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" Sprinkles of rain gently pepper your head as you thread your way across the parking lot pushing a cart full of groceries. The liftgate of your minivan promises to provide the shelter you need to unload the cart and stay dry. But just as you swing a 40-pound sack of dog food off the cart, your forehead smacks right into the slowly descending liftgate. The dog food is on the pavement and you&amp;#039;ve got a nasty bruise. That&amp;#039;s the subtle way your minivan lets you know the gas struts that hold up the liftgate have finally lost their zest for lift. As you turned your back to the open liftgate to get the dog food, the gate sagged partially closed and you swung right into it. Ouch. Upsy-Daisy Most vehicles use pneumatic struts to hold open liftgates, hatches, trunklids and engine compartment hoods. These devices are filled with inert gas at several hundred psi to provide the spring force that lifts and holds open the structures they support. There is also mineral oil inside to provide damping--otherwise, the hatch would spring open like a jack-in-the-box. The task of keeping the oil and pressurized gas inside the strut falls to a multiple-lip seal riding on the long, chromed damper rod. The smallest surface imperfection or particle of dirt will cause wear of this polished surface, subtracting from the seal&amp;#039;s useful life. Eventually, oil and gas make their way out of the strut, and you have a hatch or trunklid that needs to be lifted up or won&amp;#039;t stay up on its own. An Ounce of Prevention You can substantially improve the service life of a gas strut by simply keeping the strut rod clean and free of nicks. Clean the polished surface periodically with a dry, soft cloth. A little (very little) car wax applied and then polished off will leave a smooth surface. Do not use oil or silicone or anything else that might leave a sticky surface to attract dust or grit. That prohibition also applies to sundry substances such as ketchup, ice cream from sticky little fingers, dog drool and the adhesive from any kind of tape. Tape? Yeah, like the masking tape you used to hold up that cardboard sign at the last tailgate party. Similarly, avoid anything that might scratch the strut rod. Spring-loaded binder clamps might work better than tape at holding the tailgate-party sign--but they&amp;#039;ll leave a patina of scratches. So will any abrasive household cleaner. Never use anything that you wouldn&amp;#039;t use to clean sunglasses. Well, Too Late Now Your struts are toast, judging by that Band-Aid on your forehead. Time to put in new ones. Most vehicles will accept aftermarket struts, available at a reasonable price from auto parts stores. The ones we replaced on this GM minivan left us with enough change from $100 to have lunch. If you have a less common vehicle, or some expensive European job, the price you have to pay at the dealership may astonish you. (See above for advice on avoiding this necessity.) If only one of your struts has packed it in, you may be able to get away with replacing just the bad one. They are almost always sold individually. Got Parts, Now What? Replacement is straightforward, and for a few vehicles may well be done with no tools at all or little more than a small screwdriver. First, open the box and check out one of your new struts. Aftermarket struts should have the same end-to-end dimension, within a few millimeters, as your current ones. However, the attachment points may be a slightly different style. This allows the aftermarket manufacturer to use one strut to fit several different vehicles by simply packaging different adapters along with the strut. In fact, you may even find a few extra parts in the box intended to fit your strut to someone else&amp;#039;s car. Start by solidly securing your gate or hatch open. A broomstick propped under the corner is fine. Be careful of the silk-screened defroster grid--it&amp;#039;s easy to scratch and damage. One good way to prop up the gate is to clamp a pair of Vise-Grip pliers onto the strut rod. Yes, this will damage the surface, but you&amp;#039;re replacing them both anyway, right? Clamp one, replace the other, and the odds are good the new one will support the hatch adequately while you put on the second. Otherwise, use the broomstick. By the way, do not remove the strut you&amp;#039;ve clamped unless the other one is installed already. Remember that Band-Aid? What Wrench? Our minivan used a Torx-style bolt at its lower end. If you don&amp;#039;t have the proper Torx socket, you&amp;#039;re going to have to get one. An Allen wrench won&amp;#039;t work unless, of course, your strut uses Allen-head bolts. The replacement strut has a ball-and-socket-style attachment, so we simply threaded the ball stud into the threaded hole and tightened it with a box wrench. The new strut snaps over the ball with nothing more than thumb pressure. Our upper mount, old and new, has a similar ball-and-socket joint. It&amp;#039;s necessary to lift up a small sheet-metal retainer with a screwdriver blade to let the socket part company with the ball. The new upper socket mates exactly like the older one. You may find other styles of attachments with clevises and bolted fasteners and brackets. A dab of silicone grease will lube the pivot points without staining the interior. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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