Any way to convert a 2015 to the power trunk closure found on the 16's and 17's? Why did they delete this from the 14 & 15?

 

I had a 2014 convertible without the power latch. My new 2017 convertible now has the power pull down. I liked the non power latch better.

 

I read that they deleted it because of weight. If that's so then why did they bring it back? Hmmmm!

 

No way to retrofit. There was a lot of discussion on this when the 16s were released. Someone went so far as to get the manuals and the parts list. The change is very involved.

It was not on the 14 and 15 due to a new venting technology. The bottom line is the new tech worked as designed but was not large enough. As a result a new style pull down was added in 16.

 

They brought it back because too many owners of 2014s and 2015s complained that the electric wire system used for those years didn't work well enough.

 

Forgive my ignorance but what does a power pull down on the trunk lid have to do with "venting technology".

 

Not sure exactly how to describe it but there was a 'magic' metal strip that would control the amount of air that would be displaced/vented allowing the hatch (or trunk) to be closed with minimal effort. That was the 'venting technology'. Long story short it was not ready for prime time and most '14-'15 owners need to have a window partially down or door open to relieve the pressure when closing their hatch or trunk. There were obviously enough complaints about it that the power pulldown made a return. I hope the inventor of the bogus venting has been reassigned to work on economy cars...

 

In 2014 and 2015 they used a vent in the rear of the hatch that was supposed to allow air to escape when closing the hatch, thereby making it easier to close. The system worked as designed but due to the way the vent was engineered and sized it didn't allow enough air to escape to allow for easy hatch closure. Rather than re-design the vent they chose to go back to the power pulldown.

 

The vent metal works as designed. The problem was whoever sized the vent opening didn't make it large enough to vent out enough air fast enough to allow the hatch to close easily.

 

So I wonder what would be involved in a retro fit?

 

My C6 was brutal when it came to closing the lid...I don't think that I opened the trunk more than a dozen times in 10 years....I would tel myself when it was new "oh, that will get better" - NOT.

 

My 2014 works just fine, I never open a window or any of that stuff just to close my hatch. Like it or not, it's just a matter of opinion. Anyway, here's the full explanation: Smart Metal Article

 

That's actually something that kind of annoys me. My 2006 coupe had auto closure and my '14 doesn't. Really weird that older models had it then 2 model years of the newer body go by before reintroducing it.

 

As I said before, the people who looked at it earlier concluded it was huge. The system takes a different mounting for the latch, wiring, computer control module and maybe some other things I'm not remembering. Do a search and you should be able to find the previous threads.

 

Of all the concerns that pop into my head, the return of the power trunk would not be high on my list but to each there own, eh

 

I have the power pull down but would be just fine with one I could just drop or shut down normally. Something else to screw up

 

I'll provide the long story!
Received my September 2013 built C7 very early in the build cycyle. GM marketing folks touted their patented "magic memory wire vent" as a great new advance. In a nut shell by heating a wire it coiled like a spring and opened ~12"x4" vent louvers in the rear. That was "supposed to" relieve the internal pressure when you closed the hatch an allow it to latch. It was to be a weight saver over the motorized pull down I had in my C6. (Turns out that was less than 2 pound saving.) It no doubt cost less!

It worked for some cars. For mine (that I sold last week and have a Grand Sport on order) I still needed to have a door or windows open or it would not latch. Some folks pushed to latch (which was warned about) and caused cracked paint or in a few cases a cracked lower hatch frame. I watched my hatch frame bend excessively when I tried to push, so never did close it that way!

Enough of us had problems and GM paid for repairing the cracked paint or replaced cracked frames and decided to go back and add the motorized pull down they had on the C6! It's integrated with the computer and not easy (if even possible) to retrofit. [Like most items in the the C7, the motorized pull down is activated and integrated with the computer. A fellow who was willing and capable of altering the software (his profession) even gave up!]

