Hatch strut replacement

[Portent 0]

My rear hatch has always made a creaking nose when I open and close it. Lubricating it didn't make any difference so I concluded it may be one of the struts and have got some replacements to try.

 

How do I remove the old ones?

 

Thanks.

[KIPVW 0]

My rear hatch has always made a creaking nose when I open and close it. Lubricating it didn't make any difference so I concluded it may be one of the struts and have got some replacements to try.

 

How do I remove the old ones?

 

Thanks.

 

Near the glass end of the strut there is a stud with a circlip on it, remove the circlip then simply push out the stud/pin but be warned it is ideally a 2 person job as the tailgate will just drop down on one strut as it's to heavy to be held in place by the other alone.

 

the stut then unbolts from the fixing at the body end to enable replacement.

 

Might be worth getting a couple of new circlips too as they tend to corrode or snap.

[Portent 0]

Thanks. I don't recall there being any clips on there when I looked. Will take another peek. Also may be able to do it single handed as the car is in the garage so I guess I could support it by tying the hatch in some way to the roof beam before starting. Thanks for pointing it out though as I'd hoped one strut would have held it.

[Rams 0]

Let us know how you get on. I need to replace mine as bought some polished ones. Think the clips are special clips? Or r they just standard cir clips?

[Portent 0]

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.

Edited February 5, 2012 by Portent

[VWVW 1]

Nice write up...will come in handy as mine creakes too

[fla 9]

Nice write up...will come in handy as mine creakes too

 

Likewise, good pics and notes

[Dan_Storm 0]

Nice write up...will come in handy as mine creakes too

 

Mine creaked when shutting too. I bought a set of new struts from VW.......and it still creaks. :-(

I concluded that there wasn't much wrong with my old struts and that it was the nature of the beast.

 

Portent, did the creaking stop after you replaced your struts?

[Portent 0]

Yes it fixed it. Before replacing them I greased every moving part. You can see that from the pics :) But the creaking still happened. But when I replaced them the creak went away immediately.

 

Incidentally the Veedubmachine struts have their name written on them - I only mention this in case people buy them and are fussy about having OEM logos.