| I purchased a knock sensor off Ebay during my last engine rebuild that had the OEM part number, OEM markings, OEM yellow dot, and was packaged in the OEM bubble wrap with the correct sticker. I figured it was the same deal for 1/2 the price. Not so! Fast forward to finishing the engine rebuild, I get a knock sensor code. Turns out the knock sensor connector is not formed correctly and allows the knock sensor sub-harness to wiggle and lose contact. The knock sensor itself passes a resistance test at 0.560 MOhm. This is almost exactly the same to my old knock sensor that it replaced. 
Side by side comparison (Yellow dot is the faulty sensor next to my old sensor on the left)
Wiggle room
Measurement of the locating ridge on the new sensor 0.0985"
Measurement on my old sensor 0.1175" (0.019" wider)
Measurement of the mating ridge on an OEM knock sensor sub-harness 0.1290"
These are my old sensor pins
The new sensor looks different, they have a much more angled tip and possibly are not as wide. I could not get a good measurement of these.
So overall, all of the locating elements on the defective knock sensor are undersize. I tested this by hooking up my multimeter to the knock sensor sub-harness and wiggled the connector, it instantly lost contact and would not register a reading until re-seated which is impossible to do in the Z. Any slight movement causes this to happen. Lesson learned, always buy from a reputable source and check the knock sensor reading before assembling any further! I figure these are either out of tolerance parts that would be thrown away at the factory and someone is reselling online, or they are a fairly decent copy that looks close enough. 
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PSA: Inferior Knock Sensors - 
