Tell my wife, it's her damn car

 

I am happily floored that you went to the trouble of posting new pics. That is so massively nice of you. The replacement struts we have to put on have the identical clips in your photos. The existing one that's on there now does not appear to have any clip on it at all, but we can't seem to pry it off. Originally, I could only find the left hand side to purchase and it seems they both need replacing. I worried that replacing just the one without the other would not support the lift and the weight of the door might stress out the new one. I did finally locate a right side strut, so when that arrives, we'll be somewhat more forceful in removing them, perhaps giving the right side a go. If that fails, I'll be advertising for a circus he-man to assist me or I'll buckle under and head to the dealer. Thanks so much for your reply. Happy new year, kind sir.

 

That's interesting that the struts on the MPV have specific left- and right-side parts. The struts on the 6 are the same on both sides. I did a bit of Googling and found this pic of an MPV strut:



The mounting mechanism looks completely different. If this pic matches what you've bought, it looks like you'll need to remove 3 screws/bolts on each side and that's it. Go ahead and post a pic of your strut mounting points here if you would like us to double check for you.

In terms of replacing both at once... if you know that one strut is faulty and the other is definitely OK, you can just replace the faulty strut. Otherwise I would err on the side of caution and replace both.

Do let us know how you get on.

 

Yes. Indeed. That is a very specific part. In computer terms it would be "prioritized" to that specific vehicle.
Too bad these companies try to hold us all hostage, but it does seem that these are a special part and mounted by bolts... that the ball-sockets are not the actual mounting point.

Thanks for the help, Steveeee.

 

thanks for the posts. I just replaced mine today on 6s hatchback and wanted to add a few clarification points:

1. the parts guy asked whether there is rear spoiler (and the 6s does) as that adds weight. I think but not sure his part computer poses the question so there may be a no-rear-spoiler version of the struts. I didn't ask...

2. per the Mazda dealership service advisor, you don't have to remove the clips on the new struts (actually prefer not to remove clip, often the clips are designed for 1-time use as they lose strength after being stretched). They just pop right in - the hard part is just getting someone to hold up the hatch.

3. on the hatchback, there are right and left specific struts. On-line auto part stores I visited don't list right/left specific whereas the dealership does so I spent $10 more each at the dealer for peace of mind

4. at least on mine, there is no easy way to figure out which one was failing or if both degraded since I couldn't compress either by leaning on them. The parts guy said most people just replace both at the same time (of course he might be biased and want to sell more). I suppose if one wanted to potentially save money, one could replace one on the spot and if that wasn't sufficient, immediately go back and buy the second one.