Hey guys,

I have a 2006 G35 sedan. I've had 2005 350z suspension (springs, struts, and shocks) on it for 3 years then I replaced the front struts with kyb G35 sedan struts. I've had them for about a year and a half now and now their bad. Clunking over any slight road imperfection.

Why are kyb struts going bad so quick? Any recommendations on better struts? OEM? Something that won't break the bank.

My experience with KYB are their cheap and always you get what you pay for. You went 2 years and depending on your driving style, roads etc id say not the worst.

Thx Jay. What struts would u recommend?

Been a while since I've been in the VQ game so if their still making great parts,gotta go with Bilstein. Or really suck it up and swap everything over to a fully adjustable coilover kit where you can adjust for your said driving style, roads etc

The reason for the premature wear is your vehicle is lowered and using struts with OEM travel will just wear out quickly.

Bilstein makes the B8 series struts that are for lowered vehicles.

Is it just your fronts that are failing or the front and rears?

Maybe this is a dumb question, but is clunking normal for worn OEM (and OEM-like replacements) shocks on this car with stock springs? I've been trying to find my rear clunking for a while (not the control arms, not the sway bar, not the exhaust, not anything loose, no noise when turning), and am starting to think the shocks are the culprit. I can hear what sounds like shock valves working in concert with soft clunks audible inside the car when going over the tiniest bumps at slow speeds. The mounts look fine to me, the ride isn't bouncy, and I don't see any signs that fluid had leaked out.

On other high mileage beat up cars I've driven, even if the ride is super bouncy, the shocks don't make this noise, so I'm puzzled.

Is there a rubber piece in the mount that could be the problem?

Yes worn shocks/struts can make a clunking sound when they're worn. The best thing is to find a way to reproduce the sound so you can really poke around to find it. Open the car door so you can push up on the edge of the door jamb, this way you can really get the car rocking. Open the trunk and literally stand up in the thing (set a ladder or step stool next to it because there isn't much room for both feet since the trunk lid blocks access) and get the whole chassis bouncing really good. Open the hood and you can push on the radiator support to bounce the front end.

Once you can reproduce the exact sound it's a heck of a lot easier to find. If you can't reproduce the sound doing this it's probably not the shocks and might not even be the suspension, things like the rear differential bushing can make a lot of clunking as well when it's shot.

Ah, standing on the car, I didn't think of that! I wasn't able to get it to bounce by pushing on one side with my hand. There is plenty of space to stand in the trunk, and I was able to get it bouncing pretty well, and sure enough...clunk clunk clunk. I guess I'll be taking the shocks off tomorrow to see if it's the mount, the lower bushing, or the shock itself. The rear has the tiniest bit of bounce, it rebounds just a little and then settles, so the shock itself might be okay, but the mount doesn't seem like it is moving, so idk.

I took the rear driver's side shock off and everything looked pretty normal, except the nut at the top seemed to not be all that tight. After taking it apart, I saw that the metal cup at the bottom has a 1mm gap to the metal sleeve that goes over the shaft of the shock, which seemed like it would make the noise I heard. I cranked it down as much as I could with the short little wrench I was using, then did the same on the other side even though it seemed to be tighter, and the clunks went away! The shocks are ridiculously easy to change on this car, which was kind of a nice surprise. You just have to compress it to get the bottom mount on easily, then bend it to the side so it slides over the studs at the top.

Make sure the nut is tightened down if you don't want the mystery clunk like I had to deal with!

Yeah the rear of the car is a SHOCK, not a strut, very easy to replace.