Last weekend, I had to drive through winter storm "Draco" with 20 inches of snow and winds of 70 mph. I stopped in a small town in Wisconsin in the midst of the storm and had to fetch some items from the rear. When I opened the tailgate a wind gust caught it. Afterwards, it was real hard to close the gate. I did get it shut with a little lifting and slamming.

Yesterday, I was able to get the gate to function by adjusting the hinges and striker but I noticed a full 1/2 inch gap along the upper part. I was able to make a temp fix by zip tying 1 inch pipe insulation to the gasket around the upper door frame

I think this is very poorly designed door because it is so heavy and carries the spare tire as well. You don't see any other SUV with a similar set up just look at Suburbans and Explores that have double doors and others like BMW's open on a horizontal axis but oh well it's a British Vehicle; nice to look at but lacking in engineering foresight and durability.

My question is? Has anyone out there had this issue? Is the tailgate itself distorted or is it just the hinge? Are there any links to sites addressing this issue?

 

We have a persistent one here lol

I have never let my back door get taken advantage of......
Now depending on how hard it was hit you may have actual structure damage if your lucky you will just need to remove the hinges and either replace or straightened them. Yes its a heavy door with side hinges but its one of the very cool unique characteristics of the discovery.

 

re: lacking in engineering foresight

The level of foresight is directly proportional to the number of years since matriculation. There is nothing more dangerous than a "new" engineer, or a young person studying to be one who has just entered the engineering shop for the first time, where newbies are re-introduced to the laws of physics and Murphy. Think that 5th semester of calculus will be hard? It'll be a lot harder if your are blind, where are your safety glasses?

 

Land Rovers have had side hinged rear doors with spares on them for around 60 years. What if the wind had caught a side door and wrenched it wide? Would you blame it on crummy side hinged doors?
The trick is being aware of how doors work and what wind can do.

 

hi to all newbie here and was hoping anyone can help me about my 2006 lr3 tailgate issue.
my upper rear hatch will not unlocked from outside however if i press lock unlock on my dash for 3sec it opens but i need to pull the outside handle just to open the hatch it seems the actuator is working but i think the switch on my rear hatch is the culprit however i cant get the switch out i dont have any idea or to begin with and i dont want to damage anything on lr3 will someone help me on my issue or send me a step by step how to get in to my upper hatch switch i think it just something needs to be cleaned thanks in advance...im just a newbie on your forum any help will be appreciated thanks...Rolen 2006 Land Rover LR3 4.0L V6

 

My 2006 LR3 tailgate upper hatch is now fixed by electronic specialist Carmi i just spend $40 job well done saves me $240 for the parts & $230 labor cost from my dealer. If anyone has same issue that upper hatch tailgate wont open try carmi werner 204-9559791 great help with this guy.