It takes so little to dent these. I would have to say it is just not supported well for the bar to be pushed on to latch the door.

I pull on the cup and push on the bow tie to keep the motion up but I do not push on the bar to latch it. I let it slam shut. So far no dents.

The metal an most cars is so thin. This is also why more cars are seeing hail damage also.

Many today don't realize how thick fenders in cars like a 38 Chvy used to have.

Some Asian cars are so thin it takes so little to dent. They are tring to save weight any way they can.

 

i always use the hand cup to close it. i just give it a good swing and it slams shut, of it doesn't make it, i open it back up all the way, and do it again. If mine gets a dent, i know it will be from my wife, she's a lot shorter and often i catch her almost using the bowtie to close it, and i give her a big EEEEHHHHHH WRONG sound. She thinks i am crazy.

 

Still not sure what causes the buckling in the first place. I don't use my lift gate often compared to most people. Simply just pushing the open button and giving it a quick pull might be causing it. And closing it I almost always use the inside handle (cept sometimes if the door doesn't close all the way, I have to do a quick open and close pushing on the bowtie, which just doing that a few times could have made it buckle).

 

Well I got my car back. And if you didn't already know that the dents were there, you wouldn't notice. Since I knew they were there and one was really bad you can see a very small crease coming from the beauty bar, but I'm very happy with it, especially not having to do a full body work to the whole lift gate.

Now the job is to prevent from this happening again. I just hope the issue isn't just from opening it and it is from closing it the gate pushing on the bar. Cause if the buckling is caused by the opening of the lift gate, then more than likely its going to return. Which will suck.

I wonder if there's someway of reinforcing the fold point from the stamping process. Than I could install that right now and not have to worry to much in the future.

 

did they do dentless. i have a issue with them as well.

 

not sure what you mean dentless?

 

Perhaps paintless??

PDR........paintless dent removal

 

I just noticed mine buckled on the left side of the bar, I thought I backed into something or someone backed into me. Glad to hear its a design issue. I guess I'll bring it into the dealer to see if they'll fix it. I usually pull the hatch open using the bow-tie area, then close it using the inner handle to lower it down and then close it using the license plate or lower edge of the hatch.

I've noticed recently that my hatch makes a really loud noise trying to open, and the struts aren't as powerful anymore, and my sunroof squeeks like hell closing too. :-\.

 

The HHR is made of a 4 ply Laminated Metal,Light Weight fuel efficient. A Good Habit to get into is to use your finger tips on the Rear window ( Solid Mass) when having to apply that last bit pressure to get the Latch to engage. a quick shot of any Lubricant on the Hinge Pins will eliminate the Noise.

 

Lube is in order for noises.

Silicone spray on the tracks for the sun roof should fix it.