Liftgate and Brake Light Damage

[cruiser]

We backed into a branch and it cracked the clear cover over the brake light on the top of the liftgate. It also maybe bent the liftgate where it meets the body, though I'm not totally sure what it was like before.

When the car is on it blows a fairly strong stream of air out of the cracked light cover, I'm curious if that's just hvac pressurizing and it has a place to escape, or if there's some sort of airflow going through the liftgate for some reason?



Looking into fixing at Rivian service center or at collision center partner. Anyone have experience with the collision center partners? It's a bit of a wait for the Rivian service center and I'm worried about water ingress in the meantime. Curious about cost between the two as well.

The dent in the top seems mostly cosmetic, I'm not sure if I'm too concerned about that, but I'm curious if it's flat normally? I attached some pictures. I didn't really look closely at that part of the car before.

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[ThisIsMyHandle]

I'm on the other coast, my R1T went in to a certified repair shop and they sent to Boston SC for tuning. It's now been two months of no truck, and no real ETA on when I get it back, (but I'm hopeful for next week)

everything took longer, the insurance company didn't like the quote from the body shop and had to bring in an independent adjuster. Then parts were delayed (they replaced the full unibody side for this, finally they sent it to Boston for calibration?

Hope your experience is smoother than mine. Good luck!

($24k if you were curious)

 

[cruiser]

Oh no, I’m so sorry that sucks! Crossing my fingers for a better time.

 

[cruiser]

Turns out that whole upper piece is plastic so I don’t think it’s bent from the branch strike, and the gasket matches up fine.
Hopefully just need that lens replaced.
for now taped it up with some 3M auto repair tape that I hope will keep water out of there.

 

[jrtozer]

Curious how it turned out Cruiser, I have the same damage from a high pipe sticking out in a parking garage - broke the high brake light LED and scratched the surrounding area a bit. Local authorized repair shop said the entire tailgate is only sold as one piece (ouch!), which I won't do for this. Were you able to replace just the LED light lens?.

 

[cruiser]

Curious how it turned out Cruiser, I have the same damage from a high pipe sticking out in a parking garage - broke the high brake light LED and scratched the surrounding area a bit. Local authorized repair shop said the entire tailgate is only sold as one piece (ouch!), which I won't do for this. Were you able to replace just the LED light lens?.

Thanks for the reminder, I hadn't heard from them in a while, but I just looked and missed a message from them.

Same for me, $6k to replace the entire liftgate including paint
I really can't imagine doing it for that cost vs the $10 for a roll of tape that works well enough I completely forgot about it, and has so far lasted a couple months with no signs of issue.

They did have one concern about the top of the liftgate and how it matches up to the car body (circled in attachment). I'm not quite sure how that part of the plastic would have been permanently bent like that or whether it matters. Keeping my eye out for another R1S to compare to.

I also feel worried that the paint matching would be off and I'd end up much worse off than before the fix, maybe they can do it, but the rivian red is really unique layered color

I don't know why they can't replace that tiny piece of plastic separately. Let alone the cost given Rivian's stance on being environmentally friendly I would think that repair would be better than replace.

 

[jrtozer]

Thanks Cruiser, I just got a quote for $1300 just to replace the LED light lens. The part alone is $400, to which they add 2 hrs of labor ($260) to install it. But then they added another THREE hours of labor ($600) for "pre-repair and post-repair scan" of the electronics, and I could not get them to budge on that unnecessary step - they said Rivian requires it of them.

I currently have a call in to Rivian Service to see if they will sell me the LED light lens part. Otherwise, I guess I'm taping mine up like you did yours (do you have a pic?).

FWIW, I looked at the panel gap at the top of my own hatch and it is not wavy like yours in the picture, but the difference is taller in the middle than at the edges just like yours.

 

[jrtozer]

FWIW, I removed the pop off panel behind the LED lights and the taillight assembly is undamaged. It comes out easily with three screws. It is the lens cover that got cracked, and that appears to be held in place with silicone sealant - maybe? I decided to put some clear tape on the back of the lens cover to prevent moisture intrusion, and I think I am done.

 

[cruiser]

Oh that’s a great idea taping from the inside! Thanks for the info on the panel alignment.

 

[cruiser]

It almost seems like any piece of plexiglass could go in that spot as long as it was UV resistant

 

[Rizzian]

It almost seems like any piece of plexiglass could go in that spot as long as it was UV resistant

Hey Cruiser, I have a similar situation, light works fine, minor paint chips in the black plastic cover, just need to replace the plexi "lens." When I started to pull off the inside liftgate panel that covers top brake lights, it seemed to be fastened using rectangular locking plastic clips that I can't find anywhere. It almost seems like these were designed specifically to NOT be tampered with or allow access and replacement of the cover. How did you get your cover back on?

 

[cruiser]

Hey Cruiser, I have a similar situation, light works fine, minor paint chips in the black plastic cover, just need to replace the plexi "lens." When I started to pull off the inside liftgate panel that covers top brake lights, it seemed to be fastened using rectangular locking plastic clips that I can't find anywhere. It almost seems like these were designed specifically to NOT be tampered with or allow access and replacement of the cover. How did you get your cover back on?

Oh, I never took the cover off. They told me the whole thing was one unit that couldn't be disassembled and by the time the quote came in the tape had been working well so I decided not to mess with it.

 

[Rizzian]

Thanks Matt. Looks like most of my clips were retained, so I can just snap the rest of the cover back on. I only pulled one or two out and then asked so that I wouldn't get stuck not being able to close it again. I think that the Rivian Service Center guys actually cracked a couple fasteners when the were looking into a separate issue from when I took delivery. I'm not going to touch this.

 

[cruiser]

Thanks Matt. Looks like most of my clips were retained, so I can just snap the cover back on. I only pulled one or two out and then asked so that I wouldn't get stuck having to jerry rig something.

If you do manage to get a new piece of plexiglass in there let me know, that would be super interesting.

 

[HenryRivian]

FWIW, I removed the pop off panel behind the LED lights and the taillight assembly is undamaged. It comes out easily with three screws. It is the lens cover that got cracked, and that appears to be held in place with silicone sealant - maybe? I decided to put some clear tape on the back of the lens cover to prevent moisture intrusion, and I think I am done.

Hi @jrtozer

How did you pop off the panel behind the LED lights. Thank you Hank

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