| 2012 L322 Front Strut Replacement | |
The car is just ten-and-a-half years old and still has under 59k miles on these struts. The rubber airbags on the front struts are obviously affected by age rather than mileage, as I've found a pinhole leak on my front drivers side. 
I noticed it last weekend when I went to off-road height and it sounded like someone had disconnected an airline on a compressor! It's been fine on the road at normal height. Also, she's been low at the front before being started these past few days - a classic sign of an overnight leak.
Very hard to see, but it's some white filament (presumably some kind of textile weave in the rubber) protruding from the blackness.
Have ordered a couple of new (BWI) struts today, as there seems little point in just doing the one side, so they ought to be here before the end of the week (hopefully). Also ordered the new (22mm) strut bolts and top gaskets to replace the old stuff.
Noticed a few folks here saying that the old bolts were a nightmare to get off, so today I jacked the car up, took the wheels off and got the WD40 in early. Seems like I was concerned about nothing, as I had a go at them with my favourite DeWalt socket gun and they came undone with relative ease.
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Gratuitous shot of the underbody protection showing how easy it is to jack up the whole front of the car when you're wearing a proper sump guard. And before all the questions come at me again - No, you can't buy this particular (LR) guard from anywhere. I've had it for the best part of ten years. It came to me as a prototype from Solihull. No, I'm not selling it!!! 
There doesn't seem to be a write-up in the Wiki for doing the struts on a 2010-2012 TDV8 with the VCD on the top, so when I get round to doing it, I'll get some pictures and do an attempt at a Haynes Manual explanation! The older I get, the more I realise that people confuse wrinkles for wisdom 
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18th Apr 2023 6:58pm
