1989 300te. As the weather gets cold, the rear hatch will NOT stay open. OUCH...right on my head. I could carry the broomstick around, but would like to have the pistons working. Will replacing the pistons in the rear hatch actually work? I would hate to spend the $$$ to find the hatch lowering on my head by itself.

Classic symptoms of loss of gas from tailgate struts. Always shows up at low temperatures first. Best fix is to replace both of them. It is a bit fidly to do but worth the effort. I did this job on my '90 300TE last year.

__________________
107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
107.026: 500SLC, 4-speed auto, thistle green, green velour.
124.090: 300TE, 4-speed auto, arctic white, cream-beige MBtex.
201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.

Yep, just replace both of them.

I believe I wrote-up the procedure, but if you're not comfortable have someone who's done it MANY times, do the install.

If done correctly, you don't have to remove the entire rear-hatch (do one side at a time).

Also, use ONLY Mercedes OE parts, not OEM parts (e.g., FEBI/Bilstein).

I tried OEM, and had to replace them 2-years later.

:-) neil
1988 E36T AMG
1993 500E