droopy boot syndrome

18th May, 2007 by Jonathan

Poor Meg has been suffering from a droopy boot. Apparently this is relatively common with the ZS.

The symptoms of this are a boot that slams shut in the slightest breeze. Usually at the exact moment that my darling wife is leaning inside to reach something. The ultimatum was set – sort the boot or sell the car.

Thank goodness for my friends on the forums at the MGOC forums, who pointed me to this post at the Brit-Car forum.

That inspired me to purchase some Jaguar XJ6 boot struts (no particular reason for picking a Jag XJ6, other than them being the cheapest on eBay at the time!) and fitting them…

…the strut bolts on to the boot arm using the existing torsion bar hole. For this you need to drill through the back of the empty mounting at the one end of the strut and a couple of decent length bolts…

…and then bolts into rear either side of the seats.

Having the longer struts meant that I didn’t have to construct a bracket to bolt onto. One end of the struts have a captive bolt in them – offer this up to the seat back and drill a hole in the right place. You don’t even need to place a nut on the other side, as the pressure of the strut holds it in place. But you should, just for the smug feeling of self-satisfaction for not being a cowboy. (My fourth car is a horse…) A little snip in the carpet will make it fit snugly around the strut when replaced.

(I even have a spare pair of struts, if anyone’s interested). (ed. 06/03/08: Now sold – good luck Jason!)

The boot will now stay in whichever position you leave it in. The struts have enough force to pop the boot open without needing to leave the torsion bars in. All in all, my wife is very happy. Which makes me very happy.