Steeda hood struts install gone wrong!

[iffiamj]

Looks to me like it was a bad strut that locked up and would not compress. When you tried to close the hood the gas spring had no where to go and ended up bending and eventually popping off the bracket and scratching the paint. :frusty: Looks like Steeda is using cheap gas springs in their kit.:thumbdown: I have the system from Redline Tuning on my Stang and it works perfectly. I am not saying that you will never get a defective part from any company, but I chose Redline because they have a 4 year warranty!

That is exactly what the specialist said . We however couldnt test it out manually cuz duh its bent.:headbonk:

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[Mustangchief]

but what I am trying to indicate is that this was a faulty strut, which damaged my car.

I think you may have had a defective strut or one that was extended too far. The reason it bent and caused the damage was extra force. I've never had any brand of strut use much force to close. This damage was caused by a most likely a bad strut and too much force. I've had struts hang before and you have to remove them and find out why they hung. The witness marks on your battery cover suggest some effort to pop it off and leave those marks. If you closed your hood with normal force and this happened, I'd suggest your lower mount wasn't tight. Bottom line is correctly installed struts can't do this without excessive closing pressure. The hood is far too light to do this.

 

[2Cool]

Metal fatigue is why the bent strut feels much weaker now, once bent it will be much easier to bend further.

From the pics it does look like the strut had an internal obstruction that prevented it compressing. Likely a manufacturing defect. And most likely all of the struts in the various kits are made by only one or two companies (China I assume) and simply rebranded/painted by the retailers. You just got unlucky with quality control.

I will say that you should have stopped pushing down on the hood when you felt resistance.

 

[David@Steeda]

Okay, I just got back from visiting a mustang specialist here in Dubai. He inspected the struts and believes that there was nothing wrong in the installation.

He showed me how the one bent strut is easily further bendable versus the other strut installed on the driver side, concluding that the bent strut was made of very cheap quality (wtf lol), and therefore it snapped right out of the ball joint when it got bent and caused mayhem. He too was surprised and amused as to why one strut is stronger than the other

So guess there was nothing wrong with my installation after all.

It was just a poor quality strut supplied to me.:headbonk:

I am not angry on the defective strut, but furious over the damage the product has caused my car.

Ah well, guess I am gonna live with one strong strut after all.
:lol:

Thanks for the additional info, although we still believe this was installed incorrectly. We support our customers 100% and we don't have an issue replacing a defective part whatsoever, we would be more than happy to replace it if it was indeed defective. It's the fact that you didn't come to us directly when you were experiencing an issue (whether it's defective or mis-installed).

Some additional info: Struts are under pressure, therefore they want to extend and not compress. You stated "it snapped right out of the ball joint when it got bent and caused mayhem." If that was the case, the damage to your fender would be behind the fender mount, closer to the battery, since struts want to extend. But your damage is in front of the fender mount, which is an area the strut will never touch unless it's disconnected from the fender mount and someone tries to close the hood with it hanging there - that would also cause it to bend. Also, once something is bent, it will be easier to continue to bend it compared to one that's perfectly straight.

After speaking with the team, we also think the fender damage is due to the fact that you lifted up on the hood too far. If you were to raise the hood up and down several times, too high, it could have bent the fender hole and at the same time the strut may have popped loose. If you were to then close the hood, at that moment is when the strut could have bent and the damage been done.

We still believe this was an installation issue, we just want to lay out additional information from a company perspective so other customers know the best way to deal with a similar scenario should it arise. Out of good will, we'll go ahead and send you out a new strut - please pm me your best contact info.

Looks to me like it was a bad strut that locked up and would not compress. When you tried to close the hood the gas spring had no where to go and ended up bending and eventually popping off the bracket and scratching the paint. :frusty: Looks like Steeda is using cheap gas springs in their kit.:thumbdown: I have the system from Redline Tuning on my Stang and it works perfectly. I am not saying that you will never get a defective part from any company, but I chose Redline because they have a 4 year warranty!

If the strut locked up, the damage would be BEHIND the fender mount, not in front of it.

 

[jbailer]

If the strut locked up, the damage would be BEHIND the fender mount, not in front of it.

This is how I looked at it. I don't think you had it seated and it had popped off with the hood open and you just didn't notice. Then when you tried to shut the hood it bound up. You can tell by the huge gouge forward of the mount. That doesn't look like a weak strut. Looks like you jammed the hood down on it. As David said, if it would have popped off while you were shutting it, the damage would have started at the strut mount and gone toward the back of the car. I'm not saying I never made a mistake but when I do, I don't ask the vendor to pay for it. Kudos to David@Steeda for the great support.

 

[Todd15Fastback]

All I will is this.....the OP went about this the wrong way. Contact the damn vendor first to solve the issue/problem. If the vendor refuses to assist then post up a thread.

 

[iffiamj]

Thanks for the additional info, although we still believe this was installed incorrectly. We support our customers 100% and we don't have an issue replacing a defective part whatsoever, we would be more than happy to replace it if it was indeed defective. It's the fact that you didn't come to us directly when you were experiencing an issue (whether it's defective or mis-installed).

