The struts or shocks that hold up the boot or hatch have finally failed. Replacement parts aren't expensive, and it would appear to be a pretty easy job, but I haven't had any luck finding instructional articles or videos. Any references out there, and/or tips on the job?
Not that I know of, but when you poop the first one off better get ready for the weight. The rear lid is very heavy. Ether have someone ready to hold it up for you as you change out the struts or have something holding it up.
@fridayxiii - Did you find any? Also, if you take pics etc, we can add it as an article. Would be good to have that. Let me know if your up to that.. or if you found some good How To’s
Hey @Sully , I didn't find anything MINI-specific on YouTube, although this may help, as modern bonnet & boot struts seem to be pretty universal: I got a bit of info from another MINI site that helped, mostly bolstering my confidence that there were no "gotchas" to this job. The task ended up taking me ~ ten minutes total, and here's what I did: 1) prop open the hatch with a piece of scrap wood (I had 1" x 1") or get another person to hold the hatch open. 2) pop the strut off the ball joint on the hatch 3) pop the opposite end of strut off the ball joint on the body of the car 4) install the new strut by simply popping the socket opening of the strut over the ball joint on each respective end 5) repeat on the other side The video, and some MINIacs on the other site, suggested using a screw driver to remove a C-clamp on each end of the strut first, or at least loosen it. The C-clamps on mine were pretty tight, so after messing around for a few minutes, I punted and just used brute force (pretty mild effort). The struts on the boot of my MINI came off much easier than expected. If someone succeeds in loosening the C-clamp, one additional step would be to ease the clamp back to its original position once the strut is installed. I ended up not needing any tools, though a narrow flat blade screwdriver will help get the C-clamps off if one is inclined to do so. You might also need a screwdriver to help remove the strut from ball joint on the car, but as I said, mine came off easily and no tools were really needed. HTH!
It's pretty simple. Have a small screw driver for wedging the clip loose. Wedge it loose, it pops right out. Pop them out on both ends, then the new one, place on top of the ball and pop it in. I didn't think to make a video of it when I replaced my rear hatch struts a couple of years ago. I did it at night in the dark. I might replace the bonnet struts in the summer this year. I will try and remember to do one. Frankly, finding the screw driver and a rag to clean up around the area (highly recommended), takes longer than the actual deed of replacing two struts. You don't need to get the actual BMW/MINI ones, but they are actually high quality and value for money. There are better struts out there but I noticed they do cost more, so OEM ones or even some cheaper aftermarket ones are fine. The cheaper aftermarket ones might rust a bit over time.
durability of OEM is a hit and miss, or perhaps something environmentally impacted. I have a sample of three cars, 2005 all of them. The lowest milage car, likely the one with the least hatch openings, needed new struts at 30k miles. This car spent most of its years in Florida. There was nothing left in them. My highest mile car works near new at 100k, maybe a bit slower than the new struts we put into the red car. The 90k mile electric blue is somewhere in between. Still holds the hatch open, but to fully open it needs a little help. Soon to be replaced. Both these cars spent their years north of St. Louis and Chicago respectively. I forgot where I got the struts we put into the red car, but they were relatively inexpensive and took minutes to install. A quick fix if the car needs it.