Trunk won't hold itself up

I have a 97 900SE saab and i go to open the trunk and when it opens it won't support it's own weigh and just slams down. If I press the "trunk open" button on the side I hear a weird electrical sound and sometimes it just pops.

do you know what this is, and if it is easily fixable?

Reply to
cassandrafowler
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....reckon the sound you are hearing is the electric boot lock releasing. This is normal in my experience. If the trunk/boot won't stay up I guess one or both of the gas struts are stuffed. If they are on the way out they are usually worse in cold weather. Suggested temporary fix:- :o)

  1. Park in the sun for an hour - this warms up the struts and they work better.
  2. Raise the trunk lid.
  3. Measure the distance from the floor of the trunk to the lower edge of the lid.
  4. Cut yourself a piece if 2"x1" batten to prop the lid til you get some replacement struts.

Try not to dislodge the batten in use. Apart from the risk of amputating part of yourself you will feel very silly.... :o)

Reply to
Pidgeonpost

Definitely the struts, and yes it's worse in cold weather. Very very easy to do yourself, but make sure you have that batten and preferably a helper when you do it. Pidgeonpost is right, the tailgate, as we British call it, turns into a blunt guillotine!!

Al

Reply to
Al

And when you go to replace the strut(s), raise the tailgate somewhat higher than normal to remove the weight from the strut and it's then quite easy to remove and replace the struts. I know this may be obvious, but some of us had to discover it the hard way the first time we did it.

Reply to
Everett M. Greene

A 4x4 piece of lumber is a good substitute for a second person. The pistons can be gotten on eBay for about $30-$40, as a buy it now. I did this last week on my 86 900, after I received a small kiss to the top of my head from the latch on my hatchback.

Jeremy

Everett M. Greene wrote:

Reply to
BK

Ah... SAAB love is a beautiful thing. Your SAAB kisses our forhead and you buy it baubles (parts) in return.

How different is this from life with our other significant others?

;-)

Reply to
Malt_Hound

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