cool that you found out the cause of the noise.

those boots tear real easily...both my HA's boots on the
2 of my cars tore. i took them off. the new Flex's use the
solid boots (i think), so you might wanna ask them for those.

 

i'm thinking of getting something similar to the condom wrap that the back rods use in the front.....but not sure if that will work......otherwise i will definitely look into getting the Flex boots provided they will give those to me.

 

yah, i spoke to the tein guys in japan several years ago when
mine tore (on the fronts only)...the guy there mentioned that
as long as i dont to any gravel type driving i would be okay
without the boot. so, i just took the fronts off as i only street
with them. some salt driving in the winter time too, but no
problems there.

 

that's good to read that you don't get that much problems without the boot especially the part about the salt driving...... ........not sure i totally want to do this, but at least i shouldn't have too much problems.......but i'll take that w/ a grain of salt......... ..........when you spoke to tein those several years back, did you ask them about the condom type dust covers??

 

the guys there actually recommended bilstein dust boots if
i was going to do any gravel type driving... i didnt ask about
the condom types (not sure what they look like either..). do
you have a pict?

yeh, there are many people out there on HA's without the
front dust boots as it was and has been a common problem...
but no catastrophic failures from that so it hasn't been an
issue.