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- 2024 CX90 PHEV Premium Plus
I purchased the Autobahn88 Hood Lift Support (for 2016-2021 Mazda CX-9 Mark2 Skyactiv-G) through Amazon. They make hood lifts for tons of vehicles. Their hardware mounts without the need for drilling. Installation literally only takes about 15 or 20 minutes. The quality of the hardware itself seemed pretty good to me. Thick metal pieces attach easily to the body with supplied bolts, nuts & washers. The hood struts themselves were heavy and felt substantial.
However, after installing one side, I wasn’t happy with the end result. I had watched videos of the struts being installed on other vehicles and they had some pretty cool mounting hardware solutions. In particular, they had nuts on pieces of metal that you could thread under a fender so that additional hardware can be screwed down on top through existing openings in the body.
For the 2016 + CX-9, the mounting points gave me pause. The bottom mounting points attached to a thin fender support. The support itself was kind of weird. I’ve never seen anything like this. The top part of the front fender is mounted up on thin legs instead of directly to the unibody. I didn’t think it was a good idea for the hood strut to be pushing against it.
On the other end of the strut, the hood hardware didn‘t sit flush. The metal piece attaches to the hood by using the existing bolts that hold the hood to the lift hinges. The gap wiggles as the hood goes up and down. Over time, it seems like the metal might fatigue and bend or damage the hood or the OEM bolt. I compared my installation to the pictures a dozen times to make sure I was doing it right. There is a shim peace they include but it still didn’t hold the hardware tightly to the metal.
I would definitely try these again for another vehicle but for the 2016 - 2021 CX-9, it didn’t meet my expectations.
A few pics…
One shows the hood hardware. You can see how it’s not flush against the metal. The other 2 show the thin arms that the fender is attached to. One is a close up with the hardware installed. And another shot is pulled back where you can see two of these fender attachment points.
However, after installing one side, I wasn’t happy with the end result. I had watched videos of the struts being installed on other vehicles and they had some pretty cool mounting hardware solutions. In particular, they had nuts on pieces of metal that you could thread under a fender so that additional hardware can be screwed down on top through existing openings in the body.
For the 2016 + CX-9, the mounting points gave me pause. The bottom mounting points attached to a thin fender support. The support itself was kind of weird. I’ve never seen anything like this. The top part of the front fender is mounted up on thin legs instead of directly to the unibody. I didn’t think it was a good idea for the hood strut to be pushing against it.
On the other end of the strut, the hood hardware didn‘t sit flush. The metal piece attaches to the hood by using the existing bolts that hold the hood to the lift hinges. The gap wiggles as the hood goes up and down. Over time, it seems like the metal might fatigue and bend or damage the hood or the OEM bolt. I compared my installation to the pictures a dozen times to make sure I was doing it right. There is a shim peace they include but it still didn’t hold the hardware tightly to the metal.
I would definitely try these again for another vehicle but for the 2016 - 2021 CX-9, it didn’t meet my expectations.
A few pics…
One shows the hood hardware. You can see how it’s not flush against the metal. The other 2 show the thin arms that the fender is attached to. One is a close up with the hardware installed. And another shot is pulled back where you can see two of these fender attachment points.