Type R Club of America

I'm sure this has been discussed before but i can't find anything through the searches. I need to replace the hatch opener relay and wondering if anyone has any info on how to get one. Looks like they are discontinued. On one of the other forums there was a lot of discussion around getting ones of ebay etc but no descriptions.

The actuator works fine when connected directly to 12V so pretty sure it is fine. The volts drop to 1.5 V when i pull switch, so seems like there just isnt enough power getting to the motor. There was some discussion around the relay being the issue in this case so am going to try switching it if I can get one.

Thanks for any info...

In for this, sounds like your issues with the hatch mirror mine, new hatch actuator, but issues opening it. Do you know where the relay is located and if there is any ID or part number listed that could possibly be cross referenced that could work?

As I was removing the bad mechanism, I noticed the clip was unsnapped, from a rod. Snapped it on and never needed the new mechanism.

Make sure you have good power and ground to the relay. I was having issues with my hatch after I had put everything together. The circuit is a little convoluted. My problem ended up being the latch itself. I went through 3 used ones before I bit the bullet and bought a new one from Acura.

What was the symptom with the bad latches? Mine was not latching and I had to slam the trunk to even make it work. It ended up being a lube problem inside the latch. I had to take it apart to lube a certain section of it that was bone dry and making the latch hook hang open. It is a pretty simple latch but the lube was by far, definitely lacking in all of them from the tons of reports of latch problems.

Mine was electrical in nature. They all worked mechanically. In the wiring diagram you’ll see “hatch latch switch”. It tells the car weather the hatch is locked or not. There is no physical contact with any linkage. It’s simply a micro switch attached to a small servo in the latch itself. If you look at my pic of the latch it’s the small plastic white linkage below the plug. The relay will not be energized if this is open. If the servo motor is bad the only way to be sure is to physically move the switch by hand, turning the key won’t move it. You can also jump the terminals to verify it’s not the micro switch.

You can try a trick that worked a few times for me to clean micro switch contacts. Low current micro switches used as trip sensors go bad over time because corrosion forms over their contacts naturally and there is no way to get inside the switch to clean the contacts. However, if you hook something with a relatively large current draw like 4 - 5 amps (e.g a headlamp or RC car motor) through to the switch lines with 12 volts, if you can get it to conduct even once, the arc inside when it makes contact may blow the contact surfaces clean enough to get it working reliably again. It worked great for me and It could be worth a try on your old ones since parts are getting so scarce for these cars.