Front strut tops rust

[kieran.l]

Was looking for the strut returns so that I could put LHM into the creaking struts but discovered something more scary in the process The tops of both front struts are very rusty Opinions and advice welcome

Crap your country is severe on cars!!!

Haha yeah what does that say about the Irish weather! And that C6 is Irish too!

Although I'm suprised I didn't notice how bad the tops were in all the time I've had the BX which was two years since the beginning of March. I really hope that they didn't deteriorate that much in the two years of Irish weather! (especially since shes stored inside!)

I thought it was only XM's and Xantia's that suffered rusty strut tops. Kieran, I sent my XM struts away to a company in Lithuania for a refurbishment. Not sure if they can do the same for a BX, as the XM struts are rubber bonded. Here's the link to kinGAS. http://www.elastomer.eu/index.php/en/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got onto the Lithuanian company and they can do something with the strut tops so I think I'll go with them and get a good job done. Better in the long term. And the rust in the pics looks kind of deep in places. They quoted €266 inc their P+P.

It'll be a few weeks before I can send them off but I'll update here. I may be asking questions about removal too...

[MULLEY]

Why do you want to spend all that money when you can just take them off & clean them up? If the rust was that bad, then fair enough, but i bet it isn't & i'm sure there must be a couple of spare 2nd hand strut tops that could be purchased for a lot less than that refurb job. Mind you, it is your money which you may spend however you choose

[kieran.l]

Hmmm...you are right Mat, I should examine them before I decide what to do, no point in throwing money away Are the strut tops interchangeable between mk1s and mk2s?

[citsncycles]

I believe so - I believe Ian changed one side on Timex when he owned it.

[Dollywobbler]

Yup. You'd need to speak to Mat Fenwick for more detail though, as he actually did it.

[mat_fenwick]

I didn't compare to check they were 100% identical, but they certainly seemed to be and fitted no problems. I had an advisory last year on the MOT for slight delaminating rubber, but I'm still not sure whether they can fail catastrophically.

[mds141]

Mulley, give the strut heads an inspection on the newly acquired good ship C5. These are now showing signs of corrosion, not helped by being hidden away under acres of plastic.

[MULLEY]

Yup, the driver side front one which is viewable from the side, does have some rust on it, it'll have to wait till the weather gets warmer. Are they known to fail?

[mds141]

Don't know of any that have failed yet. I've seen a few pics of badly rusted strut heads though.