Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

They are so cheap from the official Porsche centre so why buy on ebay? Also be aware that a lot of the aftermarket ones are so strong that they cause the glass on the hatch to delaminate.

Thanks for the advice Michael. For some reason I thought that the hatch struts that work with the heated rear window were no longer available. Once the latches are more consistently aligned I'll drop my OPC a line to see what they have.

Craig, I PM'd you but haven't heard anything back. If you're coming to the meet at the Gray Ox tonight, we can talk hatches there.

Hatch struts are not so cheap from Leeds OPC (£41.96 each plus VAT). Are there other OPCs selling them for less? I'm thinking of getting my old ones re-gassed or trying the eBay ones (not sure though, if there really is a chance of the glass breaking).

Google SGS engineering, I have a pair of those and they work fine

Hi Waylander. I've been in touch with SGS before, infact it was them I intended to use to do the regas. I was fairly certain I was told that they don't sell a hatch strut that works with the heated window. Did you manage to get one from them that does or did you decide to live without it?

It's quite simple to fix, you have to remove the plastic end from the offside strut and put a metal ball joint on it as it's the earth for the rear glass, problem solved, it just stupid as they sell the metal ends but won't change it over for you

That's a lot. Call Leicester and speak to Glenn or Cambridge and speak to John, make sure to mention TIPEC and you should get a 10% discount. I have known the OPC prices to vary so worth calling a couple.

Prices have shot up over the last 6 months

Sorry for the late reply but yes they do.

Just spotted these being sold by Euro Car Parts on EBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331956981667
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232067342974

The part numbers look correct. Described as OE part or OE spec. Pictures seem to show the heated window connection.

Reduced fro £45 to under £15 with free delivery.

Ordered one of each. I'll post an update when they arrive and I've had chance to fit them.

The quality of these seems fairly good to me. I had a couple of issues though.

Firstly the left side strut had the fixing sockets pointing in opposite directions. I expect you might be able to turn the arm until it faced the right way. My old ones can be turned but the new ones won't budge by hand so I unscrewed the fixing from the hatch end and used a washer to allow me to screw it back on facing the right way.

Secondly, after fixing both sides, I found the interior lights weren't switching off when the hatch closed. I figured the hatch strut was involved in turning the lights out but I didn't know how it worked. After a bit of internet research and going back to look at the strut it was pretty easy to sort.

The right side strut has a plastic collar round it, above the metal socket joint, where it attaches to the body. A wire attaches to this and inside there is a strip of metal that makes contact with the arm of the strut. At the other end of the arm, attached to the bottom of the gas cartridge, is a plastic piece that covers part of the metal arm. When the hatch is closed this plastic goes inside the collar bit and acts to stop the metal strip making contact with the arm. So there you have your switch. The wire attached to the collar is ground for the interior light, when it the metal touches the arm the light is on, when not it is off.

Turns out the plastic collar can be moved up and down. It was a bit too far down so the metal strip was always touching the arm. Move it up a bit and, hey presto, the lights now go out.

The hatch now goes up with the button and the key, hurray!! There doesn't seem to be too much force when it goes up either, as far as I can tell, so thumbs up so far.

Got a pair of the Euro ones fitted them in about 10 mins, super powerful lift the hatch no problem

the eyes were facing the wrong way but they turned easy with a bit of help with swan neck pliers

They have the correct 944 part numbers printed on the bodies, all in all a dam bargain

Hi Waylander. Interesting that yours were facing the wrong way too. I contacted URO but they say they never had a problem with the 944 struts before. Clearly most owners are resourceful enough to sort it without bothering them. You'd think their QA would catch something so obvious as that though.

So, are you saying you were able to turn the metal arm until the eye faced the right way. If so I'll try the same as I'm not overly happy with the washer solution.

The piston rotates in the body no problem, you can't turn it with your hand there is 300nm of push from the gas forcing it against the end of the body

Needs a little force to make it turn