Hello,

The left torsion bar in my trunk snapped on my 2005 TL. The trunk is now very difficult to open. The bar is on indefinite back-order. The websites that appear to have inventory have canceled my order.

Does anyone know if I could substitute a 2005 Honda accord bar?



If needed, I'll try to install gas springs like the attached link.

https://acurazine.com/forums/1g-tsx-...nished-310278/

That OP used 80 lb springs. Does anyone have experience using these gas springs on a 3g tl trunk?

Thanks.

 

^
Any local salvage yards near your locale for a possible harvest?
This vendor reflects the TL ones as 'Discontinued':
Trunk Lid - 2005 Acura TL 4 Door BASE (NAVIGATION) KA 5AT (acurapartswarehouse.com)
When I look at the 05 Accord diagram they look similar, lengthwise; however, they appear more straight vs the slight bends of the TL springs.
Trunk Lid (-'05) for 2005 Honda Accord | Majestic Honda Automotive Parts

 

Thanks Zeta,

I may look into salvage yards if the gas spring install looks too complicated. Removing/installing the torsion bars seems risky. Putting in two new bars seems bad. Removing two used bars and reinstalling them is something I'd like to avoid.

Anyone with thoughts on how much heavier the TL trunk is versus the TSX?

 

DIY replacing them isn't too bad. You gotta watch a few youtube vids to get an idea on how to do it. Once I got the right vid, it took me 5 mins to do it.
Wear gloves and eye protection

 

Salvage yard. ✌️

 

Thanks to all for the help. I decided to use springs. The following may help if you ever use springs. I would have gladly paid a premium for new torsion springs to avoid the hours this job took, but they are no longer being made.

Parts

Springs 20-12 inch, 80 pounds


In addition to the springs, I needed four bolts (0.25 inch diameter and 1.5 inches long) with nuts. Nuts and bolts were class 5. I also needed 2 large thick washers (0.25 inch inner hole and 1.5 inch diameter) and medium strength tread locker. I also needed to cut the side trunk liners to give the springs room to move (picture3).

Procedure

I removed the trunk lining for this job. I didn’t want to remove the back seat to drill the front mounting holes, so I used some existing factory made holes in the metal that supports the back seat. Two of these existing holes (red circle in 1st picture) were big so I used the large thick washers to spread the load. I used a black oxide drill bit to drill the rear mounting holes (yellow circle in 1st picture).

The most time consuming part of the job was figuring where to position the springs and what length springs to use. If you copy my mount holes and spring size, this job shouldn’t take more than 3 hours. The first side took me 8 hours. Because I knew where to mount the springs, the second side took 1 hour.

If I could do it over, I’d probably try 70 or even 60 pound springs. I can close the trunk with one hand, but it is much more difficult than using the torsion bars.

The spring length prevents the trunk from hitting the bump stop (purple circle in 1st picture), but in practice, I’ve yet to notice.

Also, the trunk still only opens a little when I engage the fob trunk button (this also seems to be a problem with used torsion springs). I need to lift the trunk about 8 inches before the gas springs take over. This is because of the C shape of the arms that hold the trunk. When the trunk is closed, the springs are putting a slight closing pressure on the trunk (see 2nd picture). I tried attaching the springs at a point where they would always be putting pressure to open the trunk, but that required an attachment point that exceeded the spring’s max distance. I tried using a 23 inch spring, but the 23 inch spring would not compress enough to close the trunk. There may be a “spring/attachment point” combination that works better, but this project was already taking too much time.

Some final thoughts. I learned too late that it is better to use slow RPMs when drilling into hard steel. 12:30 minute mark in video.