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

[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.