Toyota Sera Doors

Two Seras in a row

The humble and uncommon Toyota Sera has these nifty nifty doors. So-called 'butterfly wing'. These are the doors which inspired the McLaren F1 - which in turn started the recent trend for supercars to have butterfly wings.

So the Sera is a trend setter, but otherwise, it's a pretty ordinary 2+2 coupe...

Anyway, a downside to the funky doors is they do not fail gracefully, and when the gas strut which pushes them open for you fails, you find out they are damn heavy.

This happened to me, so I set about to swap the strut for the one on my newly 'spare parts' (ie, it's a minor wreck) Sera.

Tools needed

• Socket set - 12mm socket
• philips head screwdriver
• shifting spanner
• two milk crates

Basic procedure

1. prop door up on milk crates
2. access then unbolt base of strut(easy). unbolt top of strut (little less easy)
3. bolt new strut in at top (less easy again)
4. bolt new strut at base (easy)
5. celebrate

Gallery

Sera doors fit on stacked milk crates. Donor car behind

The operating theatre!

Tools required

Base of the strut with cover held on with single screw

Base unveiled showing two bolts

Base unbolted leaves it hanging

The nut at the top is fiddly to access

Donor on left, broken on right. Note diameter difference. I assume left is original toyota

Broken strut has original rubber sheath

Note different shaft sizes too

New strut in place, works perfect

Links

• http://www.omicron.uk.com/sera/forum/index.php?showtopic=3804 - pre-existing guide I more or less followed