[wildsheep]

Hi,

would anyone know if keeping the rear door open all night would drain the battery? Would i just turn the rear interior light off to prevent this? or any other tips on how to keep it open without killing the battery?

thanks

 

[medallione]

Modern cars these days have battery run down shut-off system after a certain period with any of the lights on (which would be triggered if the rear doors are open). Check the owner's manual, it should say something about this.

 

[fibber2]

Not overnight, but it will have an impact. The system will shut off interior lights after a period of time, but it will cost the battery a few amp-hours of capacity. Further harm can happen if the gate remains open on a vehicle not used for the next week (COVID). With the door open, many systems controlled by the Body ECU will never go into true quiescent powerdown state, and the typical 50-75 mA draw could be several times that. A damaged battery can result.

Your mother was right: Shut the darn door!

 

[floridanative]

Camping? Or accidental?

If camping, I would think the key ring in the locking mechanism trick would work the same as it does for gen2 and gen3. Makes the body ECU (or rear door or whichever ECU controls such things) think the rear hatch is closed.

If accidental, @fibber2 has you covered.

-Mike

 

[wildsheep]

I was thinking for possible camping. what is the "the key ring in the locking mechanism trick"?

Thanks

 

[fibber2]

I've been doing this trick for about 30 years on vans, hatchbacks and Subaru's as a way to rope down the hatch lid. Turns out it also tricks the body ECU monitor on newer cars as to whether the hatch is closed (latched).

Not my picture, but it shows the idea. Unlock / release the hatch to remove the carabiner and reset the latch.

 

[floridanative]

Yeah, unlike the other four doors which have traditional plungers mounted to the body that detect door open or closed, the rear hatch has a switch inside the latching mechanism that does that.

My credit goes to @tcdnvusa in this thread:

Simple open door dash light cutoff

Howdy, The following applies to my 2012 LE AWD (manual lift rear gate), your mileage may vary… Whether I am camping or working on my van I frequently want to leave the rear hatch up for extended periods of time. The following simple hack allows me to extinguish the dash “door open indicator...

www.siennachat.com

I use it all the time now on my gen2. I haven’t had close eyes on a gen4 so YMMV.

-Mike

 

[wildsheep]

This is great. Thanks everyone. I was just looking closer at this and feeling around the latch i pushed it in and it actually closed and locked while the hatch was still up. this made the display area behind the steering wheel stop showing the red icon for the rear door open. then when i hit the close door button on the hatch it opened the latch as it started to go down. So seems like you don't need to use a carabiner.

 

[fibber2]

I used to do this with a stick pen to close the latch, and then push a rope or bungee hook into the closed latch to secure the lid when carrying an oversized load. Using 'something' keeps you from getting your fingers pinched or greasy.

 

[floridanative]

Using 'something' keeps you from getting your fingers pinched or greasy.

And if there is a leash on the something, it reminds those of us with manual rear doors to “open” or unlatch the hatch before we close it!

-Mike