For those who notice their hatch hits them on the head when opened...lol.
If your struts go bad over time, you can follow this to do the replacement yourself.
Just did mine. Pretty easy. Take your time and all will be fine.

Recommend placing a blanket into the trunk, to cover metalic surfaces and bumper area.
I found it easy to work by getting into the trunk and lying down on my back to work the roof area.
If you wear anything metallic (on shoes, pants, etc), it will be easy to scratch metallic trim. Blanket removes the worry.


Follow my steps...

 

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One BIG caution - you need some way to securely hold the very heavy hatch up before even thinking of starting this repair. It has to be something that can take some jiggling since some is bound to happen when disconnecting the existing shocks. I like the pole you used if it has a way of securing it to the hatch at the top. A stepladder will sometimes also work if it's tall enough.

 

The pole I used was a paint extension, with one of those twist to tighten mechanisms.
I extended to hatch, and then tightened as much as I could. As long as you disconnect one shock at a time, you will be fine.
Anything that props the hatch in place when opened all the way will work, but yes, it is heavy so if you do cheesy job propping, your head will pay the price.

 

Thanks. My are on there way out. It will stay up one day and not the next. I need to get this done. Seen the video on youtube and it looked pretty simple. Don't know if i have the patience for it though.

 

I did this a couple weekend ago too. Great write up, ciaka!
For me, the job wasn't complicated. What gets hard (i was doing this solo), is the somewhat cramped area, leading to awkward seating and leverage positions.
And holding your head and arms up for a fairly long period of time does get tiring.

My suggestion would be to get a helper if you can - will make this much more pleasant. Definitely doable with just one person though.

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that it is good to have a blanket placed into the trunk, so when you are in it doing the work, you do not end up scratching the silver trim at edge of trunk and the bumper area. If you wear anything metalic (if you have jeans, your shoes, etc), it will be easy to scratch those areas for sure.

 

Good write up. Got to love German engineering where you have to nearly disassemble the whole car to replace one thing.

 

Great writeup - thanks for sharing!

We do our fair share of these at the shop - pretty common thing to fail over time. And yes, please BE CAREFUL if attempting this on your own - that rear gate weighs a TON!!!

- Jason

 

Very good writeup. This was one of the first projects I did on mine last year. I'd also suggest doing the glass struts while in there. Mine were still pretty good but while it was torn apart I did them anyway. Not that I have ever really used just the glass but oh well.

One more word of caution, if you have the pano sunroof watch out for the drain lines going down the rear pillar. Make sure you don't either disconnect them or pinch them. Makes for a mess.

 

Great write up. Saw a video on youtube and decided to give mine a go last year after the bump on the noggin, lol. One note, had to have a helper come and push up slightly on the hatch when I was connecting the second new strut.