Honda Car Forum

Hello, all,

I just bought a very used 91 Civic station wagon. Among other adventures,
the lifters for the rear door (trunk?) are just about non-functional.

This car already needs about a thousand and a half's worth of work, so the
$50 - $100 for replacement lift supports would be sorely missed. Cheapest
solutions looks to be a clamp, but I'd really like to get the things
recharged.

Anyone know what kind of place would recharge gas lift
supporters? I'm still a newcomer in an area too affluent for anyone I
know to have these kinds of problems and I can't drive around the nearest
bigger town looking until basic work on the car gets down.

Thanks -

K.

Kathleen House wrote:
> Hello, all,
>
> I just bought a very used 91 Civic station wagon. Among other
> adventures, the lifters for the rear door (trunk?) are just about
> non-functional.
>
> This car already needs about a thousand and a half's worth of work, so
> the $50 - $100 for replacement lift supports would be sorely missed.
> Cheapest solutions looks to be a clamp, but I'd really like to get the
> things recharged.
>
> Anyone know what kind of place would recharge gas lift supporters? I'm
> still a newcomer in an area too affluent for anyone I know to have these
> kinds of problems and I can't drive around the nearest bigger town
> looking until basic work on the car gets down.
>
> Thanks -
>
> K.

why are you spending $1500 on it already? what's wrong with it?

and no, you can't replace the struts - you have to replace. just use a
broom handle cut to the right length and keep it in the trunk if you
don't want to spend the money just yet.

jim beam wrote:
> and no, you can't replace the struts

oops, make that "recharge". the struts can't be recharged.

Kathleen House wrote:
>
> Hello, all,
>
> I just bought a very used 91 Civic station wagon. Among other adventures,
> the lifters for the rear door (trunk?) are just about non-functional.
>
> This car already needs about a thousand and a half's worth of work, so the
> $50 - $100 for replacement lift supports would be sorely missed. Cheapest
> solutions looks to be a clamp, but I'd really like to get the things
> recharged.
>
> Anyone know what kind of place would recharge gas lift
> supporters? I'm still a newcomer in an area too affluent for anyone I
> know to have these kinds of problems and I can't drive around the nearest
> bigger town looking until basic work on the car gets down.
>
> Thanks -
>
> K.

------------------------------

Sounds like your mechanic has binoculars . . . And saw you coming. Make
a note of this important warning:
YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO A HONDA DEALER TO GET YOUR HONDA FIXED, OR FOR
PARTS. NAPA sells the struts half price. Lots of independent garages
exist. They're often just as good and very often more careful to keep
you as a customer.

'Curly'

Good advice - it'll just take time to find a mechanic here I know I can
trust, but that's part of car ownership.

K.

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005, 'Curly Q. Links' wrote:

> Kathleen House wrote:
>>
>> Hello, all,
>>
>> I just bought a very used 91 Civic station wagon. Among other adventures,
>> the lifters for the rear door (trunk?) are just about non-functional.
>>
>> This car already needs about a thousand and a half's worth of work, so the
>> $50 - $100 for replacement lift supports would be sorely missed. Cheapest
>> solutions looks to be a clamp, but I'd really like to get the things
>> recharged.
>>
>> Anyone know what kind of place would recharge gas lift
>> supporters? I'm still a newcomer in an area too affluent for anyone I
>> know to have these kinds of problems and I can't drive around the nearest
>> bigger town looking until basic work on the car gets down.
>>
>> Thanks -
>>
>> K.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Sounds like your mechanic has binoculars . . . And saw you coming. Make
> a note of this important warning:
> YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO A HONDA DEALER TO GET YOUR HONDA FIXED, OR FOR
> PARTS. NAPA sells the struts half price. Lots of independent garages
> exist. They're often just as good and very often more careful to keep
> you as a customer.
>
> 'Curly'
>

'Curly Q. Links' wrote:
> Kathleen House wrote:
>
>>Hello, all,
>>
>>I just bought a very used 91 Civic station wagon. Among other adventures,
>>the lifters for the rear door (trunk?) are just about non-functional.
>>
>>This car already needs about a thousand and a half's worth of work, so the
>>$50 - $100 for replacement lift supports would be sorely missed. Cheapest
>>solutions looks to be a clamp, but I'd really like to get the things
>>recharged.
>>
>>Anyone know what kind of place would recharge gas lift
>>supporters? I'm still a newcomer in an area too affluent for anyone I
>>know to have these kinds of problems and I can't drive around the nearest
>>bigger town looking until basic work on the car gets down.
>>
>>Thanks -
>>
>>K.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Sounds like your mechanic has binoculars . . . And saw you coming. Make
> a note of this important warning:
> YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO A HONDA DEALER TO GET YOUR HONDA FIXED, OR FOR
> PARTS. NAPA sells the struts half price. Lots of independent garages
> exist. They're often just as good and very often more careful to keep
> you as a customer.

For that matter, I got new struts for my Accord hatch from the local
Princess Auto's surplus section. $15 each. They're about 4 inches
longer than the stock ones, so the hatch opens to almost vertical now,
but that just makes loading tools into the car a lot easier


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khouse@email.unc.edu wrote:
>
> Good advice - it'll just take time to find a mechanic here I know I can
> trust, but that's part of car ownership.

I gather "here" is UNC? Maybe someone can recommend a mechanic...



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On 2005-10-30, Matt Ion <soundy@moltenimage.com> wrote:

> For that matter, I got new struts for my Accord hatch from the local
> Princess Auto's surplus section. $15 each.

Which begs the question, what is the "surplus section" and where the
heck is Sasckatoon! (yeah, I know, Canada, but who lives in Canada?)

nb

notbob wrote:
> On 2005-10-30, Matt Ion <soundy@moltenimage.com> wrote:
>
>
>>For that matter, I got new struts for my Accord hatch from the local
>>Princess Auto's surplus section. $15 each.
>
>
> Which begs the question, what is the "surplus section" and where the
> heck is Sasckatoon! (yeah, I know, Canada, but who lives in Canada?)

Uh, I do, eh? Vancouver area, actually - we're a long way from the
flatlands.

The point is, there are WAY cheaper sources of hatch struts out there.
And BTW, they don't need to be "Honda-brand": I had to fudge the
attachments a little bit to make the "generic" struts work on my Accord,
as Honda uses non-generic bolt-ons, but they do work.


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H'mmm - once again I'm getting only about 1/3 of the messages on my news
server.

>> On 2005-10-30, Matt Ion <soundy@moltenimage.com> wrote:
>>> For that matter, I got new struts for my Accord hatch from the local
>>> Princess Auto's surplus section. $15 each.

New struts for $15 would be wonderful, esp. since it's (as Dave
Broadfoot would say) in Canadian dollars! The cheapest I've been able to
find on the Internet is $25 each - I have to assume the parts stores here
in NC would charge the same. Don't know the area well enough yet to start
cruising the junk yards; that a bit of bargain-hunting fun I'm looking
forward to.

> notbob wrote:
> Uh, I do, eh? Vancouver area, actually - we're a long way from the
> flatlands.


One of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen - cheap struts was
all it needed to make it perfect

K.