hatch back did not work and then an hour later it did! Worried it will happen again.

 

Are you opening the hatch using the button on the key fob? With our 2015 RX350, you must press the button on the fob for at least three seconds before the hatch will begin to open. I assume this is a safety feature to keep the hatch from opening with just a momentary press of the fob button (such as reaching for the fob in your pocket and accidentally pressing that button while doing so).

 

Normally when the powered tailgate is raised, it makes a beeping sound. Did it make a beeping sound when it failed to raise?

 

When the struts fail, the gas pressure is not enough to balance the weight of the hatch. The lift motor has just enough force to move a balanced hatch. The gas pressure (when the strut fails) gets impacted by the ambient temperature. One notice the onset of fail during cold. With that as a background

My hypothesis is that the Key-fob released the hatch but it did not rise up as the motor quit due to imbalance. Now as the temperature during the day got higher the struts woke up and then the hatch opened up.

So test out by manually lifting the hatch early morning and see if the hatch is balanced. If it keeps dropping down then the struts need replacement.

Far stretch? Maybe!

Salim

 

Not the OP, but wanted to chime in as I also had their same issue. Works some days, doesn't on others. Like Salim, I thought it was the gas struts. I replaced them, and they make a noticeable difference - it opens a lot easier manually, and it's a lot harder to close it. Hence I know the new struts are good, at least a lot better than the old ones. But, I still occasionally get the long beep and failure to open