My sons both have Maximas ('91 & '95) but it has often fallen to me to help when troubles occur. Because other posted have responded to a couple of my questions, I would like to help others out there. My son's '91 has had weak hood lift supports for quite some time. The car would close up on you like a venus fly trap if the wind blew hard enough so we always used a prop rod. The two problems that I found in looking for replacements were that: 1) some places do not even have a listing for these years and 2) if they did they were EXPENSIVE. The cheapest I ever could find was $55.99. Naturally, I assume that this was because of the fixed bracket at the end which attaches to the hood with the two bolts. This is an unusual situation. Dealer prices? Let us not even think about that! I never checked but I have heard some ugly stories. It just bothered me that it would cost about $120 just to keep the hood up in a safe manner, which is, of course, very important. Anyway, I checked the '95 and the length of those lifts were within an eighth inch of the '91's except they have a socket at each end (as most do). Ah! Here's what I did. I purchased two lift supports for a '95 model. I bought Strong Arm #4524 (made by Arvin Meritor Co.) from Advance/Discount Auto Parts for $17.99 each. After removing the old units, I drilled out the rivet that held the bracket to the lift support using a 5/16" drill and continued to bore a hole of this size in the bracket. I then mounted one of the ball studs (two come supplied with the new support) in that hole. The new lift support just snaps onto the ball stud with a push. I then mounted the other new ball stud in the existing hole near the fender where the original ball & socket portion was from the old unit. You will have to re-use your old nut and washers as those are NOT supplied. I then bolted the bracket and lift support (as a unit) onto the hood using the original two bolts, lifted the hood up to near the maximum and snapped the lower socket onto the ball stud. After repeating the other side and trying it out, I felt much better about having to spend just about $37.50 (including tax) where I could not have even bought one side for that using the regular part apllication. I hope that this helps some of you out there so you can put the money saved into a modification that you might find more exciting. All the best, Greg

 

Do you have any pics Greg? Pics would help a lot more. I have trouble trying to visulize what you did. BTW, I have the same problem like many others.

 

you can buy ones that are a direct bolt-on for about $20 each at several parts stores. I'll have to talk to some people and see if I can get a part number, but there aRE replacements out there for $20 each.

 

Matt please post the parts # when you find them. Thanks.

 

I think Autozone has them for $25 each for direct replacement for 3rd gens

 

Yes, I found the hood struts for about 15 - 20 each and they were made for the car. Bolted right up.

 

I think the place I bought mine was http://www.partsamerica.com/, once you go there do a search for hood struts, choose lift supports, then enter your vehicle info. The price was 21.99 each when I checked a few minutes ago.

 

Just checked and the cheapest one was 40 bucks.

 

uhhh, it took me about 30 seconds on partsamerica.com's side to find them. Strong arm 4913 and 4914. $21.99 each. not that hard..

(btw, this was the site I mentioned above.. I couldn't remember what it was though.)

 

Could be possible that they're different prices b/c we're in different areas. I'm looking at the same name/part number you are Strong Arm 4913 and Strong arm 4914, and they're both 55 bucks.

I use partsamerica.com a lot, a good site to find out the cost of parts to calculate my budget.

 

pay me the 1/2 difference between the $22 and $55, ship them to me and pay the $22 each from the site, and I'll ship 'em to you.

 

While I did not mention it in my original posting, it was at PartsAmerica that I found the Strong Arm #4913 & 4914 for $55.99 and, as noted, this was the best price I could find anywhere. This is what prompted me to get creative in the first place. It is very interesting that Matt's search shows such a different price for where he lives. If I could have located that I would have ordered them and been done with it. Thanks for shedding a little more light on this circumstance, however.

 

I looked up this site last Thurs. and they were $21.99.

 

I looked them up at PartsAmerica before I wrote my second comment. $55.99!!! I am going to write to them for an explanation as to the big discrepancy. It makes me wonder about other items and their prices. I'll post their response if they reply.

 

Just plug in different locations and see if the price comes up diff

 

yea i paid like 26 for mine i think each at a parts store in my area arhces is the name they may be on the web, but pretty much no probs with them.

 

go to www.discountautoparts.com or advanced auto they have exactly what you need.i just replaced those about 2 weeks ago.auto zones did not fit and they said that the ones they gave required drilling of the old bracket attached to the hood.discount auto had all herdware except the boltsneeded.so check it out.they were like 22$ a piece or something like that.

 

well hell, i dont know if anybody else has norton personal firewall 2003, but every time i go to partsamerica to look at these hood struts, my firewall starts lighting up! saying somethnig about a high risk security alert on my computer. it says www.partsamerica.com is trying to access my computer. something about a URL_Directory_Traversal. whats up with that?!?

not cool, partsamerica!!

-drew

 

19.99 each with coupon from pep boys...

 

Finally got the answer, friends. PartsAmerica explained to me, by phone, that they source from two different places and it mostly depends on the zone you live in. One source buys the Strong Arm lift supports in lots of 10 (and charges $55.99) while the other buys them in lots of 1000 (and charges about $22). Ironically, I live in the zone for the $22 one. Why was it showing the $55 one then? Because they just happened to be out of stock so it automatically defaults to the other source. Had I waited until three days from now it would have been $22 and I never would have had to screw around with the modification I posted about. The man also explained that this pricing policy effects all their parts so when a member says that he bought such-and-such for X amount and someone else cannot find it at the same price, this is why. In any case, it's good to understand this. So, hopefully my modification information still might be of help to someone out there.

 

I ran into the same problem a few years back. I just went to www.carparts.com and ordered OEM ones, bolted right on. The funny thing was when my Max was totaled a few weeks ago, the hood was in the up position. thats all I remember seeing. I'm gonna miss my 91 SE