Anyone seen this on rear shocks and inner tie rod boot?

[Bear007]

I am on my second 2023 Bronco Raptor. The first one had the same problem with the crumpled rear shock boot. The dealer Replaced it under warrant and there was no more problem. Till the crash and fire at 8,000 km 5,000 mile.
The second Bronco Raptor had the same problem with both rear shock boots. The dealer replaced them. When they delivered it back to me I looked underneath and one of the rear shock boots was all crumpled up. (brand new assembly)
I am currently having my dealer doing an investigation with hotline and Ford Engineers to find out what the cure is.
It will be ok period of time and then tear and fill with snow ice mud and sand.
I can see a table of engineers sitting around a table saying yup that's OK
And a table of mechanics in the next room saying Hell no that's not going to work.

 

[Somethingbert]

I am on my second 2023 Bronco Raptor. The first one had the same problem with the crumpled rear shock boot. The dealer Replaced it under warrant and there was no more problem. Till the crash and fire at 8,000 km 5,000 mile.
The second Bronco Raptor had the same problem with both rear shock boots. The dealer replaced them. When they delivered it back to me I looked underneath and one of the rear shock boots was all crumpled up. (brand new assembly)
I am currently having my dealer doing an investigation with hotline and Ford Engineers to find out what the cure is.
It will be ok period of time and then tear and fill with snow ice mud and sand.
I can see a table of engineers sitting around a table saying yup that's OK
And a table of mechanics in the next room saying Hell no that's not going to work.

Honestly they should just remove the boots. No other raptor model comes from ford with them, and nearly all good shock brands (fox king etc) don’t sell shock boots on their stuff.

 

[Hotrod1]

Crawled under the truck today to inspect for damage after pinning a big tree branch up between exhaust, driveline and the body pan. Fortunately it didn’t impact anything soft. But after inspecting everything I found….

The connection of the inner tie rod boot and the steering rack appears to be weeping a little oil on both sides. Should I be concerned or is this normal?

View attachment 9188
View attachment 9192

And the rear shock boot looks pretty mangled. Thoughts?

My new 2023 has the wrinkled up boot on both sides. So what is one to do? I read somewhere this is normal and don't worry about it but it sounds like many of you have had them replaced? My thought is to run with it a year or two and then get replaced? I don't know?

 

[JohnGalt]

I had mine replaced and both boots are bunching again. I really don’t think it’s a problem as most (all?) after market shocks are bootless.

If it bothers you talk to your dealer, but they’ll be bunched again quickly if you’re extending the shocks. FWIW

 

[Dewars]

Without boots, the shock shafts can get pitted from debris, leading to early failure of the seals. Of course filling them up with road salt, ice or sand wouldn’t be good either. It’s good to have the boots for longevity… if they aren’t damaged.

Old style shock absorbers were cheap to replace and even though most did come with shock boots or covers- if they failed a seal- no big deal. These are much more complicated and once you compromise that seal, you lose pressure and fluid and all the functionality of the shock becomes less effective. Ofc course these aren’t cheap to replace.

 

[Bear007]

In the short term I am not really worried about the shock or boot. The boot will fail and fill with sand , mud and road salts.
I would love to know if this is just a 2023 problem? Have a 2024s have the same problem?
I have my Ford Service Department to do an investigation about the problem.
Ford Motor Company and Fox Shocks pay huge money to Engineers and Mechanics just to THINK SHIT UP. I am not going to cut the boot off or modify it in any way. I am going to wait for an answer from the people that get payed the big bucks. I will keep pushing till I get am answer that works.

 

[Hotrod1]

I had mine replaced and both boots are bunching again. I really don’t think it’s a problem as most (all?) after market shocks are bootless.

If it bothers you talk to your dealer, but they’ll be bunched again quickly if you’re extending the shocks. FWIW

It really does not bother me, I was extending them pretty good in Colorado a few weeks back. I go to Moab every year and will put the shocks through a good workout. This is not my daily driver so I don't drive it in the winter so I keep all the salt and road grime off of it so this should extend the life of the shocks.

 

[Hotrod1]

Without boots, the shock shafts can get pitted from debris, leading to early failure of the seals. Of course filling them up with road salt, ice or sand wouldn’t be good either. It’s good to have the boots for longevity… if they aren’t damaged.

Old style shock absorbers were cheap to replace and even though most did come with shock boots or covers- if they failed a seal- no big deal. These are much more complicated and once you compromise that seal, you lose pressure and fluid and all the functionality of the shock becomes less effective. Ofc course these aren’t cheap to replace.

I had a F150 Raptor owner tell me these shocks need rebuilt at 60K. Is that accurate or will most run much longer than 60K? Do you have to send in to Fox? What does this cost? I have never had this high end of a vehicle so I am clueless on these high end shocks.

 

[Somethingbert]

Without boots, the shock shafts can get pitted from debris, leading to early failure of the seals. Of course filling them up with road salt, ice or sand wouldn’t be good either. It’s good to have the boots for longevity… if they aren’t damaged.

Old style shock absorbers were cheap to replace and even though most did come with shock boots or covers- if they failed a seal- no big deal. These are much more complicated and once you compromise that seal, you lose pressure and fluid and all the functionality of the shock becomes less effective. Ofc course these aren’t cheap to replace.

with boots you are trapping in moisture and fine dust that can still make its way in. Boots are very uncommon on shocks, outside of rancho I guess.

 

[jjk1285]

I understand this thread is a year old now but thought I would share my observations on the rear shock boot issue after changing both of the rear springs to the Hyperco 1+ inch.

I removed both rear shock assemblies and had to compress the OEM springs and remove them before installing the new hyperco springs. There is a youtube video that shows the process that I watched prior to doing this.


1. My passenger rear shock boot appeared severely bunched up while my driver side rear boot looked fine (no crushing, pinching, or bunching up)

2. The passenger side rear shock boot is MUCH LONGER than the driver side, around twice as long, which leads to it appearing to be severely bunched up. I don't know why ford/fox created this difference. A lot of online images do show the bunching up on only the passenger side. When reassembling the passenger side spring/shock I had to stuff the LONG boot back under the hyperco spring because of how long it was, causing it to bunch up. In contrast, when reassembling the driver side, I had to yank down on the shock boot and hold it in place with zip ties because of how short it was.

3. There is an open channel at the bottom of the shock, so debris and water can enter from below and also drain out at the bottom. Therefore, the shock boots are not acting as a complete seal to keep out the elements. Does this mean the shock boots can just be omitted and cut out? I don't know.

4. The shock boots are 100% serviceable (It's wild to me that the entire shock is being replaced for the boot). When the shock is removed and the spring is compressed/disassembled, the two compression rings on both sides of the spring were free floating and could be slid out and the boot is basically held in place by the clamping force on each end by these compression rings. I think the amount of work involved is fairly high just to change out the boot, but it can be done if you are changing out the springs anyway.


In my opinion, NEITHER side shock boot is the correct length from the factory in my case (keep in mind that I had to fully droop each side to remove the shocks so I know how far the shocks are expanding). The correct length is longer than the driver side, but shorter than the passenger side. Also, in my opinion, this shouldn't matter as the shock boot bunching up is not really causing a problem. They do not appear to squish outward enough to be pinched by the coil springs when under compression although I could be wrong about this. My shock boot was not pinched/torn and I have hit my rear bump stops before.

Hope this helps.

 

[Motorpig]

Interesting on the boot lengths..................