Stabilus

About Stabilus

Stabilus is a German company specifically focused on one product: gas springs (also called gas struts). Founded in 1934 in Koblenz, the company invented the modern automotive gas spring in the 1960s and is the dominant OE supplier of bonnet struts, boot struts, tailgate struts and seat-back struts to most European, American and many Asian vehicle manufacturers.

What a gas spring actually is

The strut that holds your boot or bonnet open looks simple but is a precisely engineered cylinder containing nitrogen gas under pressure, separated by a sealed piston. As the strut compresses, the gas is compressed; as it extends, the gas pushes back. The force, the rate of compression and extension, and the damping are all tuned to the weight of the panel being supported and the leverage of the hinge geometry.

When a gas strut fails (it's almost always a seal failure that lets nitrogen escape), the panel becomes too heavy to hold itself open — the boot lid drops on your fingers, the bonnet falls when you let go, the tailgate won't stay up. The fix is simple but the spec matters: the replacement strut needs the right extended length, compressed length, force rating and stroke for the panel.

When to choose Stabilus

If the original strut on your vehicle is Stabilus (very likely — the Lift-O-Mat range is OE on most European cars), the direct replacement is Stabilus. The force rating and geometry will be identical to the original, the panel will sit at the right height and the strut will last similar mileage.

For high-spec applications (electrically-operated tailgates, soft-close systems), the matched-OE specification is particularly important — wrong force rating can confuse the powered tailgate's torque-sensing system.

Find Stabilus gas struts for your vehicle by entering your registration above.

Visit Stabilus's official site for technical specifications and OE applications.