I bought an '05 350Z over the summer, beginning of August to be exact, and I love everything about the car. The only thing that bothers me about the car is that now that the weather is getting colder, alot of times at night when it gets colder my hatchback wont stay up and ends up crashing on my head. It's not extremely cold where I am, maybe 45 degrees at night around this time, but if it's falling now it will never stay up when it gets to be like 20 degrees. So I'm trying to find out if this happens to all 350Zs or if the pistons on my hatchback are bad, in which case I'll replace them. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

 

there are higher strength hatch struts you can buy.

I added a nismo spoiler to mine and I just learned to hold it up. really, how many times could it crash on your head before you just held it up .. : P

 

Mine do it as well. I can't remember if there is an "upgrade" or just replace them with stock shocks. I find you have to push it up ALL the way or else it smacks ya!

 

Yep you have to hold it up when the temperature dips below 60 for me.

 

ouch

 

God the hatch has hit me so many times. Too cheap to buy one since I am in school right now.

 

If you do a search, you should be able to find the thread that had aftermarket springs for sale.... but you would need to "search" first...

 

not springs...

 

Suck it up and your head will get used to the pain, or just sell the Z car. Either or, your choice

 

I live in ny also and it only happens on cold days. It is pretty reliable since my car is approaching 6 years old

 

lulz

 

http://www.z1auto.com/prodmore.asp?m...or&prodid=2976

we will have more at the end of the month

 

^ nice.

 

my just started doing it this year, it almost got me

 

This happened to me. Of course, the Nismo spoiler didn't help the situation. OEM Nismo shocks for the hatch are a different part number and are significantly stronger. There is also a guy on this forum who makes them out of aircraft aluminum and are also significantly stronger. I have the Nismo ones now and my friend bought the aluminum ones. Problems solved.

 

just cant force myself to spend 150~ish on such a small issue that is solved by holding it up when I need to use it. : P

 

yea i thought they would be alot cheaper than that definately not worth tha money

 

Laugh all you want but it works.

 

There is a 10lb weight in the back of the hatch, you can remove it and it will help to keep the hatch up.

 

If you want to know why it happens, i believe it is because it is pressurized gas inside, and when its cold the gasses lose their pressure, hence they cannot hold up the hatch