Are All Hood Struts Crap?

[UCLABB]

My last car, an Acura, had bad hood struts. Now my '99 Lexus hood struts have crapped out. I'm guessing that the hood on this car was lifted maybe twenty or thirty times in its life.

I long for the days when hoods had those spring thingies that worked just fine for ever. Heck, I'm fine with the cheaper cars' built in rod to hold the hood up.

Now I have to revert to to carrying a stick in the trunk. :-) I just don't think its worth the time and expense to replace the struts for so few openings of the hood.

[jhadler]

Ive had a similar experience and found that a wooden ground stake purchased at home depot is the perfect length from resting on top of the battery and hitting a part of the underside of the hood to hold 'er in place, i always have it in the trunk.

[vevro]

You should try it again, mine started to malfunction about two weeks ago. Last night I opened the hood and the struts held to my surprise. I've noticed that you need to warm up your engine for the struts to expand internally from heat.

[tansupplyman]

Save yourself $100. !!!!

Go to this site: http://www.cureline.net/lex/howtos/howto_hood_shocks.htm

[lctothe3]

I had the same problem with my 98 LS. I followed the direction on the cureline and for $17 dollars a piece I got new hood shocks with a lifetime guarantee. It took me about 40 minutes to do the complete job, including watching a football game while doing it. Both of my brothers have LSs with the same problem. I will fix them as soon as they bring them over. Best hood shock solution ever.

[chubyball]

Hey guys! Thanks for the info. about the hood struts. The past few months, I have been looking for this Mighty lift and finally found it at Autozone. Autozone keeps looking up as my car model LS400 '95 and told me they don't have it. This time I just gave them the part #C95029 without telling them for which car. They finally told me that they have 2 instock.

I did not have a drill to loose up the ball join but I use a paper clips to peals off the inter-ring that locks the ball join and also you a plyer to pull off the rest of the ring. As soon as the ring comes off, the ball join will come right out, then pops the ball join into Mighty Lift. Now it ready to install back to car.

Thanks to everyone here that contributes info about the hood struts, it's really save a lot of bucks $$

[90LS400Lexus]

I think my 90 LS400 still has the original hood struts, unless they the previous owner replaced them with OEM Toyota struts, as they say "Toyota" on them. They still work fine. Probably replacement, as I would guess they would have been worn out by now?

[NM98LS400]

Hello everybody. This is my first post, so bear with me. I just bought a 98 LS400 from a very good friend of mine that also happens to be a car dealer (I got a great deal!). The first thing on my list to get resolved was to replace the hood struts. I was shocked at the price from the dealer:

me: "how much are they?"

parts dude: "$120"

me: "for the pair, right?"

parts dude: "no, each"

:::silence:::

me: "a piece? what are they made out of?"

After finding out that nobody carried a direct replacement, I finally ran across the post on this site that recommended replacing the strut with an autozone strut that wasn't listed for my car (part #C95029). Well, it worked great and saved me 200 bucks. It took about 30 - 45 minutes to finish the job (including removing the ball joints from the old struts) and it is now as good as new. I thank all who contribute to this board. Without the useful information here, I would have spent more money than I had to.

The only other thing on my list is a slight front suspension clunk when I hit a bump, which from reading other posts, points most likely to bushings as the culprit. I'll address that and see what happens. Other than that, I love this car! :P

[chips229]

your not alone mines tired to and i also carry a stick in the boot :D

Thanks for another good link though.

[VBdenny]

MY "great white shark" hood almost got me a couple of times. I replaced them with the autozone shocks mentioned here and they have been perfect for a year or more. They have slighlty less extention lift than the originals, but the don't snap closed. I liked the paper clip idea, wish I'd thought of it.

denny

[Zdeno]

I agree with all guys who got it from autozone. I came there and the guy from autozone took big hammer and told me to I take the oldone from the car. I was soo afraid what he wants to do with the hammer but he really knocked out the metal end piece from the shocks and he used the pretty big metal shears too. Then he brougt me new for about 40 bucks for both.

[Meist21]

Did the autozone retro on my 98 LS. Works like a million bucks. I grinded mine off with a high speed dremmel type tool being careful not to get the ball. Don't aske autozone for hood struts they will just tell you they don't have them for the LS 400. Just use the part number from above. (95029 made by mighty lift). You do lose a few inches of height but now my struts are rock solid........

[handygal]

ditto, ditto and ditto

'98 hood struts been useless for as long as i can remember. That is one BIG hood to have come chomping down on you with that grill -- Ouch!

They cost how much?

Thanks for the great fix and install info, I'll be picking those up next time I'm near an Autozone.

[blake918]

"Are all hood struts crap?" YES!!! I've replaced them on both of my Lexi LS & ES. Maybe they aren't total crap, but the gas will definantly leak out at some point in time and make the strut worthless. I guess I'm the only one that let the dealer rob me for the real things.

[fatman]

Thanks everybody!! I Just finished putting mine in. Cost was $33.58 for both Hood struts, and about 45 minutes of my time.