Chevy continues to blame owners of 2020 C8 Corvettes that it’s their fault the frunk hoods are flying open while driving. The owners aren’t taking it lightly. First, because it’s dangerous as hell to be driving down the road and then wham, the hood blocks your vision. But also because they’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, they can’t. Once the Corvette is started the driver can’t open the frunk. The electronics are programmed not to allow that. They’re also programmed to show a warning if the hood is not latched. Now owners have a new theory for the mysterious, dangerous, hoods flying open on their new 2020 Corvettes.

There have been numerous C8 owner complaints

This was first reported to the NHTSA back in April. Since then there have been numerous owner complaints that describe the same thing. Chevy responded with this statement: “After isolated reports of 2020 Chevrolet Corvette hoods being inadvertently left open while being driven, the engineering team is investigating the potential issue and will be working to prevent them moving forward. We have not been able to identify any mechanical issues related to this situation. We’re looking at ways we can improve warnings of the hood being open by increasing the volume of warning chimes and changing the messaging that appears in the DIC. Vehicles already in the field would receive these changes through over-the-air updates.”

While Chevy concentrates on making warnings more visible and louder, owners are focussing on the key fobs. Some on the MidEngineCorvetteForum are suggesting that sitting on the Corvette key fob can trigger the hood to pop open. However, owners on the forum who have tried to activate the frunk to open while driving has not had any success. 

There is a difference between opening with the fob and opening it manually

Opening the frunk with the fob can only happen when the car is in park. But there is a difference between opening with the fob and opening it manually. Manually you have to pop the frunk and then manually release the secondary latch. It’s a two=step process.

When opened with the fob the frunk pops open without the secondary catch according to some owners. Others say it takes a double click to open it and that owners may not be aware of doing that since it happens so quickly. Still other owners think the frunk may be opening from shifting items placed in the frunk.  

There is the potential for a defect with the sensor switch inside of the frunk

Now the focus has narrowed down to the potential for a defect with the sensor switch inside of the frunk. Though the rear hatch has a similar setup at least so far there have been no cases reported of it opening while driving. 

Below is a video shot by a dashcam showing one owner’s surprise when driving on surface streets the frunk hood suddenly opens. If there is a fix found we’ll update this or post the information. Until then, 2020 Corvette owners be careful out there.