Heres a quick how-to on replacing your struts on your rear hatch if they’re failing, not staying up or you just want new ones. Incase anyone else ever has to do this here’s how it went. Very easy, just takes a little bit of time. Should be able to remove and replace both struts inside of an hour at most.

1) Remove the coat hanger clip via the small rectangular section in the middle of the coat hanger. I used a flathead screwdriver to do this. Just gotta keep prying at different angles and you’ll get it. Once the rectangular piece is out you can slip out the actual hanger.

2) Pry back the interior panel or if you want to, remove it. I just pryed mine back a bit and wedged a shirt between the piller and the panel to keep it out of the way since I have large hands.

3) The bolt used to keep the strut in place is a large star head. If you have the proper air wrench attatchment use it (and btw I’m jealous of you if you do). As a time saver on the second strut since rain was coming I used vice grips to lock onto the bolt and just had to keep adjusting after each initial turn until it had loosened up a bit. This method was much faster but should only be done as a last resort and if you’ve got a new bolt to be used in place of the old one. You’ll need an extra person to hold up the hatch while you take off the bolt. Keep going until the bolt comes out. Again, only use the vice grips as a last resort.

4) On the ball & socket joint that attatches to the actual hatch you’ll see a small slit in the socket where you’ll insert a flathead screwdriver in place to pop the socket off the ball. Remove the old strut now and have your assistant slowly lower the hatch. The hinges keep the hatch lined up but you have to support the hatch’s weight

5) Line up the new strut to the pillar and start threading in the needed bolt. You can do this with the hatch closed but you have the angle the strut correctly.

6) Once the bolt is almost tightened all the way, have your helper lift up the hatch slowly and insert the socket into the ball joint.

7) Continue tightening the bolt on the strut until it’s as firm as possible.

8) Have your second set of hands close and raise the hatch a few times to make sure the new strut is working properly.

9) Put interior panel back on.

10) Repeat 1-9 for other side

11) Give yourself a pat on the back.

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