Mondeo Tailgate Struts

the spoiler is very heavy, it is made of a sort of hard rubber, get the right struts or don't bother. a car shop will charge about twenty quid each

Oh right .I thought it was just GRP or somesuch . I did find one source who want £45.29 for the pair delivered . I'll check local accessory stores .

In message , anyhtinguwant@anywhereuwanttogoto.?.invalid writes

I suppose it could but if it does the struts are well shot.

Take the spoiler off and weigh it, I bet you'll get quite a shock for an original Ford part. Most of the aftermarket boy racer add ons are feather light because they're crappy blow moulded plastic or slightly better fibre glass.

Most definitely there will be, the struts are designed and specced for the weight of the tailgate, too strong and you'll be nursing a bitten tongue every time you open the tailgate, too weak and you'll need a new truss pretty soon.

Think again.

bin it. Sorted. And will probably save fuel too.

Ohh, snipped out of context but soo right anyway..

LOL..Funny enough .I was out today and lifted the taigate up and it stayed up no problem ..not even a hint of it suggesting it wasn't staying up ...can't figure it out at all..

When they start to go it's often temperature dependent at first.

Yeah .That's what I asked initially ..What's in them ..is it oil or what ?.. do they lose power in the heat or in the cold ..

They're normally better when it's hot, they're originally filled with Nitrogen.

The temperature does.

They are certainly different on my SD1. If you fit Vitesse ones - it has a spoiler - to a non spoiler car watch out for your chin when you open it.

Dunno about online, but a decent motor factor that perhaps also does commercial vehicles should have generic types. The spec is usually printed on the body (of the strut) somewhere.

When the rear door struts failed on my focus estate I looked around the net and elsewhere for some [what I assumed would be] cheaper equivalents, to compare prices I rang my local Ford dealer and was surprised to be quoted a total price of £50.00 for a pair of genuine Ford replacements fitted, needless to say I opted to let them do the job.

But is filling them with nitrogen better than filling them with air?

I think it's just that that eliminates any possibility of water being in there.

In message , Abo writes

Yes. Non corrosive, won't support water vapour so you get a much more consistent range of pressures because the temperature expansion ratio is lower than for normal air.

A mate has just bough a Mondeo that came from someone who had added said spoiler. Mate carries a stick to act as a prop as his struts behave just like yours.

All the best ..

T i m

Despite all the replies here, the weight is nothing to do with it. It's the same situation with Clio 182 Trophys and Mk2 V6s - the spoiler models have shorter struts to stop the back of the spoiler fouling against the roof. If you fit the spoiler, and have the longer struts, then the boot opens further and the spoiler hits the roof.

Really???? .You sure about that ? The car's down the street so I can't look but I can't imagine the spoiler going anywhere near the roof when it's open ....

EDIT.... the tailgate would need to fold in half for the spoiler to hit the roof...the spoiler is at the bumper end of the tailgate NOT up at the roof end .

anyhtinguwant@anywhereuwanttogoto gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Some cars, such as Dan's Clios, I'm sure it is a factor. But on most? No.

The weight of a spoiler certainly can be a factor - many OEM accessory spoilers certainly do come with uprated struts (and need 'em!)

You say that, but ages back I bought a Mk3 Escort hatchback off a friend, who had gone to town chavving it up quite a bit, including a huge boot spoiler, resulting in the boot struts only *just* managing to hold up the bootlid. But we got a pair of struts out of an old scrap Fiesta (in a mate's yard, so gratis :-)) that had clearly hardly ever had the boot opened, bolted them in place, and the Escort bootlid positively flew upwards - it was literally a bit of an effort to close it.

So I say just get some off a car in a scrappy whose boot lid springs up like a jack in a box, and as long as they're the same size/shape they should work a treat.