Can lambo doors open by themselves? Power and automatic options

No. No kit we sell has a motor in it, and VDI’s catalog doesn’t list one. You open the door and you lift it, and a gas shock does most of the work on the way up.

People ask this now and then, mostly before they buy, and we haven’t always answered it well. An owner who already had the doors on a Tiburon asked if we sold the automatic system to go with them. They got one line back: “No we do not.” A Suburban owner wanted a motor and a button, and got our stock reply about what’s in the box. Someone else sent a picture of a gullwing door with an electric lift. Here’s the rest of it.

What actually happens when you open one?

The door swings out like it always did, until it reaches a stop. VDI puts that at roughly 12 to 18 inches. You can get in and out from there, or push the door up, and the shock takes most of the weight and holds it at the top. Pulling it back down is the same thing in reverse. Since the door goes out before it goes up, you still need that side room in a tight garage. A Camaro owner asked us about exactly that this August.

The listing line people trip over is the one about not having to raise the door. It means what it says. You can treat it as a side-opening door for the daily stuff and only lift it when you want it up.

Nothing in the box is electric. It’s two hinges, two gas shocks, the hardware and the instructions. When buyers ask about wiring they mean the factory wires already running into the door, which have to reach the new hinge position.

Could I add a motor myself?

I can’t help you there. We’ve never sold an actuator. Some strut sellers advertise electric ones for lambo doors, but I have no idea what one does to a VDI hinge or shock over time, so talk to VDI before you bolt anything on. The only door motor I’ve seen in VDI’s notes is on the Tesla Model X, a kit we don’t carry, and there the motor has to be disconnected and relocated.

Why did my door get so heavy?

That’s the email we get a lot, and it’s usually the shock. The door takes real effort going up, then comes back down a few inches from the top. Sometimes it’s one side and the other is fine, like the Solstice with one good door and one sinking 6 to 8 inches. One owner had reached the point of getting the door up from inside the car with a long stick.

One thread from 2018 shows how these go. An Audi TT buyer had hardly used the lift at all, about 20 times across both doors, because they mostly opened them side to side. Both doors went heavy anyway. Our first reply asked for a photo of the part, and they pointed out, fairly, that it was inside the car. I sent it on to VDI, and five days after they first wrote I told them: “it sounds like you need new shocks. We don’t sell this but the manufacturer does.” They tried VDI’s website and heard nothing. By then they were talking about a refund. They wanted to know why it had happened after so little use, and they expected new shocks to go the same way. I gave them a name to email. I never answered the why, and I still can’t.

Can I buy just the shocks?

Not from us. We sell complete kits, and for years people got some version of “We sell only 2 door kits” in reply. It’s true, and it’s no use to someone whose door won’t stay up. One owner told us twice that they already had a kit and only needed shocks, and got that line both times, until they worked out that they wanted whoever did their install. We don’t install anything.

Shocks come from VDI. They give 6 months on shocks and lifetime on hinges. Write to us first if you bought from us, with the order number or the email you ordered under, because the order says which kit you’ve got. No paperwork? Tell us the car, plus any number you can read on the shock without taking things apart, and we’ll ask VDI. I don’t have shock sizes to give out, so please don’t buy one off a listing by guesswork.

It can still take a push. In 2018 we told a Scion iQ owner to call VDI, and VDI told them to go through us, since we were the seller. I called VDI myself and got it straightened out with a different person there.

Can I get a stiffer shock?

Maybe, and don’t expect it quickly from us. In 2024 a Grand Prix owner was adding component speakers and wanted a stronger shock in the same size. We said we’d look into it. We said we were working on it. Nearly four months in, they had to ask again, and all we had for them was an apology and another note to the supplier. I don’t believe that ever got a proper answer.

The shocks are calibrated to the door’s weight, so if you’re putting weight in the door, ask VDI first and do the speakers second.

So who should skip these?

Anyone who wants a door that rises at the push of a button. The Camaro kit, the Tiburon kit and everything else we list are hand-lifted, and I’d rather you heard that now than after the kit arrives. Rules on vertical doors vary by state too, so check yours before you order.