What is the full function of the trunk pressure strut? On my 2007 VDP, once I unlatch the trunk lid and fully extend it, the strut holds the lid in the vertical open position. Is it also supposed to assist in opening the lid all the way from unlatched to vertical? My wife complains that the effort to opening from unlatched to full open is unassisted. Has my strut lost some of its pressure and in need of replacement or is it functioning as designed?

 

I don't believe they were ever designed to fully lift the trunk lid.
The struts will let the trunk lid pop up only slightly when you release the trunk, but they never were set to fully self raise the trunk lid.
They are strong enough to maintain the trunk lid once it is in the fully open position, but not to get the trunk lid into that position.
I assume the designers didn't want the lid springing up if unlatched, plus it might have also had a negative effect on the soft closing feature of the model.

 

Had an 05 SType, for a short time.
Trunk lid lifted open by itself, nice feature.
My 04 XJ's trunk didn't.
Figgured the 05 XJ's probably do.
But the 07 VDP was just like the 04 was.

 

I've had a number of XKs and XJs and none had lid lifting struts. Actually I've never had a car with lid lifting struts.

 

They will hold it open, but not lift it from closed. The effort to actually open it once unlatched is pretty light, though.

 

On both my previous X350s the trunk gas struts only lifted the lid about 1". This small lift action is essential for correct operation of the latch. I had to replace the struts on my first X350 for this reason. On my wife's New Beetle, the struts tend not to be so effective in winter, so one must be cautious and make sure the strut is at maximum extension to avoid banging one's head !

 

The S-Type trunk lid has a spring operated mechanism, similar to what Mercedes used for a long time, so that the trunk opened by itself.

The design on the X350 is different and the lid only opens wide enough to clear the lock, as already stated in the thread.