my strut was also a genuine Ferrari part in the Ferrari logo'd sealed packet! The vendor can have the best will in the world but if the design, manufacture or both is below par it's the OEM letting us down.
I tried to get glovebox the strut out at the weekend, without success. There is no space to work in that stupid glovebox. And, the pin at the top of the strut is different to the pin at the bottom. I'm confident the strut is the fractory original. I think I need to get someone to hold the lid open and shine some light in there while I try to extricate those pins. Any hints how to move them. They appear to be very tight.
I would recommend using a flat blade screw driver on the locking retainer clip. Just pry it between the clip and the cylinder. Work it out little on the bottom and then some on the top. It should pop right off. Once you do that the strut just twists off on the top. It only takes a minute. I'll try to get a couple picture and post them up in a few minutes. I've had mine off and on several times.
Here are the pictures. I should have looked at it before the previous post. It was a little different than I remembered. The first thing to do is to remove the lower retainer clip. This is a C clip and is pretty easy to remove. You can just see the two ends of the clip on the left side of the brass colored pin in the first picture. Rotate the clip so it is like it is in the picture. Use a screw driver and you finger nail to push on the two sides of the clip back into the glove box at the same time and it should pop off. In picture two there is a spring retainer clip. Use a screw driver to separate it on the bottom like I did in the picture. When it separates some do the same on the top. Just keep working it back and forth and it will pop off. Then just slide the strut off of the pins. Install the new one with the piston up, put your retainers back on and you are done. It should only take about 5- 10 minutes to change out. PM me if you have any questions. Good Luck!' Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Based on my singular experience, it doesn't matter a whole H of a lot how you get the @#$%^& damn thing installed. The sucker will fail within months. Please advise if that is NOT the case. Good luck!
Thanx Jim. I will give it a go at the weekend and let you all know how I fare. Seems like a hellava job, just for a simple little part. And by the sounds of the forum guys, it's an exercise in futility as the new strut is going to fail in time anyway. Duh. Oh well, I will still give it a try as I have already bought the new strut off Ricambi.
Has anyone done any research to see if there is a similar size Stabilus strut with a higher NM (newton/meter) rating? Seems the oem spec'd one is just a tad too weak, causing the early failures.
I got my glove box strut from them as well. I have had it in a couple months and it has held up great,
Straight bolt on replacement, working fine for 4 months. Lets see how it makes it through the winter.
Sorry guys. Didn't get a chance to fit the new strut over the weekend. May have to wait till next weekend.
Feel free to email me if you have any problems with this when you put it in. I have a Blackberry that I always have on me so I should be able to get right back to you.
Finally got to fit the new 348 gas strut to the glove box lid. Had to get down on my haunches from outside the car and lean into the car on one elbow to access the strut. I did the job on my own so I had a torch in my mouth which I shone on the strut. The two pins were tricky to get out but once I knew what I was doing the job became easy. Fitting the new gas strut was reverse of the removal. I opened the glove box lid about a dozen times after fitting and at last try, the gas strut was still working OK - fingers crossed. Thanks guys for the advice to a somewhat tricky job, mainly due to the poor working space available in the glovebox. Special thanks to jim94-348 for posting pics. Having done the job once, I reckon I could now do it again now with one eye closed. Hindsight is a gift. Cheers.
Thanks for your help - much appreciated. I am optimistic that the strut will work for the next ten years at least.
