Door Lift Supports

[Five]

I had just my Diablo in for service (Driven Exotics.. they did a fantastic job as usual)

As part of that.. since the car is 8 years old, I asked them to replace the door lift supports. They were still holding the door up but when it got cold, they would need that extra push at the end or they would start to slip down.

Over time, all lift supports leak a bit and get weaker.

Steve at Driven tried the normal force lift support first.. something like 960 newtons (numbers might be slightly off). He found it a bit weak.

So, he dropped in a 1060 newton one or something like that. Steve would know the exact number. Not that much higher..maybe 100 newtons.

but its night and day. Now I just unlock the door and it pops all the way up at a perfect speed (not too fast or too slow) all by itself. Just like the Murcielagos.

When I saw a door for a Murci the first time open by itself I wondered if the Diablos were like that when they were first made and they just got weak over time. But after talking to people, it looks like the Diablos always required a bit of hand lifting.

But a little stronger shock and the door will open by itself. And pulling it down isn't a problem.. pulls down easy.

I dropped in much lower pressure lift supports into the decklid to make sure the decklid won't warp when the temp in the engine comparment goes high but that isn't a problem in the door area so slightly higher pressure supports should be fine.

It's really pretty nice to have the doors open by themselves rather than have to pull them up.

[zzzzdoc]

Did you ever see the Murci that the guy had rigged up with remote door openers? Looked pretty cool. Talk about parting the Red Sea when you approach your car.

[AgentTripleX]

That was Adnan's roadster. It was in the shop when we hung out. But he told me about it and it sounded pretty reliable.

[pdisme]

I need a remote top down for the spyder. :)

[AgentTripleX]

On the Bentley GTC you can do it using the key standing a few feet away from the car. It looks so complicated though. There are so many strings involved.

[tomf-1]

I had just my Diablo in for service (Driven Exotics.. they did a fantastic job as usual)

As part of that.. since the car is 8 years old, I asked them to replace the door lift supports. They were still holding the door up but when it got cold, they would need that extra push at the end or they would start to slip down.

Over time, all lift supports leak a bit and get weaker.

Steve at Driven tried the normal force lift support first.. something like 960 newtons (numbers might be slightly off). He found it a bit weak.

So, he dropped in a 1060 newton one or something like that. Steve would know the exact number. Not that much higher..maybe 100 newtons.

but its night and day. Now I just unlock the door and it pops all the way up at a perfect speed (not too fast or too slow) all by itself. Just like the Murcielagos.

When I saw a door for a Murci the first time open by itself I wondered if the Diablos were like that when they were first made and they just got weak over time. But after talking to people, it looks like the Diablos always required a bit of hand lifting.

But a little stronger shock and the door will open by itself. And pulling it down isn't a problem.. pulls down easy.

I dropped in much lower pressure lift supports into the decklid to make sure the decklid won't warp when the temp in the engine comparment goes high but that isn't a problem in the door area so slightly higher pressure supports should be fine.

It's really pretty nice to have the doors open by themselves rather than have to pull them up.

Having owned seven Diablos from 91 to 01, I can attest this is pretty typical problem. Thanks for sharing your experience. It's good to know.

[Five]

The only issue you get with this is..

it increases the chance of the door getting stuck.

sometimes the door to the diablo can get stuck. this isn't because of the lift supports with more force.. they can get stuck iif you ever unlock and then lift up too fast.

the window needs to roll down before you lift it up. if you unlock and lift quickly before the window can roll down, the door will get stuck where you can't roll the window down any more and you can't lift the door open.

if that happens, its a simple thing to fix, you just close the door and then start over again. the window will roll down when the door is closed.

when you get supports that can open the door automatically, though, it can make the problem worse for passengers because when they unlock, if they let it go immediately, it will start going up and can get stuck.

so you need to explain that you need to unlock, hold it unlocked for a second until window rolls down a bit and then let it rise on its own. but you kind of need to do that anyway.

or you just open and close the door for them youself (much easier anyway).

having the new door lift supports, i can't go back to the old way. it makes it much easier to get in and out of the car because you can focus on flipping in and out and don't have to mess around lifting the door.

[AgentTripleX]

so you need to explain that you need to unlock, hold it unlocked for a second until window rolls down a bit and then let it rise on its own. but you kind of need to do that anyway.

or you just open and close the door for them youself (much easier anyway).


If you have a passenger like me, who is very impatient and bad at taking direction, I'd need all the help I can get. ;)

[ZO6toSV]

I recently changed the door lifts, thinking that the door would go up by itself.
This is good information and i will install the same one's you did as soon as i have time. Since i have a hardtop i don't have to worry about waiting for the window to slide down, so that's one less worry.

I'm glad you like the new lifts. Sometimes it is a pain to carry the door all the way up, especially on cold days. Is it the same part as the murcielago or just a stronger Diablo door lift, if you know the part number it would be a great help.

Thanks for the info. :grinning-smiley-003


I had just my Diablo in for service (Driven Exotics.. they did a fantastic job as usual)

As part of that.. since the car is 8 years old, I asked them to replace the door lift supports. They were still holding the door up but when it got cold, they would need that extra push at the end or they would start to slip down.

Over time, all lift supports leak a bit and get weaker.

Steve at Driven tried the normal force lift support first.. something like 960 newtons (numbers might be slightly off). He found it a bit weak.

So, he dropped in a 1060 newton one or something like that. Steve would know the exact number. Not that much higher..maybe 100 newtons.

but its night and day. Now I just unlock the door and it pops all the way up at a perfect speed (not too fast or too slow) all by itself. Just like the Murcielagos.

When I saw a door for a Murci the first time open by itself I wondered if the Diablos were like that when they were first made and they just got weak over time. But after talking to people, it looks like the Diablos always required a bit of hand lifting.

But a little stronger shock and the door will open by itself. And pulling it down isn't a problem.. pulls down easy.

I dropped in much lower pressure lift supports into the decklid to make sure the decklid won't warp when the temp in the engine comparment goes high but that isn't a problem in the door area so slightly higher pressure supports should be fine.

It's really pretty nice to have the doors open by themselves rather than have to pull them up.

[Hazim]

Thanks for the infos. but I think the doors lift support in the Roadster are different than the ones in the coup.

[Five]

They should all be gas lift supports (pretty standard ones). I've looked into lift support issues a lot because of the potential decklid issues. There are special lift supports for cold temps that hold force better in the cold.

But just a higher force lift support should do it. An email to Driven Exotics (www.drivenexotics.com) could probably provide further answers since they have down a lot of door lift support stuff and they did mine.

[Cnad]

mine go up ok once I give it a lil push
in the cold they lag

Ild be very interested in getting some shocks that'll open it by itself :)

[pdisme]

mine go up ok once I give it a lil push
in the cold they lag

Ild be very interested in getting some shocks that'll open it by itself :)

Hi Cnad, welcome to the board! :beerchug: Do you have pics of your car?