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© 1998 Brian F. Schreurs
Even we have a disclaimer.

The car is a 1992 Eagle Talon TSi visiting the Garage. The rear struts were what is technically known as "saggy." We set out to replace them. It turns out there is a wrong way and a right way. Learn from us.

The top end is the easy part: loosen the nut, then unscrew the bolt.

Do not prop up the hatch with a prop rod of any kind. It could drop on your head. This is definitely a two-person job. That way if it drops on your head, you have someone to blame.

We started out by taking the trunk apart in the hope of gaining easy access to the lower mounting point. It didn't help, and you don't need to do it. But if you're curious about how it's done, check out Disassembling a Trunk.

Momentarily defeated by our errant quest to remove the interior panels, we searched the archives of Club DSM, the internet's support group for these types of cars. Here we learned that we went at it all wrong.

You don't have to remove any panels. You don't have to take the trunk apart. You DO have to be careful what kind of struts you buy. Some struts (such as those offered by Parts America) require modifying the original mounting points. You do not want these. After the dealer failed to provide us with factory originals, we went to Advance Auto and picked up a couple of Strong Arm (no. 4731) struts which were essentially identical.

There is only one piece which you really have to remove. The parcel shelf, when in place, sits on four tabs. The two rearmost tabs have to be removed because they screw straight into the bulkhead and won't allow any flexibility for the panel.

Now, take off the upper mounts. First you have to loosen the nut between the strut and the hatch (we don't know what size -- we used an adjustable), then unscrew it with a Torx wrench (on a non-GM?? Yikes!). A T-30 was slightly small but did the job. You will not be saving any of these parts. Hang on to the strut as you loosen it, as it has a little bit of stretch yet and may try to punch a hole in your glass. With the strut loose, you can move it around as needed.

The little tab just below and to the left of the strut must be removed.

Use a screwdriver as a pry bar to pull the panel away from the body. The panel is pretty flexible so let 'er have it. You need to remove the base of the strut, because your new ones come with them. The bolt is 10mm; forget about fitting a socket in there -- go buy a combination wrench.

You need these bolts!! Your new struts don't come with new bolts. It's very hard to hang on to them, but it's even harder to get them back if you drop one into the body. We know. We spent three hours trying to rescue one, finally just driving the car hard until it rattled out.

Getting the new struts bolted in can be tricky. We had one person wedge the gap open as far as it would go with one hand and maneuver the strut in place with the other, and one person held the hatch open with his head while screwing in the bolts with his fingers (making sure not to drop them into the body again). To help hold the mounting plate in position for the first bolt, we shoved a skinny screwdriver through the forward-most hole.

Just pull the panel away from the bulkhead like this.

Keep trying. It'll work. Really.

With the lower mount held loosely... oh, not done yet? No problem. It takes practice.

With the lower mount held loosely in place by its bolts, attach the upper mount. Screw in the Torx screw first. Then tighten the lower mounting bolts. Then tighten the upper nut.

It's done! You'll probably never want to see another strut again. We sure don't.

The new struts didn't cause the hatch to fly open all by itself, but we didn't expect that either. All we wanted was a hatch that stayed open. It worked.