Front shock dust cover bellows shredded

[EssexBoy]

My rubber shock absorber dust covers are shredded. Has anyone any experiences of replacing them ? The job should be straightforward for a DIY mechanic but before going there I want to see if there are any likely surprises which will make me regret starting the job.
Are there any special gotchas (apart from Mitsubishi's price for replacement parts that is)?

 

[littlescrote]

Standard. "They all do that Sir". I personally wouldn't bother as the new ones will only go the same way in a short space of time.

If I did, I'd probably slice them along their length and slide them on and superglue back together rather than go to the hassle of removing top mount etc.

 

[EssexBoy]

Thanks Littlescrote, I have a bunch of other rubber to replace under there - track rod ends and lower ball joints. I wouldn't dream of paying Misu prices (parts and certainly not labour) so I am hopeful an after-market product will be better at almost half the price - I will report back here. Your supergluing approach seems like a very pragmatic tactic and will save a bunch of effort.
I wouldn't mind if I had been thrashing the 4x4 on green roads or something but shredded rubber after 60K miles on the school run seems like very poor quality to me. Disappointed.

 

[BCbackroader]

If you're only at 60K miles, those parts, and the labour, should still be covered under Mitsu's warranty, at least here in Canada, where the coverage is 10 years/160,00km.

 

[EssexBoy]

5 years and 100K km here. Then there's the warranty coverage Ts&Cs. Like most insurance here it excludes pretty much anything that might actually happen. Large consumer facing companies don't call the UK 'Treasure Island' for nothing.

 

[BCbackroader]

The dealers here are very good about warranty issues, and the Mitsu coverage on mine is bumper to bumper, excluding tires, brakes, and hoses. When a headlight bulb died, I just drove to the dealer, told them it was out, and left about an hour later with it fixed, no charge.

 

[FrancoPHEV]

Same here. I put my 6 year old PHEV in for its bi-annual government contrôle here in France and the technician showed me the pitiful state of the rubber boot that should cover the front left shock. Not a fail, but I am deeply p’d off as I put the car through a dealer service only 10 days earlier. They worked on the wheels and either didn’t notice or didn’t bother to tell me about this problem.

 

[greendwarf]

Same here, as I discovered when switching over to winters. Is it a real problem though? I can't believe a UK main dealer would pass up the opportunity to charge a fortune to fix them unless they knew it was not worth bothering about :lol:

 

[EssexBoy]

Okay, so I eventually got around to changing these. I bought German aftermarket boots and although its a little tricky measuring rubber with a vernier gauge I figured they were about 10% (0.3mm) thicker than the originals at the skirt. The component includes the top rubber mount on which the spring is seated so it does more than just keep the dust away from those precious (oh so precious) suspension struts (just ask your dealer how much they cost - but sit down first!). The indentation in the upper rubber mount suggested to me that a combination of potholes and speed-bumps have taken their toll over about 6 years. There doesn't appear to be any aftermarket shocks available which might be because the originals are very good.

Removal from the car was easy enough - penetrating fluid, wire brush, long leavers are your friends. Once out I found the compression of the spring needs to be way more than the 5mm the Mitsi workshop manual suggests. This maybe because in a workshop spring compressor it can be momentarily compressed perhaps 70mm in order to undo the top nut. I used a deep-offset ring spanner (17mm) to reach into the top of the strut housing. *Extreme care must be taken to avoid the top bearing being ejected into your windows or face * if you haven't compressed the spring enough! If I had a friendly garage nearby I would have removed the strut and taken it to them to compress, replace the boot and re-tighten the top nut - not even two minutes work. As it was I compressed it man-drolically - a good workout! I had to compress it further to refit as the thread was a good few mm below the bearing housing with the new rubber component in place.

I think I can detect a quieter improved ride from the front suspension now. Conclusion: doable, hard graft with only a DIY compressor and no power tools.

 

[EssexBoy]

Yes, I know I should have weighed the old vs the new components. Sorry.

 

[NightPHEVer]

I've just had these rubber boots repaced on my 2014 GX4h. As with earlier post above, Febest MSHB-GF2F front shock absorber boots and I also replaced the top bearings at the same time. Febest Strut Support Mounting Anti Friction Bearing MB-GFF. Got them off ebay. Took skilled mechanic in Ford dealership 2 hours to complete the task. Although I have always wire-brushed and greased the bolts that hold the suspension struts on, so they were not hard to undo. You can see in the photo the type of large, workshop spring compressor that was used. I would suggest a potentially dangerous DIY task.
Original 7 year old Mitsubishi boots were well-shredded (see photo), I'm pretty sure that repeated application of a powerful jet-wash to this area would hasten their decay, as they were mosty damaged on the outer edge at the bottom. If jet wash was squirted above tyre this is just where it would impact. Although road muck maybe main cause? In future I'm holding the jet wash a bit further away! Plastic bearings (postion of bearing indicated by arrow - picture on next post) were a bit crunchy but probably ok. Don't know what's inside these bearings - perhaps needle roller bearings? Looks as though they're held together by tiny Allen bolts but I didn't have an Allen key small enough to dissemble them to have a look.

Picture of bearings and location on next post, as there seems to be a limit of three pictures per post...

 

[NightPHEVer]

...And here's what the top bearings look like (one per side) - pictured here are the original Mitsubishi items that were replaced. The other picture shows where they fit on top of the strut assembly. The rubbery bit on the outside edge is the dust seal which is provided with the new bearing...

 

[AndyInOz]

Resurrecting an old topic from the grave.

On my latest service, they've advised that my front left shock boot has split and will be replaced in my next service (in a year's time).

Slightly intrigued to know what causes these boots to fail like this.

Note that my car has had a very easy life. (Only 32k on the clock)

 

[EssexBoy]

Andy, I think NightPHEVer's jet wash theory is very plausible. Not the cause in my case but very similar effect would come from driving too quickly through a large amount of standing water creating a weight of water blasting the fairly thin rubber. :twisted: My aftermarket replacements are still looking just fine.

 

[DibbyDibbyDJ]

I think the factory ones are just made out of crappy material.

 

[AndyInOz]

Thanks team.

Rest assured, mine hasn't driven through any puddles, this is South Australia after all (The driest State in the driest continent).

Nor has it endured any under-body jet washing (that I'm aware of).

I'm going with the crappy material theory.

 

[AndyInOz]

Getting this fixed in a couple of weeks, along with the regular service.

They asked me to confirm which 'dust boots' had died, so I had a look.

The boots on the shock absorbers, inside the front springs, have absolutely collapsed.

I'm stunned that they are in such bad condition. It looks like the material itself has completely failed.

They've turned into a set of fragile rings that fall apart when touched.

 

[DaveL59]

The fronts on mine had to be done at its service earlier this year too, 2019 4HS so only 4 years old, along with discs and pads at all 4 corners. Made that a costly service :-(

 

[littlescrote]

Standard. I wouldn't bother getting them done.

 

[yardbird]

The factory boots are so filmsy that I got to replace at 60k miles. My 2 front shocks were replaced under my 90K extended warranty which I bought with the car. But the dust boots are considered tear & wear so I got ripped off only $150 for the stupid pair of rubber boots! The whole claim to the insurance bill was $1636 minus $250 ($100 deductible & $150 for the boots) BYW, the same pair of factory boot from China Mitsubishi is only $14 while the dealers in America charged like $150 for the pair?? Go figure!