E30 Zone

Seeking a bit of advice hoping to replce the gas pressurised hood struts for the horseshoe cover the hood goes into, just want to know how simpy this is or a bitch of a job. They don't appear to be attached by any holding nut, sis this correct? How do you get the old ones off?

All suggestions greatly appreciated, and bring on the sunshine for some fun drives

if your ebay name is the same, then these were supplied by me.. .. old ones are held on via small circlips mate, just prize them off with a small flat head screw driver (top and bottom) and then simply pull them off... Fitting however can be a pain providing what technique/tools you use... so here we go.. mine were fitted like this.= place strut with thin rod end upwards and attach to top peg, (easy upto here).. then grab a small block of wood and sit it at the bottom close to where bottom peg is.. get a small lever, and use the block of wood to lever bottom end of strut to the peg and slide it on.. voila !!!! re-use old circlips or replace with slightly bigger ones to hold them in place... . 2.. use a small clamp to compress?? 3.. builders sealent gun?? list goes on mate, but once on they work a treat

Cheap to get the parts for, difficult to do. That's what I was told by a car club owner. Seems blingsta has his method on lockdown. Reckon you could knock up a useful tech article for others to learn from!

... easy, anyone with questions can feel free to ask.. i might take a few pics of ways to fit!!!!

Yep same on ebay keep it simple, let people track me.

Cheers blingsta, the clips are not easy to see, but now know how to get those little critters off.depending on how first goes may, document second strut for others with photos. Will see how we get on.

Cool, mine are shagged too. I just rest the roof and cover together when I need to manouver!!!

When i changed my struts I used the seat lifters out of a scrap e30 (much stronger) and when fitting them I compressed them in the vice and used some wire to keep them compressed and just slipped them on and cut the wire once fitted on the pins. Mine know works a treat and opens by it's self as soon as you pull the release catch.

Greeny wrote:When i changed my struts I used the seat lifters out of a scrap e30 (much stronger) and when fitting them I compressed them in the vice and used some wire to keep them compressed and just slipped them on and cut the wire once fitted on the pins. Mine know works a treat and opens by it's self as soon as you pull the release catch.

Perfect... ive only put one on mine and it works a treat

Tried some picture frame wire this afternoon, and blingsta's struts just snapped it straight away, highly pressurised, so going to buy a clamp this week and re-attempt.

Tried a builders sealant gun, but you cann't get it into the area, due to the horseshoe cover.

It has a placstic cover plate which protects the struts, any idea how to get this off it looks like secured by plastic clips, but tried a bit of pressure and no joy?

Clips are little sods to get back on though I noticed when trying to take the approach of lock bottom part in first

Thanks for the help so far

The little plastic clips have a pin in the middle which you have to push through, but don't push them too far as you'll lose the pin in void under the hood storage bay.

I used welding wire to hold my strut's compressed.

right, so first attempt was no good !! .. the plastic cover plates im presuming you mean on the old struts? they will not fit back onto the new struts as they are much bigger in size/diameter so dont worry about them.. the little circlips should be easy enough to put back on though, once you have them in place, hold in place with 1 finger and using the flat end of a screw driver push it in until it locks into place.. why not try to hold them compressed with a cable tie? they are quite strong and if they do hold the strut in the compressed position it will be very easy to cut the cable tie off with snippers as they are plastic... keep us posted.. but clamp sounds good.

Tried the cable tie this evening, broke all of them, very highly pressurised, tried all sort of tie, thin through to thick, no joy. The clamp has the problem of being G shape so you can not get the bottom hook in and have the clamp wrapped around it.

Still we will continue to acheive what should be a simple job, but blingsta's struts are strong, once fitted it'll probably take my arm as the hood opens.

RESULT !!!!!!

Bicyle brake cable was strong enough, put the strut in the clamp screwed lower than needed by 1 cm, wrapped cable around it and into knot, released clamp it expanded slightly as getting torque, then hooked over, then hacked at cable with snips.

One down, one to go, will do the other one at the weekend and go for the photo approach.

Only bit which i now to need to rebuy is the plugs which you need to push in to get the plastic surround cover off, lost two of them in car, and don't really fancy taking the boot carpet in the roof section out to get them. But no urgency to that as still have 2 of the 4, so its secured back on. oh and new brake cable for my bike.

and you'll be glad to know it is not ripping my arm away as it opens, the hood is still heavy enough for it to need manually lfting, but it holds the lid where i stop.

Great news matey... well done... Oh, and cheers for the feedback

Another 2 sets 4 sale on ebay!

dogcoat wrote:RESULT !!!!!!

Bicyle brake cable was strong enough, put the strut in the clamp screwed lower than needed by 1 cm, wrapped cable around it and into knot, released clamp it expanded slightly as getting torque, then hooked over, then hacked at cable with snips.

One down, one to go, will do the other one at the weekend and go for the photo approach.

Only bit which i now to need to rebuy is the plugs which you need to push in to get the plastic surround cover off, lost two of them in car, and don't really fancy taking the boot carpet in the roof section out to get them. But no urgency to that as still have 2 of the 4, so its secured back on. oh and new brake cable for my bike.

and you'll be glad to know it is not ripping my arm away as it opens, the hood is still heavy enough for it to need manually lfting, but it holds the lid where i stop.

The boot carpet around where the roof stowage is located, is very easy to get out. A few black clips with a flat groove to unlock them with a screwdriver. Very easy. A bit of brute force and away you go.