Hard to lift the hatch door with the current condition lift supports for my 2007 with 88k miles, inherited from my dear departed Dad. Can I use silicone or something else around the mechanism to see if this improves or is this time to replace? If time to replace are there any recommended aftermarket or just OEM lifts? Goal is to improve this situation, not make worse, sure you understand. Thank you for your time.
So the hatch is very hard to lift or it doesn't stay up and keeps hitting you in the head? Either of those two conditions generally you need new gas struts I think lift support Walmart and many places sell them have done meat reasonably well and when they go bad I walk them into Walmart and get another set or they might be called mighty Mac or something like that
Replacement is indicated. Enough of the working gas has already leaked out, not enough left to try sealing in. I second the rock auto recommendation.
Right. Lube will not make it easier to lift but it will make it easier to land on your head. New lift struts are the only fix.
As I recall the main cause of trunk leaks in the gen 2 is cracks forming at the weld in the roof, probably as a result of force from the hatch lifting. I think these things come with varying amounts of force programmed in (separate from the length and range of motion specs.) Anybody have an idea about how many Newtons (probably?) these should be to lift well, but not so hard as to bounce the hatch off the hinge limits and mess up the roof? The struts on mine are weak - pop the trunk and it lifts but does not open. Give it a little push and it rises slowly and stays open. That is fine with me. No trunk leaks either. A little more oomph, but not very much more, would be nice. I like this much better than the hatch on my mother's Gen III, which would surely remove my front teeth if I was foolish enough to have my face in its path when it released.
Our Gen 3 doesn't do anything You push the button and that's it You've just pushed the button and unlocked or unlatched the hatch It's going nowhere I have to lift it and once it starts it may rise but once I start lifting on it I just push it up to almost limit of travel almost and then let the struts do the rest because I'm usually in a hurry.
