BMW E31 BONNET (HOOD) STRUT REPLACEMENT
 

I noticed that when I opened the bonnet the other day that it sort of drooped to the right - and watching the hinges I could see that the right-hand strut was making very little effort to keep the bonnet open whereas the left hand strut was doing all the work. I thought the bonnet struts would have the same fittings as the boot struts - but no, these are quite awkward, easy to get on, but difficult to get off.

I bought the struts from BMW, pretty cheap:



Here is what the fittings at either end look like:

I've given this one a good tweaking getting it off, but once you know which bit to poke it isn't too hard at all. Before fiddling with the struts, prop the bonnet open so it doesn't clout you on the back of the head because that's sure gonna hurt! Here's where you poke the clips so that the strut can be pulled away:



Once the clip is levered as shown, the strut can then be pulled away from the mounting easily.

The other end (at least on the right when facing the car), is a bit more awkward, I tried getting the clip off using a screwdriver from behind, but it is pretty resilient:



There is a plastic shroud in the way, so that's coming off! So, lift up the rubber seal:



Lift the seal that goes along the gutter, pull the plastic piece away from the gutter:



And lift the plastic part out of the way:

That will give access to the lower part of the clip so it can be removed in the same way as the upper end. The new strut just pushes on to the fixings, no need to bend anything due to the rounded fixing points.

All done, time for a cup of tea.