I am not a mechanic, nor do I have a garage, but I'm tempted to try replacing the hood support shocks on my 2007 ES350. I do have a few questions first:
1. Is this a part that I need to buy from a dealer, or (as I suspect) will aftermarket work as well and last as long?
2. Besides a stick to support the hood (in the center), are there any specialized tools required?
3. If the hood seems to have no support now (NH, 35 F), should I just plan to do both, or is there a way to tell if one is OK but not the other (before I remove them)?
4. since this is a very nice Camry, I'm sure lots of these have had the hood shocks replaced. Any tips?
5. Or, since my mechanic always does diagnostic work without charging me anything (and since he DOES have a garage) should I just bite the bullet and pay him to do this for me. (He MIGHT say "Just use a stick" - he is that way about money). Good Guy.
it's very easy to replace so you can get a stick to all that up and you can buy the supports at AutoZone or any place you want as long as they fit they just snap off and pop off and pop on there very easy I got videos to show how to do it too on YouTube
I'll go find your videos. Thanks.
I can't find yours, but several videos convince me I can do it, so I ordered the parts.
I've never done hood struts, but I've done rear hatch struts.
When researching which struts to get, I got the one with the best reviews. It was a little more, but highly recommended in forums.
Low and behold, when I go to replace the struts, the old ones were the same exact brand.
I recommend taking a peak at your hood struts, and replace them with the same brand.
FWIW, it was for a Toyota Prius, and the brand was Stabilus.
Thanks. I trust reviewers (so long as there are lots of them), and I don't worry about what brand is on there now. I picked parts with great reviews (the only bad review said they wouldn't fit on my car, but I'm sure they will.