Yesterday was a beautiful day and it was spent detailing Schultze. In the process of vacuuming the boot carpet and applying dressing to the plastic bits in the boot, the boot struts FAILED!

My back is very sore now...bruising hasn't quite appeared yet, but I'm sure it will soon...and it very much knocked the wind out of me.

Has this happened to anyone else?

 

Not on the MINI, but on our mini van.

It may not be both struts. When one failed on the van the hatch would fall like a rock. Once I replaced the one failed strut I was back in business. That was over two years ago, and the other strut is still fine.

I would suggest trying to find out if you have the same before buying two struts.

 

Thanks for the info...I shouldn't have to buy any struts because it should be covered under warranty, correct?

 

It should be covered under warranty and MINI should count themselves lucky that it was your back in the way and not your head!

 

Depends on where you are on the warranty.
If you are still in the maint part (36/36000) yes.
If in the overall 48/50000 part maybe not. I don't know if MINI considers hatch/boot struts to be a wear item.

 

Schultze's production date is 10/20/06 and I took delivery 01/13/07, so he's definitely still under the 36mo./36K warranty.

Schultze has an appt. at the service center Thursday morning, so we'll see what happens.

 

I have read horror stories on NAM about it not being covered thats why I have M7's strut reenforcement plates. I do hopee it's covered for you.

 

The poster is referring to the struts that hold up the "boot" not the front shock/strut mushrooming issue.