Hey fellas, so I've noticed how noisy my tailgate was when opening and closing, but just chalked it up to being how these liftgates sounded new, with this being a relatively newer technology in the second Navigators and Expeditions. Several friends have commented on how noisy it is, so I finally found a few videos on YouTube of other people opening the tailgate on one of these and they were way quieter. Here's a video of mine I shot a few nights ago:


I can't seem to find anyone talking about this same issue, let alone a resolution for it anywhere. Do I just need to lube up the arms, or the motor itself? The tailgate struts look like they are original... and maybe they are actually the source of the noise, but before I go ordering something that won't fix the noise I was hoping someone here might know what needs to be done for sure. I'll get new tailgate struts after I get done blowing my money on Christmas toys since I've already replace the hood and rear glass struts, don't worry.

 

mine is quieter, but it's still noisy. Even after replacing the support struts

 

They're expensive to replace, so if I were you I'd disassemble them, clean them and lube them up with new grease just to keep them working for as long as possible.

 

Thanks for the response Skauber! I was hoping to just be able to grease the steel arms when the tailgate is open, but after looking closer last week they don't seem to be lubrication item. The motors are going to be a total pain to remove.... looks like I'm going to have to drop the headliner down a ways in the rear, which means remove a ton of plastic. Oh, yay. Lol.

 

Yep, they're buried up in there. But I think it's well worth the effort to prolong their lifespan. If they're noisy, it's an indication of either dry lubrication or lack of lubrication, which isn't surprising after many years of service. Cleaning and re-lubing them internally can save you a bit of money, the job for replacing them if or when they fail is still the same...

 

Yep definitely on the same page with you on that! Just going to be fun uninstalling them and such... guess I better replace those support struts so the tailgate holds in place when I remove the motors