A nice feature on the 4RX is the ability to open the trunk hatch only part of the way. In my case, I park the vehicle in my garage under a low beam and 4 out of 5 is a great position to prevent dings etc. That being said, I've whacked my head twice while loading the vehicle while out (of my garage). I think I can get used to it...the whacks were minor. But is there an easy way to "override" the "less than 5/full open" setting"? With the push of a button? Or even if I just use my arm to force open against the pistons? Will that harm the pistons? It would be nice if there was a secret "double click" thing that's not easy to accidentially trigger but easy to use to get the hatch to full open on occasion.

 

I feel your pain (literally). There are really low ceilings at my work's parking structure. Thanks to the fire sprinker piping, I have to set the max open setting to something that i need to crouch to access the trunk and sometimes i hit my head on the low setting. One thing you should be aware of is that the open height is customizable. You're not limited to the pre-programmed settings, you can set it to whatever height you want. That said, I think the next innovation the RX should have is a sensor on the tailgate to detect objects and stop automatically to prevent damaging the tailgate. I don't think you can hurt anything by manually moving the lid to open further. It doesnt take much effort to re-adjust the tailgate so i think it was designed with that use in mind.

 

This is news to me. Can you elaborate? How do I set the trunk to open to, say, 4 1/2?

 

Just push it to the height you want, and press and hold the trunk close button on the tailgate for several seconds.

 

Son of a gun! Great tip! Thank you!

 

I learned that tip on these forums. It's not clear from the settings alone but it's most certainly in the manual which I did not read.

 

I think I also remember running across a setting for this in the nav system.

Just found it - p. 702 in the Owner's Manual has "Power back door opening position" plus about a dozen other settings for the back door.

EDIT: Just noticed that the opening position setting is the only one you can change. The rest have to be done by a dealer.