2008 LE Armada Liftgate will open but closes immediately
Asked by tmeier80 Feb 12, 2012 at 02:12 AM about the 2008 Nissan Armada LE 4WD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I have a 2008 Armada and then automatic lift gate will open fully, but once open - immediately beeps 3 times and closes. When I try to interfere and push the door back up, I cannot. There is too much force. During normal operation, the door would immediately sense something in the way and reopen - but now, this is not the case.
It's really dangerous, and I can no longer use the trunk. Even if I open the liftgate manually, it will not stay open and it SLAMS shut when I get close to getting it closed. I cart around 3 kids all day, one of which we rely heavily on her stroller in the back of the car and cannot even get to any longer! Any thoughts? Our dealership is going to charge us $100 just to diagnose, and my warranty has a $100 deductible and may not even cover the issue because it may be wear and tear or possible damage done by one of the kids!
Trying to find an easier solution or at least know what to expect. Thanks!
9 Answers
There is a sensor on liftgate that like you said tells when there is something in the way or to much weight on it, it sounds like this sensor is bad. Now here comes the bad news, you will need to go to the dealer to have this looked at, the only other way would be if you know a guy that has the nissan software to look at whats going on in the car. this will let them see whats going on as the tailgate goes up.
justneedhelp answered 12 years ago
We have the EXACT same problem (only 2 kids to stroll around though!) Just started last week. Was checking the internet to see if there was any way we could avoid going to the dealer...
We actually the problem fixed. The struts in the liftgate went bad. We went to a local auto mechanic that we trust and it only cost us $90 for labor and parts to have the issue fixed. It would have been covered under our third party warranty, however, our deductible is $100 so we just went ahead and payed for it ourselves. I def hoped it was something simpler like resetting the fuse or something like that, but $90 isn't too shabby of a fix for the convenience of a auto lift gate that works! Hope that helps!!
Heather0619 answered 12 years ago
Our lift gate won't stay open, we had our dealership look at it and they said it was the motor in that area and they wanted to charge us $900 to replace it, and of course our worthless warranty does not cover the motor. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would spend $200-$300 to get it fixed since we are not able to use it. Hopefully I will get some feedback, keeping my fingers crossed.
Do this repair yourself!!! Go to dealer and purchase the lift gate struts.... These are easy to change out... Most likely only one went bad... So buy two... Then return the one you don't use. 10 min of work.. Unscrew and screw in new one. Will only cost you the part... Don't give money to the dealer when the job is this easy. If you can change a lightbulb you will have no prob with this. Part isn't expensive. The motor isn't bad... It's def your struts (dampers) that hold the gate up... The motor opens fine and then bc one of the struts are bad the motor feels too much weight and brings door back down.
No need to go to the DEALER.. Got to NAPA auto parts .. lift struts cost about $63 for a pair.. (look like small shock absorbers) usually one goes bad but I loke to replace matching parts at the same time if they don't cost too much. ... they are easy to install.
after replacing both struts and the problem still exist . . . then what?
On another page I asked if anyone could help me. My fob on my 2012 armada would open the lift gate but not close it. After reading several opinions that were not related and listening to several videos, I went outside and raise the manual handle while at the same time pressing the lift gate button on the fob and held it till it fully opened. Then pressed the fob and it closed. Might help somebody.
