-1 in it.
I too have this problem occassionally, but closing it harder in normal mode has always fixed it, so far. I hope mine doesn't quit working altogether, that would suck. Just turned 2000 miles over this past weekend, btw. Looking forward to 3000 so I can put Mobile-1 in it.
The Oil Change period for a new Honda Vehicle is between 5000 and 7500 miles. This is due to the fact that there is a special "Break-In" oil that is put in at the factory that allows the engine to be properly lubricated for the first time. For best performance, it needs to remain in the truck/car for at least 5000 miles.
Good news, I was able to fix it and avoid the dealership.
You need to remove the tailgate edge trim piece, 3 phillips screws, slide right and pop off a dozen plastic clips. Take off the tailgate composite cover, about 8 torx screws.
You then see what looks like the inside of a car door panel, a bunch of rods and lever mechanism connecting the latches to the handles. It has a set for swing and one for drop, and a lockout so that only one is active at a time.
There is a white plastic piece that can engage the lever connected to the swing mode handle. It slides in a race to be in the right place when swing is okay and missed completely when drop is okay. It was just missing by a few millimeters on mine for swing mode. In fact there is an alignment line on the mechanism for where it should rest and be struck dead center. I had to unhook the bottom rod (of tailgate when closed), and bend slightly to change where the plastic piece would rest.
The bad news, those pieces are as durable as a Honda Civic car door panel. So definitely not ready for a thousand hard slams like a person used to a pickup truck would do. Lots of plastic and snapped together. So future problems are possible.
Contact me if anyone needs help doing the repair.
I assume for those with intermittent problems we are experiencing near misses of these parts. The slam in drop mode is probably introducing a tweak to where the parts happen to come to rest for the next open/close.
Thank God for this forum! Today, I really showed my butt and acted like a 5 year old by slamming my tailgate shut. So, I got a full taste of what goes around comes around when the tailgate would not open. I felt really proud of myself then. I read this thread and fixed the tailgate in about an hour. It was hard removing the top trim because of all the clips. Especially, since I could not open the gate and slide the trim piece off. I removed the bolts from the large cover but it would not come off. So, I just pulled back on it and used a make shift slim jim to pull the control rod and open the gate. I used 3 zip ties as a temp fix to hold the rod in place. Everything is working now and my attitude sure has improved. Thanks everybody.
Thank you guys very much. My tailgate was completely stuck closed. It was Thanksgiving day and I'm going camping the next day. I was pissed. Then I found this forum and found the solution right here in this thread. What a relief. I popped the cap off the tailgate, pried open the panel enough to look inside and after 10 minutes of flailing around I found the broken tie rod connector. As soon as I moved it the gate opened and I was able to take the panel off and repair it. Thanks again guys, you saved me a hell of a lot of grief.
I have this issue, ocassionally, with my 06 Ridgeline. Typically just by dropping the talegate and then putting it back up then allows the swing mechanism to then work. However it is getting annoying and who knows if this fix will work forever.
I cannot locate the TSB you guys mentioned or find it anywhere. Could someone post a link to the TSB or email it to me so I can know what to do to fix it?
I have the same issue with the gate occassionally not swinging open on my 06. Could someone actually post the TSB for this, or a link to it so that we can fix it ourselves? I am out of warranty and am not willing to pay $200 plus for them to do something that might take me 20 minutes!
My DSH and I took our tailgate apart to see what was going on, and just like many of these posts, the plastic clips were the problem. Mine was more complicated because it wasn't the easy to access swing latch, but the up/down gate opening bar that came out of it's connection due to a broken plastic clip. I decided to use an easy to get to clip in it's place, and order the replacement, but, it broke when trying to remove it. Those things sure are flimsy! Anyways, now we had 2 broken green clips, and a non-functioning tailgate. Since my seat repair broke right after paying major bucks and waiting LONG TIME for parts, AND we worked up the nerve to try ourselves (thanks to these forum posts) AND I had a bad service experience the day before, I slapped on some sunscreen, rattled off something to DSH (dear sweet husband) grabbed a hammer and headed out the door with him hot on my heels to be sure I didn't go postal on my truck. He did most of the work, but I know I could have done it myself. He came up with stand-in substitute of drywall anchors and the job was done post-haste. Other than feeling around totally blind in the welded unaccessible part of the tailgate, it was surprisingly very easy to fix. If you decide to use the wall anchors, you will need to clip them to make them shorter. I will try to attach pics.
I have a 2007, and went 6months with a "stuck" tailgate, because I didn't have the time to give them my truck for a week to"figure out" what was wrong, since mine was the first they ever heard of...
To add to that the Southern California County that I live in has a population of 3million... so in 2009 with a population of 3million, they "never seen this before"... RIGHT!!!
Anyway I too found this website and learned how to get to this area...
I too had a broken purple plastic clip...
But what I did was use my trained skill of tie wiring to secure the arm... this method is NOT "general public", so I couldn't help others...
Your drywall insert idea is brilliant, in fact for the next one I'll do the same...
I wonder if Honda will ever figure out that truck owners don't do well with plastic???
I have a 2009 with the same problem, does anyone else with a 2009-2010 have this happening. Seems like Honda is floundering with this issue for a while. If you have a newer Ridgeline pester the crap out of them since there is a notice on it and there is warranty. I like the drywall plug solution, I have not ventured to open the tailgate, so until that time I will bug the dealer to handle it (pardon the pun). Mean time I also noticed that the swing out latch wont open when the truck has had the sun beating down on the tailgate. I have a black one and this surface gets rather hot. So something is expanding to create this problem. I might get Honda to look at it in that seized latch situation on a sunny day.
I had a problem with my tailgate opening from the side. I could pull it down but it wouldn't swing from the side. Not sure if it is the same problem because I was able to fix my problem in about 10 seconds by spraying WD-40 on th latch. It has worked great since. I had to open the tailgate the normal way to get to where I wanted to spray.
I've never had a problem with my tailgate...until yesterday. I opened it in the swing mode, it opened fine, but when I went to close it, it wouldn't close. I dinked around with the latch and was able to close it, so I thought that was that, but same thing happened later on in the day. Also, when I went to put the tailgate down in flip-down mode, the handle doesn't work, so the tailgate will not flip down now.
Anybody know if this TSB covers the tailgate not flipping down?
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