Strut house degrease....
 

I dropped my suspension parts off yesterday to get media blasted. When I took the strut inserts out, the houses were full of grease.

The blaster is going to pack some rags in there to keep the media out, but he said he would also degrease them as that would trap the media obviously.

Question is, is degreasing them going to harm anything? (wouldn't think so) And, should I just pack some grease back in there when I get them back? I wasn't aware they had grease in them normally.

I find the whole strut design sort of odd. Hard to imagine the little pin catching a bit of groove on the insert is enough for everything to work. Oh well, I'm sure the engineers were/are a lot smarter than I.

Cheers,

I'm also interested in finding out...
Plugged the holes for blasting but some media got in there anyway. Now I have to clean the insides as well. Could use some advice on how to regrease. Is regular moly grease ok?

Thanks, jt

Back in the early 70's when I was involved with the Datsun Z cars, rebuilding the struts we used to put in about an ounce of motor oil for heat transfer purposes. I never heard of using grease but, again who knows.

Don has it correct in that the original Boge's had some oil in the struts for heat transfer. If you're doing what most of us do, and upgrade to Bilstein inserts, etc. then no oil in the strut is required upon reassembly. If you're still using Boge inserts (why :)?), you would want to put a bit of oil (not grease) back in. Hope this helps...

Clean 'em up inside. No worries, IMO.

They are bilstein HD's. The PO replaced them, and perhaps he put the grease in. I don't see what purpose it would serve as there shouldn't be much movement between the insert and the housing, other than when you insert them.

So, clean 'em and leave 'em?

Yes.

I'd clean them and not add any grease since it's not like the Datsun strut where you're removing the strut components and putting a strut cartridge inside the strut housing. The Porsche is designed with the heat generating part on top so no need for more heat transfer.

I'd just be careful of the dust seal on top and be careful with that green paint since it'll come off easily with some cleaners.

I might add some oil, it can't hurt, and the insides might be raw metal. The oil will keep any rust from forming, and thats always a bad thing!

Many put in antifreeze to keep down the heat.

125shifter,

Please read my post carefully, I did not suggest to put grease in the strut housing, I said oil and when you say heat generating part is on top, you are referring to the rear Bilsteins not the struts. You can not mount the struts upside down.

Don, I got what you meant, I also used to be into Z-cars :).

I was referring to the front Bilsteins which are sort of upside down. The small rod goes down and the large section bolts to the fender so there is always part of the main strut body exposed to air and not hidden in the strut housing.