DIY: Weight reduction/Fix hatch not opening issue

DEpointfive0

Hey guys, this is a DIY on how to get a bit more useless weight out of your car.
It can also be used to help fix 2009 hatch popping issues

There is a weight in the hatch lid to "help close" the hatch for (I'm assuming) petit women in Japan


Tools needed:
Pry tool
10mm Socket wrench

Thanks to Sh0velMan for telling me where this weight is located!

Step one: Remove the screws that hold the cargo hover to the hatch by lifting the cover:
Rotated 1.jpg

Revealing:
Rotated 2.jpg

Step two: Remove the 10mm screw

Step three: Repeat on other side

Step four: Use panel tool to pry around the hatch cover closest to you:

photo 3.jpg

There are 8, equally spaced, orange clips holding the closest edge on:

photo 4.jpg

Step five: Jam your hand in, you'll see some white clips holding the back in, (you can see two in the picture), (DO NOT PRESS TOO HARD or yank down yet)

photo 5.jpg

Step six: Put your other hand on the glass side of the panel and pull down. you will need to jam and pull down on both sides of the hatch lock.
There are 5 (five) tabs

Rotated 3.jpg

Your panel will be off now and should look like:
photo 1 (2).JPG

Step seven: Remove the 4 (four) 10mm screws holding this box on the hatch:

photo 5 (1).jpg


Once off, it looks like this:
photo 2 (2).JPG
photo 3 (2).JPG
photo 3 (1).jpg

Step eight: Admire this stupid weight and put the panel back on the car.

Step nine: Give rep and thanks Drink a beer of your choice and think of how much faster you'll go from 0-60

kdo2milger

Awesome write up! I was not aware there is a weight in the hatchback. This should be made a sticky for easy access for others.

Great work DEpointfive0! and repped...now i'll go have that beer

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DEpointfive0

Thanks! If it needs any other instructions or is missing anything give me a heads up!
I like my DIY's moron proof/picture heavy. (Which reminds me that I have to rotate some of the pics)

DR_

So how much does the weight weigh? It seems crazy they spent all the extra money on an aluminum hatch just to add a weight back on.

kdo2milger

ya, i'm the same way...lots and lots of pics with a write up and my review or opinion of said mod...

have you weighed the weight? I'm curious as to how heavy it actually is.

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DEpointfive0

I can't find my damn scale, over a pound for sure... I've had it off for quite some time and it doesn't really make closing the hatch noticeably harder, but then again I'm not the smallest of guys...

ZForce

The weight is there so the hatch does not fly off at speeds of 90mph plus. Too much work for an issue that is fixable under warranty via TSB.

I bet the loss of weight is good for at least 10 more hp.

ZForce

Btw...good write up to the OP.

DEpointfive0

LOL!!! I've gone well past 100MPH without the weight there.
And for sure going to the dealer is easier, but this is a nice two for one. Useless weight

If you have the panel tool you can take the weight out in maybe 5 min. If I were to use a credit card instead of panel tool maybe a tid bit longer

DEpointfive0

Thanks, this is my first write after looking at tens of other DIYs... First one being to change the start button, and I didn't understand it for the life of me... A local cycy89 showed me pics of his install and told me to look at his DIY with a lot of pictures and it made it infinitely better



Edit: this was my 1000th post! Lol

kdo2milger

there are a lot of DIYers on here that would greatly appreciate this write up...trust me if I still had my z I would have been in the garage tearing it apart with some cold beers as soon as I seen this write up lol

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DEpointfive0

Lol, I'm glad

I didn't even intend to do this DIY (because of school) until a member contacted me though another thread, so I went through the uninstall process again and walked him through it with pics, so throwing it up on the forum wasn't too much extra work

Unfortunately, I didn't have beer either time I went through this uninstall...

ZForce

I was kidding regarding the hatch flying off.

Wonder why the weight is there in the first place?


Congrats and very good first write up of DIY. That's one more than me.

fuct

like metioned it just gives the hatch some weight to close easier.

DEpointfive0

Lol, I know you were joking

And the only thing I can assume is it was designed for petit women in Japan.

I close my hatch by pulling down on the hatch lock loop thing and it doesn't feel any harder to close the hatch without the weight