educate me on strut boots

[eil]

Hiya. I need to replace the struts on my 2008 Mazda 5 because the OEM ones are leaking oil. They’re leaking oil, I suspect, because the dust boots no longer cover the chrome rod, which allowed salt and sand and stuff to destroy the seal.

I purchased new struts and am just about to put them on the car:

But as I look at them, now I’m curious about the position of the dust boot. The upper end of the boot has a knob on it that looks like maybe it’s supposed to go up into the top of the strut mount. But if I put it there, then I fear that it won’t be long enough to cover the lower end of the chrome rod and the same thing will happen to the new one as happened to the old one.

TL;DR Questions:

1. Do I move the dust boot on the new struts or keep them where they are?

2. It looks like it’s possible to put a zip tie around the bottom of the strut boot to keep it from creeping up and/or to keep more dust and dirt out. Should I put one there? Or does the bottom need to be open to drain moisture?

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[Mike]

Struts are a maintenance item and fail eventually, regardless of whether the original boot remains intact or not.
Your suspicion that the boot and bumper prolong the life of the strut is correct.
The bumper prevents a bottoming out of the strut and the bellows prevents the grit from getting to the strut piston, scratching it and subsequently damaging the internal seals.

Q1. Do I move the dust boot on the new struts or keep them where they are?
Q 2. It looks like it’s possible to put a zip tie around the bottom of the strut boot to keep it from creeping up and/or to keep more dust and dirt out. Should I put one there? Or does the bottom need to be open to drain moisture?

Yes, move the rubber/neoprene bumper to the top and zip tie the bottom.

[eil]

Bonnieman, thanks so much for the info. I zip-tied the bottoms of the boots to the outside of the strut. There’s no way to completely seal the boot to the strut without deforming the boot, so my hope is that the zip tie will at least keep the boot from riding up and will keep out 99% of the dust and dirt while allowing moisture to drain out if any gets in.

The boot does not go up all the way to the top of the strut, so I just pushed it up as far as it would go. There is about two inches of chrome showing. I don’t think this part will ever go into the strut so hopefully it will be fine.

Thanks again for your input.

[Author]

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