I have a 2015 SL with power liftgate. The struts need replacing and the local Nissan dealer quoted $514.00 each for the struts! Can the power lift struts be replaced by standard struts? If I do this, will the lift gate release on the dashboard and on the rear door still work?

Thanks.

I am not sure on the conversion to manual lift but if I were you, I'd check out a local auto recyler for a pair of powered struts. They made many rogues and I'm sure it would be fairly easy to find a crashed rogue where the power struts are still good.

https://www.car-part.com/ can search the local recylers in your area, it's listed under 'Trunk Lid/Hatch Strut' seems to be between $100-200 for a powered pair. You can usually negotiate the price as well and many recylers will ship as well.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

I would think that it might still unlock and move away from the locking mechanism like on a non-powered liftgate. Although it's possible that if you disconnect the power supply, the latch release won't work, and you'll probably have a warning light stay lit on the dash as well. Plus I don't know if anyone makes non-powered replacement struts that will fit your car.

$514.00 for each is highway robbery. NissanPartsPlus has them for $325.66 each. You can buy them new, then have an independent repair shop install them for less than what the dealership will charge.

Thanks. $325ea is much better, but $650 for a pair is still outrageous.

jaero wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 22, 2020 9:29 am

Thanks. $325ea is much better, but $650 for a pair is still outrageous.

Perhaps. Here's what one looks like...

Nissan Rogue 2015 Left LH Power Tailgate Hatch Strut Piston 905614-BA1A 2014-19
Left Hand Power Tailgate/Hatch Piston/Strut
Condition: Used
Price: US $134.99
Shipping: $18.16 Standard Shipping

Nissan Rogue 2015 Right RH Power Tailgate Hatch Piston Strut 90561-4BA4A 2014-19
Right Hand Power Tailgate/Hatch Piston/Strut
Condition: Used
Price: US $134.99
Shipping: $18.16 Standard Shipping

Hello,

First post for me. Thought I'd share my experience with power to manual liftgate struts conversion. I bought a used 2017 Rogue SV AWD in June of 2021.

3 months later, power struts were failing (pretty much would not stay up. It would sag/fall and close by itself). Dealer tried to get me to change the ABD module. Declined.

Because we use the liftgate very frequently for deliveries (opening 30x a day), we decided to convert to manual non powered struts for reliability. Didn't want to replace power struts frequently. There's also a fair bit of resistance when operating power struts manually.

Cut the wires off the old powered struts, installed new manual struts. Ensured that the "Power Door" switch is OFF and assumed it would work fine. It did not.

"Switch A" the rubber button on the liftgate would not send a signal to the actuator to unlock the liftgate. After much research and trial/error (disconnecting the battery everytime would allow the actuator to work as intended, but only to fail after a few hours; replacing with a brand new battery didn't solve it either).

Power liftgate actuator has an additional ABD module (auto back door) on top of the BCM. Manual hatches are BCM driven. But power liftgate have an ABD module to read information from the power struts (I assume for safety reasons). They are designed to communicate with the spindle encoders to send the final signal to the actuator.

The liftgate works perfectly after a battery reset because either BCM/ABD module was cleared and haven't built up any DTC (diagnostic trouble code). After some time, the system is disabled due to DTC codes being thrown from the spindle encoders because it cannot sense a signal from the cut wires. I am now looking for an electrician to ground some wires on the spindle connectors to trick the ABD module into sending the unlock signal to the actuator. To gain access to the spindle connectors, I was told I need to pull down the headliner near the roof/liftgate to see the wire colours in order to ground them. (Special thanks to VStar650CL for his insight)

What a nightmare. I just want this basic function fixed... and I've spent $450 CAD on parts/dealer diagnostics so far (excluding the $200 battery).

Open to comments if anyone knows of another way to fix this. Could Consult-III+ disable/bypass the ABD altogether?

Since you're in Nico now, I can point you to a service manual for getting that headliner dropped. That other site frowns upon even mentioning Nico Club, so I was kind of stuck trying to help you with specifics. Here's a link to the Interior manual for the '16, your '17 will be pretty much identical:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... %2FINT.pdf

You need to remove the LUGGAGE SIDE UPPER FINISHER on both sides, and to do that you need to loosen (but not remove) the LUGGAGE SIDE LOWER FINISHERs. The tools you'll need are very limited, 10mm and 14mm sockets with a short extension and ratchet, plus a finesse tool (nylon prybar). See the stuff starting on page INT-33. Once the lowers are loose and the uppers removed, there are three clips and one 10mm screw holding the rear section of the headliner (see INT-32). With the back of the liner dropped, the connectors will be right there. It looks like a lot of work but it really isn't. With power tools it would take me about 20 minutes to expose the connectors, so figure 60~90 taking it apart for the first time using hand tools. Reassembly will be a lot faster, since you'll know how it all fits together.

If you want to learn all about the ABD system, it's in the Door & Lock section here:
https://www.nicoclub.com/service-manual ... %2FDLK.pdf

PS - If you do all that, you might want to consider getting a good set of JY spindles and fixing the power lift. The gen2 Rogues have been out since '14, so there are tons of them in any U-Pullit these days.

Thanks for the instructions Vstar, as recommended I tried to look for a professional to help. Went to a local garage this morning to speak to their electrical tech and they suggested reprogramming the system using consult first instead of grounding wires.

I could at some point gain access to consult 3+ (from an acquaintance at Infiniti dealer), but wouldn't know the steps to reprogram/disable power mode. Would you know the steps needed to take if I had my hands on consult, and is this even possible?

again, really appreciate your assistance so far

I don't know of any way to prevent the ABD looking at the spindle positions by manipulating the firmware. The only "work support" listed for the C3+ is a system reset, and that would only last until the next time the spindle inputs falsed, no different from holding the button. Maybe these gents know something I don't that isn't in the SM, but I doubt it. Unless they can do board-level modifications to the ABD module, I think they're sending you on a goose chase.

Yeah the issue is most likely because the connectors are still connected. I also had one fail and replaced it with a regular strut until I can find a used one. I tried to figure out a way to jumper the connector to "trick" it into working with the power function, but I couldn't find any helpful electrical info on them at the time (before I found this forum) and gave up after a lot of trial and error with a multimeter. I think I underpowered the manual strut though, because it will "sag" a little when open fully. Did you get manual struts in? Curious what stroke/lift weight you used?