I see you're still trying to reinvent the Vanagon.
I bought generic struts from Auto Zone seven years ago at about $22.00
each and they're still holding the hatch up and have plenty of resistance
when being closed.
I see the VW guy put FuFu dust on his part numbers for you.

Stan Wilder
83 Air Cooled Westfalia

On Mon, 4 Mar 2002 19:42:05 -0800 developtrust <developtrust@COX.NET>
writes:
> I replaced my rear hatch struts today with the stock VW struts part
> #s
> 251 829 331A for the left
>  and 251 829 332 for the right
>
> I discovered that only one of the struts on my van was defective.
> The
> previous owner put the right side strut on both sides. The left one
> failed.
>
> I was told by the parts person that one strut is for opening and one
> is for
> closing and that the right one is a bit stronger and is why it costs
> more.
>
> I am wondering if the reason the left strut failed is due to it
> being the
> wrong strut; that is, made for closing rather than opening the
> hatch.
>
> Does anyone know for sure or if it matters at all?
>
> William Polowniak
> 1989 Vanagon GL
> 1988 Mercedes 300 SE
>
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