Originally Posted by
theglot
The other day I was up North where it is colder and noticed the struts were not doing a good job of holding up the rear hatch.
Easy solution, ordered new struts off Amazon.
This is where the mistake happened. Didn't occur to me how heavy our back hatch is. Popped off the left side strut and the hatch cam crashing down shattering the rear glass.
Dumb mistake. Should have used a prop rod.
Next week I get new glass installed for $380.
Expensive mistake, but I am an old man and make stupid mistakes.
Damn You! I'm an old man too, and I am supposed to read about this before I do the EXACT SAME THING! And I do mean exactly. Popped off the left side strut top, while propped on my shoulder, and stupidly tried to catch the falling strut, and the hatch was much heavier than I expected with just one weak strut, it slipped off my shoulder, and then the crash of shattering glass. I was also stupid enough to close the strut in the door. I haven't checked for THAT damage yet.
Kids at home, don't take short cuts. Brace your work. As an old man, I should be able to afford some hatch glass, except that I just paid for a Crossfire with cash LAST WEEK. Yes, that is how long it took me to do something catastrophically stupid. A week.
I'm actually happy to hear that you are getting new glass installed for only $380. I was afraid it would be much worse.
Did you look for used glass at all? Curious whether that is worth trying, though at this point I'm happy enough to let somebody competent install it.