Audi 100 Tailgate gas strut failure

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Tue 19 Oct 2004 11:01
Audi 100 Tailgate gas strut failure - Mapmaker
Foolishly, I lent my car to a friend. It was returned with, in place of the rear window, a large quantity of clingfilm wrapped around the back of the car.

On unwrapping the clingflim (which was everywhere, including round the struts, thus preventing the tailgate from reopening more than a couple of feet) I discovered that both gas struts had failed.

How (un)likely was that? One brand new strut is insufficient to hold the tailgate up properly - it still sinks very rapidly indeed. So the car never had just one functioning strut. So:

Either: both struts failed at the same time, causing the tailgate to come crashing down & breaking the glass.

Or: the clingfilm got caught up in the struts, causing them to fail, subsequent to the damage to the rear window.

Views, please, on what would cause both struts to fail at the same moment. Thank you!


BTW, replacing the struts is a 10 second per side job - unlike on the W123 which requires inter alia removal of the headlining & use of an obscure multi-point screwdriver bit.
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Tue 19 Oct 2004 21:04
Audi 100 Tailgate gas strut failure - Number_Cruncher
I like puzzles!

What if the boot was opened vigourously, and the gas struts slammed into their stops at speed? This might damage both struts at the same time.

number_cruncher
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Tue 19 Oct 2004 23:15
Audi 100 Tailgate gas strut failure - Philiplex
Interesting question! I'm wondering if your friend said how the window got broken in first place, it might give a clue.
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Wed 20 Oct 2004 13:40
Audi 100 Tailgate gas strut failure - mattieboy
What was the mode of failure for the struts?

My parents had a Renault Espace, and as kids we couldn't reach to shut the boot so we'd have to use the struts to pull the boot down slightly. As you can imagine, struts don't like bending forces and hence we knackered quite a few of them, but the mode of failure was bending of the strut - once they started bending, they collapsed pretty quickly. There wasn't any damage to the boot, as it was very light - I think the Espace panels were composite (it was the original model).

Hence, in the event of buckled struts, my theory might be little hands grabbing things they shouldn't.
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Thu 21 Oct 2004 13:28
Audi 100 Tailgate gas strut failure - Mapmaker
Thanks.

Apparent mode of failure of window was 'he was just shutting the boot & the window exploded'. This particular event was watched by several witnesses.

No little hands around - though maybe a dog.

Subsequent conjecture (and it was a fortnight before I saw my car again) was that failure of the struts caused the boot to slam shut, causing the window to break.

Alternative suggestion from RAC window replacement man was that he'd grabbed hold of the rear wiper blade to shut the window.
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