Rockville1

Yesterday I had to haul a piece of furniture that was too big to completely fit in the cargo area of my '07 400h. I was able to close the hatchback most of the way and secure it with some cord. However, I had to drive for 15 miles with the constant beep and warning light that occurs when a door is open while driving.

There must be some way to manually turn off the beep. Anybody else had this problem?

Also, I had a heck of a time finding a place to secure a tie-down hook on the hatchback door, but I finally popped out the cover on the inside of the door where the latch is and was able to fairly securely attach two hooks which I then strapped to the two metal eyelets under the rear bumper. That worked very well.

Rockville1

Well, I contacted my dealer and was told that the rear door alarm can not be deactivated.

That's too bad.

JZA80MHU38

I am not sure if it's going to work but you can give it a try if you are interested (attempt at your own risk though). You know the lock mechanism just in front of the rear bumper, you can move the clip inside it manually. I did that once accidentally trying to hook up a bungee cord in there. I wonder if that's going to trick the car, making it think that the rear door is already closed. I forgot the exact procedure to unlock the mechanism so that you can close the door afterward, but it sure takes some patience and trial-and-error to do so.

But just like the side doors, there may be a little spring buttons along the rear door frames that act as ajar sensor. If that's the case you probably have to use some strong duct tape and piece of metal of wood to press it down and trick the system.

But, if you only need it once in a very long time, why bothered?

silvervett

I have the same problem with my 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee. My guess is that they don't want you to drive with it open because you can suck back exhaust and die from carbon monoxide poising

Rockville1

Thanks for the tips. You're right - its not someting that comes up every day, but when you do need to drive with the hatchback open it is quite annoying.

As for sucking back fumes and dying - I guess that's possible, but I think highly unlikely. I think the more likely reason for not allowing the deactivation is liability in case some one false out and gets hurt and the owner tries to sue by saying "I didn't know the hatchback was open - the alarm wasn't going off."

silvervett

It is unlikely but on page 22 of the 2007 RX400H owners manual it says "Keep the back door closed while driving if the back door is ("opening" bad translation, I think it should be open) the luggage will be thrown out and exhaust gases will be entered in the vehicle.

PS I got this car back in October and opened the owners book today to read about the rear door. I am somewhat surprised that the makers of an expensive car like this were not able to have the book written by someone more familiar with the English language

Rockville1

I stand corrected then. I guess this would mostly be a problem when the car is idling for long periods with the rear door open rather than when driving down the road.

I agree about the manual. I found that parts of the manual read very well and then I would hit parts where there numerous grammatical problems. It does seem that they could have hired a more English proficient editor or technical writer.

JZA80MHU38

Shouldn't it be "opened" as in passive voice because the door should be operated by someone else other than by itself? Just messing around.

silvervett

I do not think opened is correct. It should read while the back door is open, not while the back door is opened. I think most people get the meaning of the sentence either way it is written but open would be the correct word.

jemilleron

There is a push button switch on the inside of the glove box located on the frame. push in to shutoff push again to turn on.