Yahoo Autos LIFTGATE: Scion tC Hatch Handle History and DIY Best Practices
I've got a fun game to play. It's like Travel Bingo or 'Punch Buggy,' but with a hip, youth-oriented twist for Generation Y. There's just one rule: every time you see a 2005-2010 Scion tC, go out of your way to get a glimpse of the hatch area, just above the license plate. Is it broken, taped, hanging off in some way, or simply missing? Snap a picture. Congratulations, you've just earned a point.
About 25 percent of the time that I see a Scion tC, I'm putting points on the board. That's because the handle on the hatch (Toyota calls it 'Back Door Handle Garnish') has cheap plastic tabs, and breaks off-apparently very easily. Spotting broken hatch handles is the name of the game, but cataloging the creative fixes from enterprising tC owners is, if you ask me, what it's really all about.
There was a time when I grew frustrated whenever I saw these DIY tC repair jobs. Were these tC owners so rough on their cars that they broke their own trunk, and so neglectful that they just put off fixing it indefinitely? While both are very often the case, it's also a factory defect.
Toyota issued a TSB titled "Back Door Handle Garnish Loose or Broken" in 2010, and while it states that only cars under the 3-year/36,000 mile warranty are covered, some owners on ScionLife.com reported being covered even seven years after initial purchase.
But why go that route when it may break again? Being the assistant manager at Spencer's Gifts means you don't often have time during the day to just drop everything and drive all the way out to the "stealership." So you mend it yourself.
Most commonly, it's duct tape, right over the hatch handle. No frills, a firm hold, and it's naturally waterproof. Why not clear packing tape, you ask? I completely understand why you'd go there: it's clear, no one will even see it. The Black Cherry Pearl paint shows right through the tape. But trust me: there will be air bubbles. You get air bubbles in there all day long, and I don't think it holds too well, based on how many dangling handles I've seen with ripped clear tape.
You can also just leave the handle off completely. Sure, the lights that illuminate the license plate are now shining at the drivers behind you, but that's not your problem, that's their problem for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when you cut in front of them.
There's another fix, but I've only seen it once. Drill some wood screws right through the hatch handle and into the trunk. That hatch handle isn't going anywhere.
The last fix may not actually exist, so let's file this under 'fantasy fixes.' I want to see the liftgate handle held on with leather straps, Outlaw Porsche 356-style. I would name this "Liftgekühlt".
Scion seemed to have gotten the hatch handle sorted in the 2011 model year update, but by then it was too late. Today, Scion will die in order to atone for its shoddy liftgate sins. Scion may be no more, but a whopping 319,636 Scion tCs were sold between 2004 and 2010, and quite a lot of them aren't already totaled. Make no mistake-that's a lot of potential points to score.
It's important to remember that when God closes a back door, sometimes the handle breaks off, but after that, he opens a window.
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