Heads up on strut life

[ViperDad]

In my recent work that I have posted I discovered my driver rear unit is leaking. I have almost 62kmiles so I should be content. However I would have had more life out of it if it had a tubular shroud on the top to keep fine grit collecting on the shaft. I'm sure that wore out the seal ,thus the leak. Check yours for the nasty black coating of oil and dirt. You would do well to install some protection. I'm going to attempt some sort of sleeve for that purpose to see if the other unit will hang in.
You'd think they'd have spent the extra nickle to protect them, but then again they do want repeat buys don't they? These ain't your local auto parts struts either! Anyone know if these are rebuildable?

 

[Allan]

Hmmm. mine still seem to work fine. 2006 w/58k miles.

 

[ViperDad]

Yah, mine too but the oil seepage is a concern. I just yanked it off and no signs of free play so it's still doing the job. Wondering if that exposed seal can be removed without major deconstruction?
FYI, takes a spring compressor to get the unit out.

 

[MoparMap]

Mine got a little bouncy at 50k or so, don't remember when I replaced them. I wanted to upgrade them anyway, but I had a feeling they might be bad as the car would move around quite a bit on larger bumps. New setup feels rock solid and no more twitch or wander over bumps.

 

[ViperDad]

Decided to go with a simple cleaning of the seal area. I realized that starting fluid ether can serve as a nice volatile solvent and simultaneously blows off the dust. Figuring that keeping accumulations to minimums should help and timing the cleaning with oil changes.