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Several 2020 Corvette C8 Owners Are Claiming Their Frunk Pops Open While Driving

4K views 18 replies 15 participants last post by  sdotjeezy 
#1 ·
Several 2020 Corvette C8 Owners Are Claiming Their Frunk Pops Open While Driving
Carscoops
BY BRAD ANDERSON |
POSTED ON AUGUST 5, 2020

A number of 2020 Corvette Stingray owners are reporting that the frunks of their cars are flying open while driving – which certainly is not the best, or safest, experience you want to have behind the wheel.


Reports of C8 Corvette frunks opening unexpectedly seem to have started back in June over at the Corvette Forum. At the time of writing, this thread had reached 39 pages, with several owners claiming that their hoods popped up while driving. This has prompted a number of Corvette owners to rig up simple carabiners that will make it impossible for the frunk to open.

As noted by Corvette Blogger, the C8 has three different positions that the hood can sit. It can be either fully closed, half-open, or fully open. The hood can be opened by the key fob or pressing a button on the driver’s door.
We have stumbled across a handful of videos captured by the car’s Performance Data Recorder showing the frunk popping up. However, some 2020 Corvette owners have highlighted the various warnings the car gives off when the hood is open, saying that it’s simply not possible for the hood to open up by itself, with YouTuber Chevy Dude saying in one video that it is “100% user error.”

NHTSA complaints

Nevertheless, there have been eight (at the time of writing) separate complaints about the issued filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), where various owners have detailed their experiences of their frunks opening up and causing damage.

Here are some of the complaints filed with NHSTA over the past couple of months:

“I proceeded to drive down the canyon and within 15 seconds I heard the front hood latch click/thump (same sound you hear when you press the button to pop the hood) right before i saw the hood fly up and heard a snap. Sudden loss of visibility almost caused my car to go off the cliff as i couldn’t see the turn,” wrote one owner in a complaint filed August 2, 2020. He added that a GM spokesperson “blamed it on user error”.
 
#4 ·
From the look of it, there is a catch like any other hood. My question is why even let the car go to "D" or over 10mph if the frunk is open and unlatched.

But what I really think the problem is...is with the emergency manual override, something could be pinching the cable causing it to unlatch. Just my educated guess. I don't think it is due to drivers pulling off with it open because of the notification on the dash, but I could be wrong.
 
#8 ·
Joys of a first year model vehicle!

Why there's no safety latch is a huge question. There needs to be one immediately. And somebody needs to be fired. Either there's a bug in the SW that is causing this, or there's not a lockout in the SW to prevent it from happening, or a HW engineer designed a piece of crap latch. Or all three. But any way this is a big screw up for GM.
 
#11 ·
Because the customer can pop the trunk with their fob, when they have their hands full.? And it will just rise up, a latch would stop that. Just a guess. As far as why its happening, a short in a wire rubbing some where, that is releasing it. Check the harnessing for rubbing somewhere.
 
#10 ·
It seems Mary was at a meeting with her friends on Wall St when the frunk meeting in Detroit was happening. GM priorities.
 
#14 ·
There's a video of a guy, obviously some sort of IT QA Engineer by trade that ran through all scenarios...fob doesn't work if car is in drive and if frunk is in open 1, or 2 position there's a notification in the gauge pod and the car gets limited to 82mph as a precaution. Like I said the problem could be with the manual release getting tripped inadvertently or some sort of short circuit triggering the full frunk release...itll get figured out.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Sounds like somebody made a stupid decision. Hoods have secondary latches, which have to be PHYSICALLY (with your hand) unlatched to open. And it's not because there's a motor under that hood, it's because it's on the front of the car, where an opened hood (while driving) presents an extreme hazard.

And no, the convenience of opening your "frunk" with the fob should NEVER override that concern.
 
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