Yesterday my cylinders supporting my hatch failed. Guess it must have the cold as well as the crappy design/testing.

Does anybody have any extra ones I can buy?

I know some of you have spoilers so may have needed to replace them due to the additional weight.

Thanks!

 

Send them to Frank at http://www.strutwise.com/index.php . They are in BC and he will rebuild your hatch struts for you for under $100.00 I have had them on mine for a coiuple of years with no problem at all

 

https://my350z.com/forum/body-exterior/251518-fs-heavy-duty-hatch-struts.html

I sell heavy-duty struts, and should have more in by the end of the week. Depending on where in Canada you are, added shipping will run another $5 to $10

 

isn't it covered under warrenty?

 

Funny you mention that. Mine also failed last night for the first time. After opening and closing it a couple times, it went back to normal.

 

Hatch Struts/Springs/Lift Supports are essentially gas-filled cylinders. As the weather gets colder and the temperature drops, the nitrogen gas in the struts become more dense, and offer less "lift" force.

When you opened and closed your hatch a few times, you were able to heat the nitrogen up a little, which gave you the impression they were back to normal. The fact of the matter is that all gas springs will loose their nitrogen gas slowly over time. The effects of this are compounded by the cold weather though.

 

I think it must have been the cold.

Randy, your product looks really good. Have you tested it in the cold? What are the temperature specs on it?

Normal auto design is +85degrees to -40 degrees.

Thanks!

 

Thanks,

My name is actually Jason (Randy Watson is a character from the movie Coming to America (the guy in my avatar picture).

The coldest temperature I've tested these struts in was at 22 degrees F when I lived in Massachusetts. At that time, even with a heavy Nismo V1 spoiler installed, the struts still held up the hatch without a problem. Actually at that temperature, it took a little over 20 pounds of force to close the hatch from it's full-open position.

 

my struts failed last year around this same temperature right after i put on OEM spoiler. got it replaced under warranty by nissan with heavy duty ones for OEM spoiler... (there's actually a difference between struts with spoiler and without spoiler!)

 

The Nismo struts (used for heavy-duty applications) are around $230-240 USD. You would also need to purchase the mounting hardware (since the struts can not simply be pulled off of the mounts) which will run an additional $40.


If you can get this all replaced by Nissan for free though, then by all means, that should be your course of action.

 

Ha, that is funny.. Opps..

Well, thanks Jason. I will try them out here in the cold and see if they survive our somewhat crazy winters here (thanks to global warming of course). I can be the test pilot with perhaps a little cost reduction maybe? 22F translates to about -5.56C, it gets colder then that here but hopefully there will be no problems.


Will send you a PM now!

 

FYI - I have a couple more sets back in stock, and anticipate having more by next week as well.

 

ill sell you OEM ones for $100 shipped

 

There's 3 versions of hatch as far as I can tell.

No spoiler - made by Tokico
OEM Spoiler - made by Nissan
and Nismo spoiler - not sure who makes it.

 

The OEM spoiler and no spoiler use the same OEM hatch struts (same part #). The Nismo Struts are just slightly higher force to accommodate a v1 spoiler, but at times can not accommodate others such as the veil side v1, v3 etc.

 

Do you happen to know the force differential (between your struts and OEM) to close the hatch (when there is no spoiler present).

Is it a significant amount?

 

There is a significant closing force differential when comparing my struts to OEM on a non-spoiler equipped hatch. A good estimate would be that my struts would require an additional 25 pounds of downward force to close versus OEM struts. This will obviously decrease slowly with time and fluctuate with ambient temps.

 

I had no-spoiler struts before, I added the OEM spoiler and it started falling on my head. Nissan replaced it for me for free with a thicker heavy duty one. I'm not sure if that's the same as Nismo struts. But I doubt it, since even that's having problems holding my current hatch (Yes I removed the dead counterweight inside the hatch as well).

 

my shocks are dead as well. Gotta use my head to keep it open! Counter weight is removed as well.

My only concern with the heavy duty shocks is that in the summer it will be a pain to close the trunk since it normally works fine in the heat.

Btw, I went to Nissan and they said they will not replace them under warranty

 

Would be cool if there is adjustable shocks for the hatch..haha so we can adjust the stiffness...