[lo bux racer]

A strut "blowing" usually means the seal failed. There should be oil all over the strut. There is no distinction between a strut and a shock, and you surely don't have both unless you are talking about the strut in the front and the shock in the rear (which would be accurate).

There are other failure modes for struts (top bearing fails - VERY rare, internal valving fails - also very rare; body cracks, mount breaks, etc) but I'm curious what let you know it failed? Did the corner sag? Did the ride suddenly get bouncy? What let you know there was a problem?

Oh, what happened to your OEM stuff? If you still have it, why not have them put it on until the repair parts show up?

 

[lo bux racer]

There are some pretty significant design differences between shocks and struts, but your analysis is fundamentally correct. A strut is just a very heavy duty shock with a very fat rod and a stout bearing system to allow the rod to rotate in the shock body without destroying itself or the rest of the assembly. Other than this difference, they are functionally identical. I always laugh at guys who try to tell me the struts are bad on their MkIV Supras. They don't have struts anywhere on the car, it has a real suspension (like Miatas, and they are also strut-less).

The guy "explaining" there is a shock and a strut doesn't grasp the fundamentals very well. I've known a scary number of guys like him.