I just upgraded to Status Gruppe carbon CSL trunk lid - very happy with the end product.
I wanted to have a 2 strut solution, so here's what I've found.
The body shop (Sublime Restorations) did the fitment and paint - I like the small area of exposed CF they left. Helps pick up the CF splitters on the CSL front bumper.
The Status Gruppe piece is 13 pounds vs the OEM lid of 26 pounds - so the stock trunk lift cylinders were going to be too strong - so I did some research on options.
The BMW OEM trunk lid left cylinder specs are:
I decided that 13" lift would be adequate and then I focused on finding a variety of struts at various forces - 20, 25 & 30# (I also ordered 28# units but they never showed up).
Here are links to the struts I found on Amazon - if you go to Lift Support Depot website, they actually have a nice tool to search their available struts.
The bodyshop felt that the 30# struts put too much load on the trunklid when compressed - they could see the skin on the lid had deformed very slightly (probably more evident with jet black paint).
The 20 and 25 pound units worked fine - I have to manually lift the trunk lid after it pops open, but both of them hold the lid up.
Ultimately I ended up going with the 25# struts vs the 20# units because they looked slighly more OEM (they are painted black) - BUT - the outer body of the 10mm connectors were a bit too big. Since I missed the return window for Amazon on some of the others - I just took the ends off of 20# strut and used it on the 25# unit. I tried the ends from the OEM struts and they are different thread size so they wouldn't fit.
Good luck!
I wanted to have a 2 strut solution, so here's what I've found.
The body shop (Sublime Restorations) did the fitment and paint - I like the small area of exposed CF they left. Helps pick up the CF splitters on the CSL front bumper.
The Status Gruppe piece is 13 pounds vs the OEM lid of 26 pounds - so the stock trunk lift cylinders were going to be too strong - so I did some research on options.
The BMW OEM trunk lid left cylinder specs are:
Extended Length A [in]: 13.74
Stroke C [in]: 4.13
Compressed Length B [in]: 9.61
Force (Lbs): 72
Shaft Connection: Ball Socket U Band Short (Nylon)=10mm
Body Connection: Ball Socket U Band Short (Nylon)=10mm
Compressed Length B [in]: 9.61
Force (Lbs): 72
Shaft Connection: Ball Socket U Band Short (Nylon)=10mm
Body Connection: Ball Socket U Band Short (Nylon)=10mm
I decided that 13" lift would be adequate and then I focused on finding a variety of struts at various forces - 20, 25 & 30# (I also ordered 28# units but they never showed up).
Here are links to the struts I found on Amazon - if you go to Lift Support Depot website, they actually have a nice tool to search their available struts.
30 # struts - Strut Dimension (Center-to-Center): Ext. Length: 13.00 inch; Comp. Length: 8.50 inch
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B7HR1XH...roduct_details
25# struts - Extended Length: 13 inch Compressed Length: 8.4inch.
Note: This strut is available with 25, 28, 30, 35, etc opening force
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BK4G4PXH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
20# struts - Extended Length A [in]: 13.00, Compressed Length B [in]: 8.42, Force (Lbs): 20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFRYNRW...roduct_details
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B7HR1XH...roduct_details
25# struts - Extended Length: 13 inch Compressed Length: 8.4inch.
Note: This strut is available with 25, 28, 30, 35, etc opening force
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BK4G4PXH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
20# struts - Extended Length A [in]: 13.00, Compressed Length B [in]: 8.42, Force (Lbs): 20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFRYNRW...roduct_details
The bodyshop felt that the 30# struts put too much load on the trunklid when compressed - they could see the skin on the lid had deformed very slightly (probably more evident with jet black paint).
The 20 and 25 pound units worked fine - I have to manually lift the trunk lid after it pops open, but both of them hold the lid up.
Ultimately I ended up going with the 25# struts vs the 20# units because they looked slighly more OEM (they are painted black) - BUT - the outer body of the 10mm connectors were a bit too big. Since I missed the return window for Amazon on some of the others - I just took the ends off of 20# strut and used it on the 25# unit. I tried the ends from the OEM struts and they are different thread size so they wouldn't fit.
Good luck!
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