Bilstein (24-197649) 46mm Monotube Shock Absorber

I bought both the front and rear 5100 series shock absorber so for my '04 Titan. Installation for the rears took all of 30 minutes total. The front shocks, however, took quite a bit of time.I had to disconnect the tie rod ends and the upper ball joints to give myself enough open space to get the leverage needed to break the bolts/nuts loose. I do have the oldest model and these clearly have never been replaced, so depending on your situation, you may not need to disconnect so many parts to break loose the nuts and bolts to remove the shock. Once the unit was removed, I used a McPherson spring compressor (free rental with deposit @ O'Reilly's) to swap the springs into the new units. Putting them back on took some effort to stretch the control arm up high enough to squeeze the new unit back in, especially since I added 1 inch lift. 2 inches would make it even more difficult. Then compressing the control arm back down to reconnect the upper ball joint took quite some elbow grease.All in all, total installation took about 2 hours each side plus the 30 minutes for both rear shocks. As difficult as it may have sounded, the point is that I was able to do this without wasting an entire day off and without paying a shop, and I'm no mechanic.THE RESULTS:The one inch lift perfectly levels out the truck. The ride is AMAZING! My truck used to shake and rattle over every pothole and speed bump. Now, it rolls smoothly over them (barely noticeable) while maintaining stiffness during cornering. For less than $400, my 14 year old truck now handles like new, probably even better than new.

Bought for a 2008 Nissan Titan Pro-4X, standard ride height, at 80,000 miles.I had my local mechanic install them for me.The truck rides nice. Its like a new ride! The handling is A LOT better. Going over small bumps like the metal track that the housing community gates ride on used to jar and rattle the truck. Now its just a smooth bump. Going over uneven road transitions used the have the truck bobbing up and down for another 50-100 feet, now it just adjusts easily and seamlessly. The ride is both firmer and smoother. You cannot go wrong. I love these shocks. they are more than some cheap monroes but they are very very nice and should last longer.Edit, Amazon sent me some beat-up open boxes covered in saran wrap which really concerned me. But the mechanic had everything he needed and the install went well as the shocks were still unused and all the hardware needed is already on the truck. Note to Amazon, best to put these in a box for shipping as the manufacturer did not package them to go through shipping very well.

The struts are very well made in comparison to other brands that I’ve used in the past. They appear to be made with very high quality material and the housing itself is a much improved design when compared to the oem unit that comes on the truck. I installed them on a 2008.5 Nissan Titan crew cab long bed with approximately 115,000 miles at factory ride height. I did replace the springs with new moog #81194 coil spring set but resused the original oem top plate. I ordered the moog K160344 top plate assembly but found that it would not work correctly with the Bilstein 24-197649 5100 series strut assembly without numerous adjustments so I decided to reuse the OEM top plate that was in good condition. If your replacing the struts I would recommend that you spend the extra money and replace the springs as well. After a quick measurement I found that the oem springs I had on my truck had compressed to about 3/4 inch shorter than the new ones I had just purchased.I can’t express how much better my truck rides and drives after this install. I have read numerous reviews with high praise and I could not agree more after completing this project.Instalation and removalI installed the struts on the 1 inch lift setting and found that this was too high for my truck with the new springs. After some research I found that the particular model Titan I have from the factory is set at nearly identical ride height from front to back of the truck so any lift to the front will make it higher than the rear. I then removed them did a complete disassemble of the strut and housing and I reasembled the unit and installed them at factory ride height again. I took the truck to the dealer for an alignment but after a quick check on the rack it wasn’t even needed.I hope the information I have provided helps you with your decision in purchasing these struts as I could’nt be more happy with mine.