Interesting, my over 9yo old Volvo V40 has a bright boot light on the left side, an empty hole on the other and one in the tailgate that's handy but a bit pathetic. As SWMBO does most of the shopping and uses floodlit supermarket car parks it's never been an issue!

They were also very cheap as they were made in Turkey and had been mis-described in an eBay listing so possibly had the price reduced to sell.

Bonnet struts arrived today, fitted in seconds! MUCH easier to swap than the boot ones because:
1. The old ones fitted had a little slot to lever the clip open with a small screwdriver. The ones on the boot didn't.
2. They were exactly the right length and clipped straight on. The boot ones needed ...

Welcome, I see you have a GPS aerial on the boot, does it have an RNS-C by any chance?

Ronin wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 9:32 amShould still have plenty of life left in it.

In reality I suspect not, one of the struts makes a pretty unpleasant "graunching" noise as it approaches fully open, about the point where I have to start "encouraging" it. Onto the "to do" list.

Discussion with eBay to follow - not as described!
The eBay seller is I think trying to lead me on a merry dance, just bouncing back and forth with irrelevant requests. The latest is for a close-up picture of the labels on the struts, even though they already have pictures of the labelling on the ...

So, moving on I decided to have another closer look at my bonnet struts.
My research leads me to: 4D0 823 359F or FEBI 27675 530mm long, 223mm stroke, 245N force (oddly somewhat less than the boot which is 300N).

When I open the bonnet I do have to lift it a bit, but it stays up. However I realised ...

Isn't there an immobiliser situation where it will allow the engine to be started but won't run on? Dredging my memory here.....

Battery light stays on if you don't start the engine.

Job done, slightly disappointed in that the units that arrived were black, but shiny, but they were cheaper!
Found an old broom handle that was just the right length to prop the boot while working; it now opens and closes as it should. :mrgreen:

I couldn't figure out how to undo the spring clips ...