I installed a carbon fiber trunk on my '02 CL-S last night. Very easy install and the good news is that is half the weight of the OEM. That's also the bad news. When you hit the remote release the trunk literally flies open and bounces off the stops hard 3 or 4 times. The lid or the hinges are not going to take this for too long before one or the other gives.

I crawled in the trunk and had a look at the spring arrangement (very clever) but saw no obvious means to make a simple tension adjustment. So, I did a bunch of searching and found a thread from '06 of another CF user discussing this issue. The user tried removing one of the springs but then there was too little tension to lift the lid so he ended up removing the other as well and called it a day. I'm looking for a more, shall we say, satisfying solution.

Before I go taxing what little brain power I have left these days, has any CF user found a solution to the issue? Someone in the older thread suggested that a single spring of the higher tension type used with spoiler-equipped cars might work (apparently there's an OEM part for such springs) but I didn't find that this actually had been tried. (Considering there's also a apparently a special Acura tool for replacing the springs and talk of bodily harm, I get the impression one doesn't blithely go about swapping springs.)

If you look at the mechanics of the hinge, lift angle needed, and consider mounting and loading, it's not a great gas shock application which is the first thing that comes to mind. I'll look at it some more anyway but I'm doubtful. What would be better would be a way to 'unwind' the springs that are there by some amount as these springs apply no forces on the lid itself either in opening or closing (as a gas spring would).

There's some clever folks on these forums with intimate knowledge specific to these cars. Anybody got any ideas? (And, no, adding a spoiler or any other weighting is not really a solution - even though it would solve the problem.)

 

first make sure the torsion bars are on the normal setting and not the high setting. if the torsion bars are resting in the slots closest to the bumper of the car then they are on the normal setting. if they are in the slots closest to the rear seats then they are in the HIGH tension setting.

there is a center clip that guides both of the torsion bars... IIRC if you remove that center bracket thingy it allows the torsion bars to flex more and thus it will be a weaker system.

if those 2 things dont work then i would remove the brackets altoether and see if u like that... but u likely wont lol... which leads me to my last option... bending the torsion bars slightly to reduce stiffness. Now that for sure will work but i a sure itll be a pain in the ass LOL.

those are your options there skip... aside from adding on the gas strut, which is the simplest solution for you cause u need not to adjust anything.. u just make a bracket, drill a hole and then install the strut

if that does not do the trick next i w

 

First thing i did was release the springs from the plastic holder. Only slightly better. I'd remove the springs altogether if a), the trunk release spring itself was strong enough to keep the trunk from re-latching once released and b) the trunk would stay fully open once raised by hand. I'm in and out of my trunk a minimum of 4 times a week and usually twice that so the lid/latch/springs sees a lot of use.

 

Lol that's not a lot chief.
I pop my trunk open minimum3 times a day. Sometimes as many as 20

I use my car as a service vehicle lol. I destroyed the trunk mat in three years.

I have to say I am amazed trunk latch has not had any issues tho

 

I could never get the fitment right using the OEM trunk springs.
I removed mine and I was able to get the fitment right on.
Holding the trunk up manually sucks that's for sure.

 

I don't want to hold it up nor use a prop rod. There's another thread going about using gas struts. This or a flat coil-type spring are probably the way to go.