the boot struts hold my boot up on the flat but not when the rear of my car is facing down hill, do i need new struts, thanks

Yep, pick up a new set on Ebay for about £12, takes 2 minutes to fit, and make sure you have the boot well supported when you take the old ones off! (I speak from experience LOL)

 

is this the same for a mk2?

1 minute ago, steplce74 said:

is this the same for a mk2?

I have a 2005 Mk2, that's what I did!

1 minute ago, StephenFord said:

I have a 2005 Mk2, that's what I did!

brilliant, thank you

19 minutes ago, steplce74 said:

brilliant, thank you

Seriously, make sure you support it - the second you remove a strut, the tailgate will fall down as it is really heavy!! If you have a spare friend who is in your bubble, you'll be fine 😄.

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Seriously, make sure you support it - the second you remove a strut, the tailgate will fall down as it is really heavy!! If you have a spare friend who is in your bubble, you'll be fine 😄.

Mk2 tailgate is heavy enough with the struts in place tbf!  Asked my sister to grab something out of the Focus while I was working on her car...  Watched her attempt to lift it a couple of times... 'Its locked' she said...  No, you just have to actually lift it!  She put all her strength into opening it...it flew right up and then she couldn't reach the handle to close it again.

 

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Mk2 tailgate is heavy enough with the struts in place tbf!  Asked my sister to grab something out of the Focus while I was working on her car...  Watched her attempt to lift it a couple of times... 'Its locked' she said...  No, you just have to actually lift it!  She put all her strength into opening it...it flew right up and then she couldn't reach the handle to close it again.

 

When I put my new struts on, the darn tailgate nearly lifted the car up the action was so powerfully strong! Thankfully, after a couple of months, they settled down to just opening like a normal car, but yes, 'she' also has the issue of difficulty reaching back up to close LOL You reminded me, I was going to look in to some sort of hanging strap but never got round to it... I'm a bad man 😅

any links to a good set

55 minutes ago, steplce74 said:

any links to a good set

There are loads of listings on Ebay, genuine Ford ones are about £40, waste of money for a 15 year old car!

I got a bit of a bargain on mine, that was the starting bid, and after 3 days at auction end, it was the only bid LOL

You can do one at a time to make sure it doesn't feel too heavy its pretty simple. These are what I got when I had a mk2 and they were pretty powerful. 

6 minutes ago, F0CUE said:

You can do one at a time to make sure it doesn't feel too heavy its pretty simple. These are what I got when I had a mk2 and they were pretty powerful. 

Well, when I removed the first strut, the tailgate immediately fell, trapping the strut between the tailgate and the rear light. I ended up having to replace the light as well when it cracked! Maybe I'm just a prize klutz 🤣 Have no idea why I thought it would stay in situ with just the one strut!