Given the low angle of these - not surprising. When cold weather comes, hopefully they will not be affected like some I have had in the past.

 

How does cold weather affect hood struts?

 

I have had some on my truck where when it got into the teens, they did not work properly. Did receive and install the hood lifts today. They look and operate real good. Brackets, etc are of qood quality and should last.

 

Since you guys on this board apparently know everything, I have a question regarding these struts. I have gotten mine and they look great, but I am having a bit of a problem with the bracket that goes on the bottom of the hood.

I put it on there, tightened it down, and when I operate the hood, the force on the strut still manages to turn the bracket (since the force is all on the one side of the bolt where the socket is). Is there a secret to this, or should I just crank it down as tight as I can so that it will not rotate? I looked at the picture, and the ball does point towards the engine, so I don't think I put something on backwards. Thanks!

 

Just a guess but I really had to tighten it down - used the biggest wrench I could find.

 

I went with the ProLift set. Took 10 min and work great. No rivits, just existing bolts.

I did compress the struts a few times, prior to install and put some German torque on the hinge bolts, "Gut-N-tite". No slippage of hinges (5 x time check)

Works great, no "stress" feelings when closing the hood.

The struts actually pick up the hood just prior to 50% open.

Definetly one of the better and easier mods I've done.

Highly recommend.

Tom

PS - Now I just need to paint the hinges . . . should I go body color? or black?

 

I musta gotten a bad batch or i'm just really machincally challenged. I cant get the bolt on the passenger side to tighten up all the way. Seems the hinge is too thick and makes the bolt go down at an angle. I've tried it twice...the sequentials were easier than this!

 

Did you put the bracket between the the fender well and metal sheet? (so the bracket is mostly hidden).

Or are you talking about the hood hinge bolt?

Tom

 

Tom, those look really good. I emailed the guy previously to see if he'd ship APO and he said yes, $10. Is that what he charged you? I'm going to get them also and was thinking painting them body color along with the chin spoiler and the xenon mirror covers. Then again, painting the brackets black would look good. I may go that way. By the way, your car is looking great!!!

Alex

 

Thanks, Alex . . . yes he charged me $10 and I think the postage on the package was around $9 something.

I looked at the hinge set-up again and I'll probably go body color on them, because I'll have to repaint the bolts now anyway because I scraped off the paint when "wrenching" them on & off. Black just wouldn't look right (after studying it).

Tom

 

Thanks for the input Tom. Car just left port yesterday so it'll be another 4 weeks before I can study mine.

 

Hey Tom,

Talking about the bracket and i did stick it between the metal and now the bolt wont go straight down. It goes in at an angle and wont tighten.

Thanks for your help.

Nate

 

Good luck with it, mine was a bit off at first, but I repositioned it around enough to get it to catch and straighten up as I tightened it.

 

I'm Steaming mad!!! BE CAREFUL when tightening them down too much. I installed these lifts and they worked great for a full day. By the second day, I noticed the center of the hood on the drivers side was raised a little. I opened the hood and the brackets had rotated on the bolts causing the lifts to be miss aligned now. Ok, I figured maybe the bolts just needed to be a little tighter... Well I tightened the first bolt just a little more and SNAP! The bolt broke off in the fender. I ripped those pieces of crap out right away, but now what do I do about the broken bolt in my car? I think I'm gonna go with the MRT lifts, they look better and don't look like they would have the same issue.

 

Good news! I sent an email to the people doing the ebay auction and they are willing to give me a full refund on the kit.

 

This is the only possible flaw I can see with these struts. If the bracket on the hood side was made to use both hood bolts, it'd work great. Perhaps that is why the MRT ones have the large bracket thingy, though I haven't looked closely enough to know for sure.

 

That's good news. But what did you do about the broken bolt? I think I'll consider the Redline kit.

 

Haven't delt with the broken bolt yet... I've gotta go get a "Screw out" kit and try that, then get a replacement bolt.

 

Anyone want to buy my hood lifts from me? I decided it would be easier to sell them then to send them back to Canada with Customs Check and all. I'm selling them $10 cheaper than the original ebay auction since they were used for 1 day only.

Here's a link to my ebay auction:
Hood Strut kit

Don't be scared by my previous posts. There is absolutely no damage to the lifts. I had problems with the install, but that may just be ME. There were plenty of other people on here that had success with the lifts. Oh, I got the broken bolt out with an Extractor kit, but I broke the Extractor too! What are the chances of that. Bad luck!

 

Hi There;
I put this kit in my car, and it works great. No issues and my brackets seem to stay in place. Took about 15 minutes to install.