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Trunk Hatchback Lift Supports

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Postea, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:18 PM.

  1. Postea

    Postea Junior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2008
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    Location:
    San Mateo, CA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    My hatchback lift supports were weak and I decided to replace them. The supports that I was removing were the original OEM supports and they were made by Stabilus so I decided to purchase new Stabilus supports. I looked at several different models on Amazon as well as reading the reviews on Priuschat. Eventually, I called Stabilus Customer Support to figure out which is the correct model for my Gen 3 Prius. The Stabilus model SG329044 is not the correct model. The Amazon site title says "Compatible with Prius 2008 to 11/2010" but this is not correct and they are not compatible with Prius up to 11/2010. When I mentioned this to the Stabilus agent she told me that they have tried to get Amazon to correct this error but it has not been done for years since Amazon creates the web listing for Stabilus. There is another item on sale at Amazon with the title, Stabilus 4B-015513. This is also not the correct model and the AmazonConfirmedFit correctly states that this does not fit the 2010 Prius (Gen 3). The correct Stabilus model has the Amazon title of: "Qty (2) Fits Prius 2010 To 2015 Hatchback Trunk Lift Supports (Exc V, C Models)" and the correct Stabilus model number is: 4B-136715. This Amazon listing shows other OEM numbers for other vehicles that are compatible with the Stabilus model 4B-136715. I installed these and they fit perfectly and work like the original without any problems. They are exactly the same length and diameter as the originals. There is no right or left side as the top rotates either way to fit either side. The install only took a few minutes and the hard part was lifting out the security clip on the top of the old lift with a small screwdriver. (Wear safety glasses as the clip can shoot across the room or hit you.) For the install you can use a second person to hold up the hatch while you change the lifts because it will drop once you remove one of the old lifts. I used a small rope and attached it to the ceiling of my garage and then to the hatch latch. For the install, there is no need to touch the metal clips as the new ones just snap onto the connectors on the Prius.

    stabilus lift.jpg
     
    #1 Postea, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:18 PM
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2024 at 9:24 PM
  2. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 29, 2020
    10,020
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    Location:
    Durham NC
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    Base
    I just use a trimmed piece of 2x4 with a v notch and one end and flat on the other and it just holds the trunk up while I do whatever I'm doing back there and even cars were the struts are worn out then make a bunch of different struts now you can even get linear actuators that are almost the size of the struts you have and push a button and watch the hatch raise all by itself car stereo affectionatos have seen this for years It's kind of like the bed motors on an adjustable bed frame but micro miniature and they are some that are gas filled that when you pop the lock on the trunk they will automatically start the hatch-raising I'm sure a lot of these struts can easily be quickly fabbed up with different ends to screw into different bosses on different cars It's the length and the space between the threaded inserts and whatnot that will generally make the difference for the travel and what have you but there's a lot of sites that used to play around with these strut things on various parts of the car doing the hood with them so when you pull the hood release the hood just start gently raising till it's fully up etc some people like that kind of stuff.
     
    #2 Tombukt2, Sep 27, 2024 at 9:23 PM
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2010
    56,188
    38,998
    80
    Location:
    Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    Touring
    I replaced ours, using a recommendation here. The fit is fine, but they are definitely more aggressive, to where you want to keep a hand on the hatch going up, and you need to put more of your weight on it when closing. Purchased on Rock Auto, can dig up the info in a bit, fwiw.

    anyway, with the ones you got, the feel is about the same, going up or down? Say as the originals, before they started going off?
     
    #3 Mendel Leisk, Sep 28, 2024 at 9:13 AM
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