Hey guys,

I just wanted to share a success story with the group. I purchased my car a few months ago and the trunk struts were bad. I am OEM kind of guy, but absolutely refused to pay $157/strut at the dealership. After searching long and hard including Napa who had them for $100/strut, I came across these on ebay.

I ordered them a few weeks ago and installed them. Installation was a 2 minute chore, and they work like a charm. Best $70 I have spent in a while!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Trunk...item2ea925381d

 

I did the same about 6 months ago.

 

Thanks for the tip. Is the shock body diameter smaler or larger (or the same) as the original (OEM)?

 

I believe the overall diameter of the body is about the same. The silver "strut" is a bit thinner than OEM though.

 

I'm extremely surprised that it's made in the USA, let alone the reasonable price for an American made product.

 

I tried the aftermarket struts on my SC400 year ago and found that they only lasted a year. Have gone back to OEM ever since and believe they are the best buy in the long run. But, remember that my case was with only one manufacturer. If you find a good quality one they you will do well.

Kind of a gamble in my opinion. P.S. the ones I tried had the "lifetime guarantee", but of course you had to return them at your expense while hoping you had kept you old ones for an emergency, etc, etc. Just wasn't worth it in my mind.

 

How long do the OEM ones last? The service manager at the dealer (believe it or not) told me that they (OEM) are prone to failure and actually advised me against replacing the struts since they go bad so often...

 

Mine failed at 48,000 miles, 5 years. Miles and years might not correlate. Miles driven would give some correlation to number of times the trunk is raised/closed, but depends upon driver habit and usage with miles. Time would only correlate if the failure is dependent on atmospheric conditions such as temperature.

 

Can someone tell me what occurs when the trunk struts go bad? The trunk on my 2001 is getting harder to raise. Is that a sign the struts have failed? Thanks in advance.

 

Mine were shot when I bought the car. It was hard to raise the trunk lid, and it would only stay open in the completely verticle position.

 

Good question. After installing new OEM struts, my trunk would stay open by the struts until it was about 10 inches from being closed. Prior to installation it would fall at about 20 inches or so above closed position.

You are obviously at the point of needing replacement. You'll be pleased at how much difference you see after new struts. They fail gradually, getting worse with time, and it is difficult to know how much they have degenerated.

Hope this helps.

 

I jsut placeed my order....if they only last a year it's worth it to me!

 

I did the same shortly after I bought my car almost a year ago. I bought FIGS Engineering trunk struts and they are fantastic. I am also an OEM guy, but since the OEM struts were designed so poorly, there was no sense in getting OEM again because they would likely fail again.

 

How much were the FIGS struts?

 

$121.91CAD final shipped to Canada price, don't recall the USD number.