I soon learned to shut my door after I shut the hatch! In fact mine was getting better. I could stand behind my open door and touch the hatch from one side with one finger and it closed and latched. With a door closed, slam as hard as I could and it would not latch! The power of small pressure differentials!

Now the Rest of the Story:
Some of us were frequent forum posters on the subject. We were accused of being weak or having a limp wrist (semiautomtic pistol issue) by those who's hatch latched as designed! We were never told by GM why some cars worked and some didn't.

In a few posts I put a pic of my weight machine I used 7 days a week and have been for 35 years! Yep this 74 year old dud does 3 sets of 10 pull-ups as part of back day! I also do 3 sets of 10 tricep pushdowns with 70 pounds on arm/chest day!



Posted to show it wasn't for lack of strength that I couldn't latch the hatch! It's in my "man cave" office no excuse not to do use every day!

 

My 2005 base C6 had the power pull down hatch latch. When I first got it I thought - "Oh yeah, that's what you get because they brought a Cadillac guy over to be the chief engineer on the C6 - luxury car crap on a sports car!!"

Then when the C6 Z06 came out in 2006 model year, I got one. I got the top of the line 2LZ trim. I got it as a daily driver, as well as to track it. Even on the high trim level you couldn't get a power seat on the passenger side, and even my driver's seat didn't have all the adjustable side bolsters and lumbar support that my 2005 had. The first time my wife got in she asked "where are the switches to adjust my seat?" - but of course there weren't any.

And the rear hatch, it didn't have the auto pull down that my 2005 had, and now I knew why it was on the 2005, and I was pissed many times when trying to close the damn hatch after throwing stuff in there and trying to slam it. A lot of times I would just bring something my wife bought out of a store to throw it in the car, then go to join her in another store - so it was a PITA to have to open a door just to close the hatch. It was even hard to push down, and left hand prints all over the edge of the hatch. I think all the Z06's got the auto latch in 2009 when the ZR1 came out, but all of them prior to that don't have it.

So....I got a pair of full power seats so my wife had her power seat, and I would have all the features on my side that were otherwise missing.

And....I put in a pull down hatch latch. I got it from a salvaged car, did a bunch of studying of wiring diagrams, figured out how to bypass some relays and added others so the BCM reacted just as it would in a car that came with the auto latch, and enjoyed it for the 10 years I owned the car.

The seats probably added 25-30 lbs, and the auto pull down latch maybe 5-6 lbs, but the car was wicked at MANY track events throughout the years!!

My 2016 Z06 has the pull down latch, so I haven't even thought about what might be required to add it to a C7 that doesn't have it. It wasn't easy, but doable on the C6, and I'm sure that if somebody really wants it they should be able to retro fit it into a C7. If somebody is going to try it, I highly recommend getting parts out of a salvaged car - the price of new parts would be way too high. A lot of parts were required from the latch, to a different striker on the hatch that hooks into the latch, to a different key lock and cable that goes from the key lock up to the latch to unlock with your key, etc., etc., etc.


So....even though I was tracking the car a lot, I really enjoyed the full bolsters and lumbar support in my seat, and my wife liked her power seat, and I REALLY liked the power pull down hatch latch.

If anybody is going to try the retrofit in a C7, here's a link to an OLD thread about my conversion - you need to scroll down to about post# 28 before I finally decide to do it and start getting parts. Maybe you'll get some ideas that will help in the C7:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ear-hatch.html


If anybody tries it, Good Luck!!!

.

 

The C6 system is nothing like the C7 version. Here is what is involved: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1590074936

Even if you were able to get the latch hardware installed and rewired, there is still the issue of the BCM and the CAN Bus.

 

The person who was going to try was capable of writing code to do just that. However after seeing some of the issues gave up!

You'll quickly learn to just close the hatch BEFORE you close the door-no big deal as you're usually going into or leaving the car when you go in the hatch. I also bought a Window Valet that allows you to open both windows with the existing Key Fob. However 90% of the time just closed the door after the hatch.