Hi, I'm new to the forum and prior to buying the Q this June, I've never even changed the wiper blades, or a tire. The posts have helped me with some issues already. Thank you.

My Q45 is 12/96 and I've been reading on this forum that I'm out of luck finding a strut cheaper than OEM. Before trying to go the salvage route or forking almost $500 for OEM struts, I found these today:
Universal-Pro Comp Shock Absorber and Strut Assembly Pro Comp ES3000-White,Twin-tube,Shock Absorber (many different models)
Universal-Rancho Shock Absorber and Strut Assembly Rancho RS9000XL-Silver,Triple-tube,Shock Absorber
Why is carparts.com presenting these as usable for my '97? Does anyone know how much extra work will need to be done on them to fit, if any? Some of them are as cheap as $30 each. Almost worth experimenting on, if it wasn't for the labor.
Here is the link: http://www.carparts.com/results/?N=0&ut ... truts+1997

Ok... So... I am taking a risk on two front struts with ABS sensors attached for $50/each. Call it an experiment. The salvage yard only does Nissan and warranties the struts against failure for 6 months. If nothing else, maybe the sensors will help out my ABS light being on.

Very interested in your results. Which ones did you order?

I "tried" to order the ones that should fit my 12/96 Q, but apparently, they either lost my cc info or decided not to sell it. In the meantime, my mechanic is insisting he'll pull the struts off of a 1998 parts car that is sitting on someone's front lawn (I just realized in typing this post I have to get back to the salvage yard and re-order the struts since 1998 will not work). Glad I responded to this question right now. I don't know why it won't work, but all parts selections wants me to make sure I know the manufacture date of my '97, there's a certain cutoff and then something changes.

I looked up the original Nissan salvage yard to see if they still had the struts available. They didn't. Thinking that there goes my chance at $50 struts with abs sensor still attached and a 6 month warranty, I resigned myself to making more calls. But before doing that, I called the Nissan salvage yard. Yep, I was in their system. Yep, they were shipping the struts tomorrow. Yep, somehow my credit card got charged between me hanging up with them and me checking it 5 hours ago. Coincidence? Yes, since they pulled those struts from their inventory a week ago. . More on my gamble later, as I install them.

If anyone is wondering why I'm willing to risk used struts, it's because I really only need them for 20k or so miles, my current car life expectation with this Q45. I would rather spend the difference in strut life on fluid changes/flushes on the car to hopefully allow it to last longer with that beautiful engine and flawless transmission. IF, the car performs as perfectly as it has for the last 1k miles, for the next 20k miles, I will gladly spend the $600 for the installation of new struts. Right now, the used struts with ABS sensors and shipping are costing me $150 total, plus probably $50 bucks from my mechanic.

The other ideas you had up front would never have worked, there are no "universal" strut appliations for this car. If you really only need 20k more out of the car then the junk yard used isn't the worst idea, but the issue is how many miles the car you took them out of had. My Q's struts and rear shocks were all leaking at 65k and replaced and those lasted 40k and leaked.

You make a good point. The reason I nosedived for these is the 6 month warranty the shop offered. Plus they said they would never have put up any currently leaking struts up on their site. Which of course, doesn't mean they won't start leaking for the first time in the next 1k miles. It's a risk. So far, I cannot begin to express the joy I have driving this Q daily (even with needing front struts). It' like nothing I've ever driven. I've had 2 LS400's G300, E320, etc. I bought this fixer upper to learn about cars, not expecting to fall in love with it. But my common sense will not pour money down the drain of an engine/transmission that may fail in next 10k miles. Keeping my fingers crossed, everything is running beautifully. So, I nickel and dime and justify every purchase.

If you can do your own wrenching then not such a big deal....since there are seriously no other options you may as well go with it.

Has anyone measured the dimensions of the insert in hopes of finding something universal that may work?

We went through that excercise a long time ago, in fact it was Falk Design on the old Yahoo board where we started to look at this 10 years ago...nothing fits, not even monroe crap. This proves to be a huge issue for the long run, but if you plan to keep a car for a while the BC Coilovers are rebuildable so they can be the last setup you ever buy.

Holy mother of god. I just got my "struts" in yesterday. WTF?????? Each package is about 70lbs each. they shipped half the car with the "struts" I ordered. I need to get a man's help just to put them in the trunk to take it to my mechanic on Monday. He'll see if I need to order any "new" parts for the install. It's been a day and I'm still scared to open the packages.

Yes the strut assemblies are pretty big, ordinarily you only had to buy the strut inserts, however, you got the whole thing off a donor car. The act of removing the strut assembly pretty much kills them so your best bet to have a decent ride is to do whole thing.

This makes the R&R on it pretty simple but you'll still probably want to do an alignment afterwards. Hopefully those struts have some life left in them.

Hi,
I looked at the exact same pro-comp struts and asked the same question!
It appears that these struts are for lifting the car up from the ground and changing the height.
I am STILL not sure about it all.
I have the same questions as you and I'm hoping we get some good responses from some who really know.
My car is a 97 Q45T

Turns out my mechanic said that they were not good. Oh well. Experiment failed. I'll be ordering a set of new struts from Dubai in a month.