Front shock boots

[toma nova]

This weekend I rotated the tires and had a good look around the wheelwells with the tires off. I noticed that the front shock boots (that cover the shock piston) were loose at the bottom; the tops of the boots were firmly attached (they didn't fall down) but the bottoms could be lifted up or compressed to reveal the shiny shock piston. I immediately grabbed some black wire ties to fix this "problem", then got to thinking: there are no holes on the boot collar to thread a wire tie through, the collar is actually a little loose when pulled over the shock body and would need to be compressed to wire tie it, and there are no drain holes in the boot (water?). Now, the purpose of the boots is to protect the shock piston, but this arrangement doesn't seem like it is actually doing so.

Any thoughts??

TIA, Tom

[Hiro's XC]

You are partially correct in your reasoning. They (the boots) do affour a lot of protection by deflecting devris and most water around and away from the piston rod. You don't need any more or less. In fact a lot of "lesser" car don't have the guards.

Jason