De Dion tube gaiter

herbie

herbie

Member
Hello All,

Discovered that the gaiter is completely split. Obviously I need to replace and it has lost all the oil, what is the consequence of this? Only ask as the car is being used daily currently

Thanks in advance…

Richard,
 
The oil is held with seals that fit in the tube. The gaiter is there to keep the dust and road dirt out of the exposed part of the sliding tube. What actually happens is that the seals wear out with time, allowing the oil to seep out, that comes in contact with the gaiter and makes it deteriorate.
So you need to replace the seals, as well as the gaiter. Until you will be able to do this, you can add oil to the tube (it only takes a small amount of oil anyway, you don't fill to the top) to stop it working completely dry.
 
Mine looked pretty old when it came off, and its a greased type tube.
CTF4G4m.jpg
 
jp928 said:
Mine looked pretty old when it came off, and its a greased type tube.
CTF4G4m.jpg
Click to expand...
jp928
I also am using the grease system .
I had a gander under her yesterday due to this post ,and guess what ?
My recently replaced gator is only slightly better than yours. Will probably look like yours when I take it off.

BUMMER
 
I think the best way to go is convert your oil filled tube to a grease filled tube. Assemble it with castrol rubber grease. Then if grease does migrate its way onto the boot then it should not deteriorate it!
 
j_radcliffe said:
I think the best way to go is convert your oil filled tube to a grease filled tube. Assemble it with castrol rubber grease. Then if grease does migrate its way onto the boot then it should not deteriorate it!
Click to expand...
Didn't know rubber grease existed -I'll use it next time I replace
 
Evening guys - perhaps a daft question, but can you top up an oil based De Dion Tube with grease in situ. i.e. rather than dismantle the tube, top up the Tube with (hot / warm low viscosity grease under low pressure) which will increase its viscosity when cooler.
I too have a worn gaiter, with an occasional leak, but not the time / means to dismantle the Tube.
Is a worn gaiter an MOT failure - to be confirm shortly.
Appreciated,
Simon
 
eggbert68b said:
Evening guys - perhaps a daft question, but can you top up an oil based De Dion Tube with grease in situ. i.e. rather than dismantle the tube, top up the Tube with (hot / warm low viscosity grease under low pressure) which will increase its viscosity when cooler.
I too have a worn gaiter, with an occasional leak, but not the time / means to dismantle the Tube.
Is a worn gaiter an MOT failure - to be confirm shortly.
Appreciated,
Simon
Click to expand...

Hi Simon,

Oil and grease behave very differently, so my advice would be not to use grease. I don't know about the UK MOT rules, but at a guess, I would say yes.

Ron.
 
I think the short answer would be no, you'll never get any grease to the extremities of the tube and it would run dry eventually.

Yours
Vern
 
There must be a suitable silicone gaiter off the shelf which would increase longevity, for CV joints perhaps..
Jim
 
Thanks Ron and Vern,
Thanks for your comments and understood - it was a sanity check really.
I'll top up for now.
Out of interest, I am also expecting an MOT failure with a split gaiter (if the split is evident) - perhaps it could be concealed.
Thanks again
 
eggbert68b said:
Evening guys - perhaps a daft question, but can you top up an oil based De Dion Tube with grease in situ. i.e. rather than dismantle the tube, top up the Tube with (hot / warm low viscosity grease under low pressure) which will increase its viscosity when cooler.
I too have a worn gaiter, with an occasional leak, but not the time / means to dismantle the Tube.
Is a worn gaiter an MOT failure - to be confirm shortly.
Appreciated,
Simon
Click to expand...

I have heard of people drilling a hole in the filler cap and installing a grease nipple and greasing the tube that way.
 
In the past with P4 kingpins that ran a ball thrust race designed to use 90ep oil, when the seals started leaking some mixed 90 with grease and pumped that in. The gaiter is not that hard to change - imho maybe a 3-4 out of 10. since the assembly is the same greased or oilled, apart from no filler plug on the greased type, no reason you cant go to greased, aslong as you can get grease onto the working faces.
 
jp928 said:
In the past with P4 kingpins that ran a ball thrust race designed to use 90ep oil, when the seals started leaking some mixed 90 with grease and pumped that in. The gaiter is not that hard to change - imho maybe a 3-4 out of 10. since the assembly is the same greased or oilled, apart from no filler plug on the greased type, no reason you cant go to greased, aslong as you can get grease onto the working faces.
Click to expand...
This sounds similar to the 'one shot' grease for Defender/RRC front swivel joints which also ran on EP90 from factory
 
The swivel joints get very messy when the seals are worn out, which is often in sandy environments.
IQvo6n2.jpg


Somewhere East of Riyadh, 90s.
 
The De Dion gaiter I bought and fitted in late 2019 is now disintegrating. I've just ordered a new one from COH Baines, who I believe supply the various Rover specialists. They told me: 'We invested in tooling and started to manufacture this part back in 2020 in response to demand from our customers who were unhappy with the quality of the existing versions of the product on the market. Since launching the product, we have not received any customer complaints.'

This sounds promising. It's still early days for the COH Baines offering, but with luck it will last longer than three years…
 
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