6 replies to this topic

[Alpenflitzer]

Does anybody has experience with the gaiters made of silicone? They should last a lifetime.

[tiger99]

Unfortunately silicone rubber has one weakness. It tends to tear easily.

I would like to think that there is a way around that by reinforcing it, because it is durable in most other respects.

[MacGyver]

I was wondering if it was possible to make some of the rubber dust covers & other stuff out of silicone, but the cv's might blow up under stress of centrifuge.
Maybe as Tiger99 said, reinforce it with fibers like the silicone water hoses.
Would be a nice upgrade to the crap rubber we seem to have available.
Ben

[RooBoonix]

I was wondering if it was possible to make some of the rubber dust covers & other stuff out of silicone, but the cv's might blow up under stress of centrifuge.
Maybe as Tiger99 said, reinforce it with fibers like the silicone water hoses.
Would be a nice upgrade to the crap rubber we seem to have available.
Ben

They could come in funky colours like the hoses too

[Spider]

One issue I've seen with them is that if you tighten down the clips enough to hold them on, the bigger end oozes out fairly easily, especially when cornering and so becomes dislodged.

 

IMO it's a good material for this purpose, but is just too soft.

[Northernpower]

If there were a way to do it I feel it would have been solved by now. There's plenty of aftermarket suppliers out there supplying parts for all manufacturers and I'm sure the chance of some different coloured cv boots would be sufficient motivation for the tart up brigade to overcome the problems if it were practical.

 

The flexibility seems to be the downfall and once you reduce the flexibility you negate the benefit. If someone eventually comes up with a way of making silicone work for this application they'll make a lot of money on the aftersales market. I use Delphi boots from a motor factor and they seem to last as long as OE ones for mainstream cars.

[tiger99]

We may achieve something useful by finding out what material is used for the gaiters on modern cars, as it seems to be good for up to 200k miles. Or, find a modern car (a small one presumably) with CVs close to the same diameter and try those.

 

If it turns out to be silicone I will be amazed and delighted, as well as being proved wrong. I do want to see an end to this problem.

 

Oh, and the same material, made using similar tooling, ought to be suitable for knuckle joint boots too. It would actually be overkill, as the working part of the knuckle does not last more than about 40k miles, at the moment.

 

Here are a few possible sources of gaiters. Note that they are UK, not Chinese, although some may use offshore production facilities They also mostly have genuine quality control. I was shocked at how many UK companies are active in this field. There may be more.

 

http://www.rubbertec...ber-gaiters.php

http://runfoldplasti...ellows-gaiters/

http://www.meadex.co...ters-categories

http://www.metflex.c.../rubber-gaiter/

http://www.rubber-bellows.co.uk/

 

So you have to ask why the various Mini spares suppliers can't source reliable boots and gaiters. I could guess why, but best that you each work out the answer for yourselves....