Some additional info: Struts are under pressure, therefore they want to extend and not compress. You stated "it snapped right out of the ball joint when it got bent and caused mayhem." If that was the case, the damage to your fender would be behind the fender mount, closer to the battery, since struts want to extend. But your damage is in front of the fender mount, which is an area the strut will never touch unless it's disconnected from the fender mount and someone tries to close the hood with it hanging there - that would also cause it to bend. Also, once something is bent, it will be easier to continue to bend it compared to one that's perfectly straight.

After speaking with the team, we also think the fender damage is due to the fact that you lifted up on the hood too far. If you were to raise the hood up and down several times, too high, it could have bent the fender hole and at the same time the strut may have popped loose. If you were to then close the hood, at that moment is when the strut could have bent and the damage been done.

We still believe this was an installation issue, we just want to lay out additional information from a company perspective so other customers know the best way to deal with a similar scenario should it arise. Out of good will, we'll go ahead and send you out a new strut - please pm me your best contact info.



If the strut locked up, the damage would be BEHIND the fender mount, not in front of it.

David, the reason that i have opted for the forum is that

1. I live in Dubai, IDD would be a PITA

2. Steeda's online support system is really bad, I have a support ticket (#30051) still opened since May 28th that has not been addressed to yet. I had to come to this forum and send you a PM directly to notify you and get help if you remember. The support ticket however stays as it is to date.

3. I dont demand a refund, or a replacement for the strut. That is not my purpose for this thread. Neither this is a thread to defame Steeda and its products, your long lasting reputation exceeds that so there is no reason to be defensive. It is just a mere discussion about what went wrong with the hood struts, as you can see people have come up with different opinions about what happened and how it happened. to make other people aware of the fact that struts like these can be defective too and should take care as they can cause irreparable damage.

I still believe and know the strut is defective, it is in my possession and I can confirm this. If anyone wants to have a closer look at it and lives in Dubai, i will be happy to show you what i am talking about

As per your reply and take on this, all I have heard so far is that "F**K you, we are Steeda, we dont make mistakes, you do , you always will do, so F**K you, oh and yea thank you we like to support our customers 100%"

 

[Khyber]

As per your reply and take on this, all I have heard so far is that "F**K you, we are Steeda, we dont make mistakes, you do , you always will do, so F**K you, oh and yea thank you we like to support our customers 100%"

really?

 

[iffiamj]

really?

Yup, they just say it in the nicest way possible.:clap2: means the same:clap2:

 

[Todd15Fastback]

As per your reply and take on this, all I have heard so far is that "F**K you, we are Steeda, we dont make mistakes, you do , you always will do, so F**K you, oh and yea thank you we like to support our customers 100%"

You'll get far in life with comments like this.

You really expect David to help you out with comments like this:frusty:addle:. I would tell you go to pound sand and stop you from buying another part from my company.

 

[Khyber]

Yup, they just say it in the nicest way possible.:clap2: means the same:clap2:

that really was for you, not steeda.

you're way out of line.

 

[anotherneon]

just hear for the comments. OP, you should have contacted the vendor on the forum. Making posts like this is always the last resort. Or make a thread saying I got a defective product or had a bad install and X vendor replaced it with no issue.

 

[iffiamj]

that really was for you, not steeda.

you're way out of line.

i dont think I am out of line to be honest. I have tried to explain in detail about how it all went down with picture intensive posts. However, Steeda still believes I did not install the struts correctly (you can refer to the post above by David), well one of the struts, cause the other strut was installed perfectly since nothing is wrong with it?

@Khyber Maybe you will understand me better when your car gets damaged after an install, and then the vendor blames you for your installation skills and not the possibility of a poor quality product by them.

I would have reacted differently if Steeda had replied saying, "sorry for the damage, this usually doesnt happen, a replacement is on the way, and i assure you your 100% satisfaction" rather than saying "Thanks for the additional info, although WE STILL BELIEVE this was installed incorrectly"

If Steeda wanted to help me, they could have done so way before (considering David has my account details already in his PM since 1st of June) this thread got hyped up, but their intentions are clear.

So :clap2:

 

[iffiamj]

just hear for the comments. OP, you should have contacted the vendor on the forum. Making posts like this is always the last resort. Or make a thread saying I got a defective product or had a bad install and X vendor replaced it with no issue.

You are correct, my apologises.

 

[Khyber]

i dont think I am out of line to be honest. I have tried to explain in detail about how it all went down with picture intensive posts. However, Steeda still believes I did not install the struts correctly (you can refer to the post above by David), well one of the struts, cause the other strut was installed perfectly since nothing is wrong with it?

@Khyber Maybe you will understand me better when your car gets damaged after an install, and then the vendor blames you for your installation skills and not the possibility of a poor quality product by them.

I would have reacted differently if Steeda had replied saying, "sorry for the damage, this usually doesnt happen, a replacement is on the way, and i assure you your 100% satisfaction" rather than saying "Thanks for the additional info, although WE STILL BELIEVE this was installed incorrectly"

If Steeda wanted to help me, they could have done so way before (considering David has my account details already in his PM since 1st of June) this thread got hyped up, but their intentions are clear.

So :clap2:

well I for one thing wouldn't keep pressing on the hood soon as it became difficult...so.....:lol:

you need to relax though

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