I am replacing my suspension and I have everything off and ready to put my new **** on and the two sleeves on the front struts are torn. They just hang there, should they be replaced? Back ones are in good shape except for the inside where the rod goes through the top mount is worn a little but not bad. Just curious if its worth replacing all four. Cost will be around 200.00 to 240.00.

 

1. To be nitpicky, if you're talking about your FD, you have shock absorbers (dampers), not struts. Stuts (aka MacPherson struts) help locate the wheel, as well as dampen oscillations of the "sprung weight". Shocks just dampen the oscillations of the sprung weight, but have no locator function.

2. You don't have to use the dust boots. However, they do keep the rod cleaner, which means less dirt gets into the body of the shock to abrade the seals, etc. Race cars don't typically have dust boots on their shocks, but they expect to rebuild them frequently. Hard to say how much longer life you can expect to get out of your shocks with vs. without dust boots. Depends on the conditions they are exposed to. Boils down to "pay me now for sure" or "pay me later maybe."