[s-cars] Hood Lift Strut Mount Failure UrS6

[Fred Munro]

I just ran into an odd failure on the UrS6 - the eye that mounts the top of
the lift strut to the hood broke the spot welds and came loose. The eye is
part of a plate that is spot welded to one of the hood stiffening ribs. The
plate is located by two slotted tabs and then presumably spot welded to the
rib. When it comes loose, the end of the strut slides up inside the hood
when you close the hood, gradually putting a small dent in the surface of
the hood and deforming the rib around the hole for the mount. I only found
it when I extended the strut to the upper stop to oil the hood hinges and
saw that the mount was moving around - I didn't really notice any problem
when I opened or closed the hood.
It's an easy fix - I moved the mount plate back to its original location by
re-inserting the tabs into the slots, clamped it in place (a small C-clamp
will fit through the hole in the rib) and secured the four corners of the
plate to the rib with pop rivets. A quick coat of POR-15 on the rivet heads
and damaged paint and it was done.
It might be worth a quick check the next time you have the hood open.

Fred Munro
'97 S6