Tailgate Lift Supports

Great product! It fits perfect on my 98 S70 GLT, and finally got rid of my headaches !
:) Installation should take 20-30 min. don't forget to remove the back seat trims!!!

Steve from Portland's comments helped me a lot. The mechanical replacement of the strut is pretty easy, the toughest thing to figure out for me was how to get the three trim panels down. The first one to take down is the one that the back courtesy light is attached to. I found some advice somewhere to do that with the door down and laying on the floor of the wagon. That worked well. To get that panel out, you first pry the courtesy light assembly loose, then let it dangle through the trim panel. Then you pry off the two about inch-across round covers on this same panel. I used a pocket knife. That will expose the two Torx screws that hold that panel in place. Unscrew those, then gently work at the edges of the panel to get it to come free from the snaps that hold it in place. If some tabs break off, save them and use Plastic Weld to glue them back into place. Once that panel is out, you gotta get two panels adjacent to that first one down. Those panels run above the side rear windows. I did one panel at a time. These panels are mostly held by a single screw. It's also a Torx screw. Get that out, then gently work the panel to get its snaps to come free. Once that's done, now you gotta open the rear door as high as it goes and keep it open. The strut is partially hidden by the roof liner, but you can get at it without doing anything with the roof liner. The two bolts holding the strut bracket to the body must be disconnected first, then you snap off part of the strut attached to the bracket followed by the part of the strut attached to the door. Keep the door open during the strut replacement time. Reverse the whole process to install the new strut.

Hardest part was the trim. The strut was a piece of cake.

Worked perfect,Super easy to swap out with just common hand tools

Thanks lucky

I used the Haynes manual procedure, however, they do not show pictures, so it takes a little careful thinking to follow the steps. I removed the strut supports as the manual suggested, with two 12 mm hex nuts holding them to the roof, popped off the old struts, attached the new ones, and bolted them back in place. Replace one at a time, and use something tall and sturdy to hold the hatch in place, and it will go easier. Make sure the hatch is propped up as high as it will go, otherwise the strut will extend too far and be difficult to get installed.

Now the hatch pops open and stays there, no more getting hit on the head while loading grocery bags!

The end result is "good as new", but a few warnings are in order. There are no instructions or illustrations with the parts and removing the trim pieces brings a little concern. I used Haynes Repair Manual as a reference, but again there are no pictures or illustrations. They instruct you to "Disconnect the [forward] bracket securing the strut to the body." This requires removal of the "combined roof sill and D-pillar trim panel" and removing the screws on both sides. With this, the Large Screw Driver is not needed. But you do need a Torx driver for each of the screws.

Replacement strut works well. Installation requires removing a screw from the side trim under tailgate hinge and then carefully prying off trim panel . Once trim is removed and you can view the strut, have someone support the tailgate, then pop the old strut off the rear stud using a long wide bladed screwdriver. Next, pop off the front. To install the new strut, use the screwdriver to again pop the socket on the stud levering against the car body/hinge. To save money I decided to only replace one strut and that did the trick.

Wow, that was so much easier than what I expected... When it started saying pry and pull off panels, I did panic a bit. I thought there would be rattles and I'd never get it all back together again. But following the instructions, I had no problem and it probably took me 1/2 hour. I'm between a 1 and 2 skill level, so don't worry, if I can do it, anyone can.

Nice to have the tailgate pop up by itself, just hard to get used to after all that time lifting the gate by hand. I removed the center panel, the one with the light, then the side panels to gain access. Bring that big screw driver, and pry off the back attach point first, but before you do that, be ready for the hatch to slam down on your knees when it pops off. If you have help, have them force the hatch up and hold it, it makes installing easier

I installed these lift support struts in about an hour. I had some difficulty discerning how to remove the existing (and leaking) parts, but a call to Scott Hart got me pointed in the right direction. Once the existing struts were removed (hint: use a large, flat-bladed screwdriver to pry off the rear ball joint and get to the front ball join through the hole in the tailgate hinge...), these struts pop right on. The result is factory perfect. I'm really pleased with the result and the savings in labor was well worth the minor effort.