Leaderboard

I replaced mine today and it was very simple indeed. The only tool you need is a screwdriver and that's simply to prise off a couple of clips on each strut. There is no screwing involved and no spannering needed. I took some pictures as I did it so hopefully it will explain the process in an easy to understand way. The pictures are of the right hand side of the hatch. 1) Support the hatch - Open the hatch and support it in some way or get someone to hold it for you. Mine stayed open even on one strut but there's no guarantee yours will. I secured mine by tying a rope around it and supporting it from the garage rafters. 2) Remove the circlip - With the hatch open take a look at the strut where it meets the hatch by the window. It is held in place by a pin. The pin is prevented from coming out by a circlip on the outer edge. Prise the circlip off using a flat headed screwdriver. I'm afraid I don't know if they are special clips or whether you could use anything the same size. I'd guess you could use anything of a similar size but mine didn't break so I reused them. [ATTACH=CONFIG]51366[/ATTACH] 3) Remove the pin - Now the circlip has been removed you should be able to push the pin out. To remove it simply push it towards the middle of the car. I found mine came out easier by pushing the hatch upwards a little so that the weight was taken off the pin. [ATTACH=CONFIG]51367[/ATTACH] 4) Catch the falling strut - Once the pin is removed then get ready to catch the strut as it will swing downwards quite fast. 5) The other end is held in place by another clip- Now take a look at where the bottom end of the strut is held in place at the body end. It is connected to a ball joint. You need to pull it off the joint but it is held in place by a clip on the actual strut itself. [ATTACH=CONFIG]51368[/ATTACH] 6) Remove the ball joint clip - The strut won't come off until you release the clip on the back of the strut. I did this by sliding in a flat headed screwdriver and loosening it. The clip didn't come off completely but did loosen enough to allow me to wiggle the strut around until it came off. I had to keep the screwdriver pressed into the clip while wiggling it at the same time. [ATTACH=CONFIG]51369[/ATTACH] And it was as simple as that. Installing the new struts is obviously the reverse of that process. I used struts from Veedubmachine. They seem ok and much cheaper than the VW equivalents. I've not compared them to new VW struts but they seem fine to me.