yesterday i had all day to clean my car spic and span, and i had just got done and was washing all the glass, so i popped my hatch and cleaned it inside and out.......... so i shut it when i was done and sure enough BOOM, it exploded in my face. A million little pieces of glass everyWHERE. now i have to clean all the carpet and ride everywhere with my girlfriend until i get new glass......anyone have good ideas where i could get some?

 

Ouch, that must have scared the chit outta ya...

try a junk yard..

 

ebay or hawkes?

must be plenty of salvage yards with them. I heard they are a bit pricy from chevy

 

It's happened to me before. Go to your local JY.

 

reilly8282,
Did your car have the power hatch closer? Just wondering, because I heard that's why GM added it, to keep people from closing it to hard and busting the glass. The local wrecking yards are full of them here, you should be able to get one for a good price.

 

that sucks
about the hatch motor....no matter how many times I tell someone about my back hatch If the person has never touched my hatch, they will try to slam it!!!!
I hate that

me:"don't slam it"
him:"ok"
BAMMM!!!!
Me: "why the #$%^ did you do that?
him: what???? oh sorry....

biker

 

sorry about your hatch!

you have a good sized clean up adhead of you now!

 

some little kid threw rocks at my hatch and it exploded this summer because of the heat and the pressure that built up in it... if i went through GM it would have been $1400 but Safe-Lite came through in the clutch with an OEM replacement for $700.

 

Just looked on E-Bay and there is one listed from a 85 IROC, with electric defrost, looks good, not perfect, it's buy it now price is $100.00

 

thats never happned to me, even when theres 150+DB's behind the hatch glass

that suck for you tho

 

Damn that sucks. Glad to hear nobody was hurt though. Ouch!

 

Yep, thats why I'm the only one who opens/closes my hatch.

 

I hear ya dude!!!!!!

I go to a car show, the guys like "Kids have been bringing boose, can I check your hatch?"

Me: Sure, its electric so shut it lightly

Him: SMASHES it down once, THEN SMASHES it down AGAIN!

Then I get out of the car, yell at his stupid *** damn ***, and go park my car

 

When he SMASHES it down, tell him to leave it, then go back there and get your tire iron and beat him with it :lala:

 

I should of!


I seriously thought he broke it.

 

A little tip: For those of US whos hatch motor is broke and you have to shut it alittle harder now.....Roll down a window or open a door before you close it. It explodes because of the amout of pressure that has been pressed into your car as you slam it.

 

I hate those dumba$$es who shut your hatch and then figure it isn't closing fast enough or it's jambed or something, so they lean on it...a-duh...can't you see it's closing...SLOWLY

 

what?

 

The reason GM put that pulldown hatch is so that it slowly pulls the hatch down and all that pressure has a chance to slowly seep out the car....Think how big that rear window is and when you shut it down quick its almost like a parachute pushing a hatch full of air into your car and its got to give somewhere so boom goes your back window. If you crack another window or open a door when you shut the hatch that pressure will go out there.

 

WHat? Thats crazy! It just exploded? just like that when you closed it? There has to be more to this story. Were you angry or something? Was there something in the car that the window hit? Thats crazy.......

 

I don't know where you got your info, I never heard of anything like that. Glass breaks for many reasons, But I doubt for that reason.
I'll I see something official I'll stand on.....
but that is just me
biker
BTW so when are you going to Ft Hood?

 

But you need to pick it up in Bradley,IL. Name a good price and i will sell

 

Funny how you described it as an explosion. It happened to me because I overtorqued the nuts at the hinges and BOOM! it does literally explode into a million little pieces. Deafening, loud as hell and scary as chit! Sorry to hear it happened to you. I got my replacement for $100, delivered, from a local JY. try www.car-parts.com for a local yard that carries it.

 

Man I am telling you that is the reason for the Pull down hatch....But anyways I am leaving germany inbound for Hood in January. I dont know if I will be there long or in a big Sandbox somewhere
Are you in??

 

ya it really did explode andi found a new hatch already and its on my car, but its blue and i have to paint it. it costed $150 and fits ok i think they might have been made from different plants or something because the glass is rounded more on one side than the other but it doesnt leak and u cant notcie whatsoever.

 

yea we talked about this a few months ago.
I was at hood about 2 years ago, Now I am at Ft monroe VA.
I'va anything happens, you should be going over the pond all over again. I wish I was still there (at hood)
later
biker

 

Slamming the hatch down doesn't only put the glass at risk, it also means that you'll probably strip the teeth on the plastic gear in the hatch pulldown motor. Then slamming the hatch down will be the only way of shutting it. Play it safe and just click it into place - let the motor pull the hatch down.

 

you remind me of Smokey the bear

 

I dont know those gears R pretty tough. They R plastic but I think the plastic case that holds the assembly on the car would crack first. When I bough my car the motor didnt work and that was the first thing I notied. that 30 dollar gear case. Cracked right where the screws hold it on. So I went to the junk yard to find another. Same thing, same crack, same place. I bought it peice some things together to make it work again. Sorry to say I had to break it to break into my car when I locked the keys in there. To bad I didnt have anthing to get into the door at the time. Well for Now I say screw that pull down. I'll just stick that thing in place right where it needs to be. If it cracks I'll let yall know. But I think it was as posted b4 as one cause. Over torqued bolts that hold it on.

 

wow, i found out a lot of good info on this thread.....i am the second owner of my car and when the guy before me bought the car he never new that it had a power hatch pull down so he always slammed it and broke the power hatch pull down...dumbass...so now i have to really slam my hatch hard! i am getting a power hatch pull down from this guy so maybe i will wait till i get that until i open my hatch again...
bub

 

i have a hatch that i could sell...make me an offer..has defroster and all....

 

I agree. Slamming the hatch on a car equipped with a power hatch pull-down unit will more than likely break the plastic motor housing where the 3 screws mount it to the frame. That is why I reinforce this area with 4 pieces of aluminum and special epoxy on the ones I sell. Weak hatch struts, (ones that barely hold the hatch up or work only when the car has warmed up) are another major casue of this breakage. If the hatch catches a slight breeze, down it goes SLAM. Between that and the clown of a Car Wash attendant, who thinks he has to slam it just like on his 85 Camaro, you can see why they break often. The reinforced ones help in this regard because they are a lot stronger. Once the motor housing is gone the alignment of the unit is compromised. The gear nut will soon fail. The POS injection molded guides GM used from 88-91 are another common area of failure. They were made using the absolute minimum amount of material possible and commonly break into several pieces, (again compromising the alignment of the unit). I manufacture new guides of solid nylon. I am so confident in the design and construction that they carry a 5 year warranty.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions
TDS web site