It's been a bad week.

[LuckyCharms]

The hatchback on my wife's SUV, I'm guessing, weighs a few hundred pounds.

The hatch would not stay up. You could open the door and lift it up if you were strong enough, but the factory original gas struts failed. They would not hold the hatch up, nor would they allow the hatch to slowly rise up after opening.

I search forever online for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) gas struts, but every site listed them as "currently out of stock".

I found some replacements on Amazon and ordered them, but they were not OEM parts. I decided to use them because I had to get that thing fixed. I used a step ladder to hold the hatch up and installed the replacements. I tested them several times, they seemed to work fine. installation was error free, and relatively easy.

About a week after I installed these, my wife took the vehicle to the grocery store. As she was loading the groceries through the opened back hatch, one of the newly installed gas struts failed. The end that hooks onto the door, rather than the vehicle frame, consists of a ball nut and a spring loaded socket that slips over the ball end of the nut. Once you snap that socket onto the ball, that thing is on there for good.

Well, the socket somehow pulled away from the ball nut, the gas prop failed, and the prop on the other side was not enough to hold up the hatch. The hatch crashed down, and the huge rear window shattered.

I thank God that she was reaching into the grocery cart at that moment, rather than standing under the hatch. That falling hatch would have killed her.

I found a shop that was able to get OEM parts, but it took several days for the gas props to arrive. The new props are now in, but I won't be able to get the new glass installed for another week. Don't believe those goddamn Safelite commercials. It's not like they have every piece of auto glass in the world in stock, and they grab it and come to your car in 5 minutes. They have to order the glass just like any other dealer.

So the hole where the window was is covered with a vinyl tarp, and we're getting snow every day this week.

We were outside in the freezing cold until midnight cleaning up shattered glass and inspecting each grocery item to make sure there was no glass in it.

[Walleye]

1. As if we don't have enough to cope with, we get these mechanical problems

Really glad your wife wasn’t hurt

[LuckyCharms]

2. I'm feeling guilt for using some apparent pieces of shit from Amazon.

I should have known better.

They looked fine upon inspection, and they worked fine for awhile. There's no reason that fucking socket and ball nut should be a point of failure.

[Walleye]

3. Hey, all we can do is the best we can do

[LuckyCharms]

5. I know, but when I think of what could have happened...

That hatch door is HEAVY.

It's hinged on the top, and once I got it lifted, I could only hold it up with one hand for a few moments until my arm started shaking, so I had to research how people hold it up while installing the struts. Most people use either a step ladder or a shovel.

If you can turn a wrench, you can install these struts, so the installation went smoothly...only a few minutes. And then the stupid part failed.

[Niagara]

4. I hear you Lucky!

Currently, my rear lift gate actuator is broken and is making life crazy inconvenient. My mechanic did look at it on Saturday and told me that if I ordered the part that he would install it.



I'm sorry to hear that your week is going as bad as mine is, although I'm glad to hear that you and Mrs. Lucky Charms didn't get injured.

[LuckyCharms]

7. Thanks, Niagara.

I hope your issue is resolved soon!

[Niagara]

10. Thank you.

I certainly hope that your issue is resolved soon too.


Hang in there!

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. ...

[LuckyCharms]

8. LMAO

Yep, it always is!

[Harker]

15. If it's not something, it's something else.

Isn't that something?

Glad Mrs. Lucky is lucky.

[MiHale]

9. Lucky, you deserve a lot of magically delicious...

life to offset your woes.

That glass is a bear to clean up had someone throw a rock thru the passenger window as I was cruising down the e-way. Found “shards” for a couple months.

[LuckyCharms]

11. That shit was all over!

Luckily it's tempered, so it didn't break into the tiny tiny shards, but there were seemingly thousands of pieces. Because of the nature of the glass, you could pick up the pieces without slicing your fingers.

[LuckyCharms]

12. Jesus, I just re-read this.

Someone threw a rock at your vehicle? I hope no one was hurt!

[MiHale]

14. No one was hurt

I was the only one in the car. I traveled a lot with a job once had about 30 odd years ago. It got to be a thing for kids to pitch rocks at the sides of cars. I don’t think anyone was injured lots of insurance claims though.

[Marthe48]

13. What a nightmare

But you are handy

[Mr.Bill]

16. This is hindsight,

but did you consider a junkyard for the struts?

[LuckyCharms]

17. I didn't, but that's a good idea.

Thanks, Mr. Bill.

[Fla Dem]

18. Sorry to hear about your misfortunes this week. But glad your wife was not injured.

Here's hoping you got your share of misfortune for the year over and done with and you have a somewhat carefree rest of the year.

[LuckyCharms]

19. Thanks, Fla Dem.

I live my life as follows: I always assume that each year that passes will get progressively worse.

If it doesn't, then I'm happily surprised.