had hood up on my 15yr. old 4Runner to check oil. Backed up to see better, suddenly the hood came crashing down. Pistons gave out with no warning.Still shudder over it!
Sorry to hear that
That said . . . is there a question here?
The truckās out of warranty, so youāll have to buy the part(s)
Does the hood have one or two support shocks?
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Actually it is not meant to be a question, rather a ātipā for anyone that works around cars.Iāve never heard of it happening before. I did replace those āschocksā.
Something like this is really not that rare actually. Same goes for rear hatches and so on.
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It did happen a bit early, in my opinion
Usually doesnāt seem to happen after only 5 years, but Iāve seen it
One of my daily drivers is 21years old and the hood shocks are still original
Another daily driver is 15years old with original hood shocks
Thatās why one should always have a bottle of Aspirin handy.
Or a bottle of !!! bourbon !!!
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Gas springs can fail at any time.
Tester
When hood shocks fail is it more from how many times the hood has been up or from age???
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+1
The gas springs supporting the rear hatch on my Chevy Citation failed after ~4 years. Because I knew that I would be getting rid of that POS , I carried a length of broomstick in the car to hold up the hatch when necessary. Because I was short of funds at that time, I wound up driving that car for another year, but that broomstick was the most significant āinvestmentā that I wanted to make.
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It can be from age but also if the rod gets scratched it can nick the seal or just leak out the scratch.
The purpose of this post was to share my experience. Iām 77 yrs old, been around cars my whole life, never even heard of such a thing. I know hoods get āpropped upā if the person is aware of this problem but that is not the case here. Not to be melodramatic but it would have been ācurtainsā if I was under that hood! Thanks!
This is why I like a rod instead of shocks.It doesnāt break!
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I think moving the vehicle is what made it drop. Setting still I suspect the hood would have came down much slower or even showed signs that the struts were getting weak. At least the ones I had to replace started to let the hood close slowly instead of just failing all at once.
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Do you know how many times Iāve had people bring their vehicles to me, and not tell me that the gas springs no longer held the hood up?
You donāt die, but it hurts like hell.
Tester
+1
Even worse is when customers ask you to ācheck the radiatorā while their tank is being filled.
The percentage of inconsiderate idiots who fail to mention that their temperature gauge was spiked when they drove into the station is appallingly high.
Thank you. 
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I donāt like the idea of gas struts to hold up the hood. Most cars use a hinged prop rod, which is very reliable. I also liked the coil springs which were used on many Chrysler products from the early 90s.
That hinged prop rod is definitely as reliable as can be, but I have to say that my 2011 Outback (my first vehicle in a LONG time that doesnāt rely on a prop rod) uses gas struts, and they still function perfectly after almost 10 years. Maybe these devices have improved over the years??
We tend to pick on the bean counters, but I would think a rod would be cheaper than struts, maybe a lawsuit because someone hooked the rod up wrong my guess.
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