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The strut is permanently fixed inboard of the pivot point of the front wheel and absorbs shock through the A frames of the front suspension. The three bolts that hold the actuator also hold the strut to the body of the car. It you take them out while the car is jacked up, the front A-frame/wheel will drop down along with the 3 studs.
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I understand what you are trying to say but this IS the given reason why the ESC struts caps fail. Try removing the 3 bolts, removing the ECS strut cover caps (the actuators are actually within the strut assembly)- start the engine, and turn the wheel left and right- you will see that the connector does flex back and forth providing a twisting action just past the connector. If you remember when replacing your front struts or installing lowering springs, the strut shaft is keyed to the upper spring mount. The entire strut rotates on the upper spring mount pivot bearing as you turn the wheel from left to right. As the entire strut rotates when you turn the steering wheel, so does the shock shaft- which in turn, rotates the ECS connector on top of it. If you constantly work a wire back and forth like that, over time it will break. This was explained in great detail at the Mitsu training facility as the reason causing the failure. Mitsu offered a techtalk article showing where to look if the Tour/Flash light is flashing on the 3KGT- but never offered a TSB. The techtalk article also offered a part number of the ECS strut cap- not sure it it was an improved part or not. If i remember correctly, the ECS caps that i repaired had very thin guage solid wires. This being an early model- it could be that the part number listed in the TT article was an improved part(?) Regardless of original or updated parts, even replaced strut caps will fail with enough time. I've replace a set under warranty and replaced the same set when the vehicle was out of warranty a few years later- and this was a car that only saw only dealership service mostly by me.
J