The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi Chaps,

Just wondering if there has ever been a dust cover fitted to the rear shock absorbers?
Every car I have ever had seems to have them and as I'm replacing my shocks with lovely new ones, it seems a negative thing to fit them without this sort of protection against road dirt etc

Dave

LotusDave wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 04, 2022 18:47

Hi Chaps,

Just wondering if there has ever been a dust cover fitted to the rear shock absorbers?
Every car I have ever had seems to have them and as I'm replacing my shocks with lovely new ones, it seems a negative thing to fit them without this sort of protection against road dirt etc

Dave

Yes, you are right. Without dust covers the seals weep much more quickly. I ran GAZ dampers on the rear without covers and they failed within 3 or 4 years.

Now I have ProTechs on the rear which come WITH dust covers. Got them from SJ sports cars.

ISTR cutting the dust covers off of mine when I was investigating suspension travel/bump stops etc., so I suspect the originals did have covers.

Pete

Being a cheap skate - I bought some second hand shock absorbers from Lotusbits that were nearly new. They were missing the dust covers but I phoned here https://www.avouk.com/ and they supplied some to me.

Thanks Chaps for your replies, I agree covers would be better, so I contacted GAZ wondering if they had somehow forgot to fit them to the shocks I bought, this was their reply,

"The rears on this car are a coilover & don’t need a dust cover. The seal you see in the top nut is a scraper & keeps any dirt from entering the main seal that is underneath this."

I'm not happy with that explanation, so have bought a couple of rubber steering rack gaiters. 50mm diameter around the shock absorber body and 14mm around the top of the chrome piston. I think they'll do the trick.

Dave

You can also get things called shock socks for coil overs that go over the spring and shock.