got new hood struts from an online store. how do you compress them?

 

Are you sure they are the correct struts? When I replaced mine, they did not need to be compressed. I had a friend hold the hood up, and the struts lined up with no need to compress.

 

^^^That, have a buddy hold the hood up, Use a flathead screwdriver to remove the pins holding it to the hood and frame. Remove the old, replace with the new, insert pins. Should only take a minute or two.

 

well, they are completely stiff, no movement. these don't have any pins to remove.

 

Mine wouldn't move either. Hold the hood up and measure the lenght of the old strut, and compare it to the new struts. If there is a significant difference I would guess that they sold you the wrong struts. I had to unbolt the brackets and replace the whole assembly. Having a second person to hold the hood all the way open really made the difference for me.

 

I got mine off some random site too. Around $40 or so. When I installed them, they were different lengths too. I just closed the hood enough to latch on to the smaller one then opened my hood to make them both the same length. After that, no problems at all lol. You can do the same with the bigger one if you wish

 

thx. Installed they work fine.

 

Glad everything went well