Tailgate problems of the 2007 Honda Odyssey

The tailgate suddenly stopped staying up. I have seen a recall on 2008 and 2009 Odysseys for the same issue. We are going to have to replace the struts that hold the gate up.

The contact owns a 2007 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that the tailgate failed to stay open. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was not notified. The VIN was not available. The approximate failed mileage was 87,000.

My wife had mentioned she had been experiencing some problems with the hatch on her Honda. Yesterday she said it was slow to open; today she said it would not open at all. I went out to look at the hatch and try to determine if she had a blown fuse, etc. I pushed the button on the remote and the tailgate opened, contrary to what she had told me. It seemed to open slower than normal. I went to see if anything was attached to the hatch that would slow down its opening. It was raining, so I stepped under the hatch. Without warning it came down on me. The interior of the hatch hit me on the head, knocked me forward then hit me in the back of my legs, causing pain to both my shins and calves where I was struck by the hatch and rear bumper. I already have some issues with a stained neck due to military related service. When the hatch hit me on the head I felt a sudden jolt of pain in my arm and shoulder, like a huge electric shock. Now my neck is very sore/stiff. I have had many other cars with rear hatches. The hatch struts would slowly lose their effectiveness, and would give you some sort of warning that they were going to be in need of repair. These hatches would become less effective in the winter, during cold weather. This is not the case with our Odyssey. It happened suddenly; one day it was fine, the next day it was smacking me in the head. Something is wrong with the design of these things. I'm going to contact Honda of America and let them know that they have a serious safety flaw in that these things could suddenly fail so rapidly. I'm a strong, healthy man. I work as firefighter in a big city, so this kind of trauma is not a huge deal to me. I shudder to think what would have happened if a smaller person was struck by this hatch.

The rear tailgate struts on my Honda Odyssey van failed once I opened it. The heavy tailgate began to close on me while I was under it and had I not noticed it coming down it would have crushed me. I'm elderly and struggled with the weight of the tailgate as I caught it. The passenger-side strut completely failed, leaking some kind of fluid out of it and the driver-side strut is also leaking. These leaks and failures were sudden as I had recently washed the van a day before and did not find any leaks when I cleaned the tailgate.

I have a 2007 ex with 13,000 miles and both of the tailgate (hatch) struts just failed suddently on 08/15/2010. There should be some additional safety mechanism on these so that they just don't collapse and cause harm (the hatch almost slam my 7-years old son on the head). Both can not go bad at one time and either one should support some weight. It is quite dangerous. These liftgate struts should be recalled before bad things happen. Honda should stand behind what they put in these cars.

The tailgate failed to stay open all the sudden, a direct hit on the driver with minor body injury. It had been working before and failed without any sign.

Both rear tailgate struts had leaked fluid, causing automatic tailgate to open but then slam shut rather than stay open. Service advisor explained that the problem only became evident after both of the struts had failed but, until then, one functioning strut may have been concealing the failure of the other. Problem manifested at 16,000 miles, and was less than two weeks out of warranty, but dealership charged me to replace the failed hatch struts.

Noticed that since Feb. 2010, my tailgate unexpectedly shuts closed, it fails to stay open, and at times, it opens only 3/4 the distance up and only for a short moment. . . Nothing has yet been completed to remedy the problem, I just realized through online search that others have the same concern, and a recent recall on 2005 lift gate strut recall was sent out.

Closed back tailgate/door/hatch from inside the vehicle using the handle located on the inside if the unit. The handle is located so low on the rear door my hand became lodged between the door & the jam, there is no safety release inside the door to open it from inside trapping my hand. The touring model is the only model with a rear door opener on the remote but the interior handle is still located so low on the rear door the same situation occurs.