Perished rear shock boots - Quick fix in situ.

[kstarb123]

Hi, This might be of use if your rear shock absorber rubber boots have perished. Mine had split into the bump stop (top) and bottom, with the middle part split inot seperate rings of rubber.

I got the idea from my fathers car (Haiundia Matrix front shock boots). His has just outer sleaves over the shocks, short enough to allow the shock to compress but long enough to stop water and dirt splashing onto the shock.

I made this out of the old boot by cutting the middle section out, leaving the bump stop widest part and half of the top concertina part. I then cut round the inner ring part of the lowest concertina, leaving the bottom shock covering part with half a concertina part. The concertina rings were then cut out and removed.

The bump stop part is fairly rigid whereas the lower part is stretchy so I could pull it over the outside of the bump stop part, It's a tight fit, but doable. I could do this with the boot in situ, so no dismantling.

The result is a sleave which is rigidly attached to the bump stop and slides over the shock as the suspension bounces.

I have a JPEG of how I modified the boot but couldn't work out how to attach it here.

I hope this makes sense and is of use as new boots are expensive and Mazda UK only had one in stock (and I required two).

Regards,
Keith