Shock boot facing up or down?

Mounting the rear Bilstein 5100s on my 03 and I've seen them with the boot facing the body and some mounted facing down towards the ground. There is usually an "up" on the shock, but not these. Is there a right or wrong way?

 

on the rears.................boot goes toward the ground.

 

or else there gonna fill up with water

 

Thanks guys. I went by the logic that the "bilstein" markings on the shock were right way up.

 

yeah.....the rears on the first gens are a lil different than the 2nd gens. i had mine on wrong for a while.........................didnt hurt anything, just that they are valved to be upside down looking.

 

It doesnt matter what way they are installed- this information was given to me directly from Bilstein themselves, however it makes sense to have the shock boot facing upward to prevent debris from hitting the shock shaft...

 

sonny told me that the shocks on the first gens(and im speaking of the 5100s from ya'll) needed to be where the "bilstein" name could be read straight across..............which was the shock having an "upside down" look. the first gens are set up to have the shocks installed this way.

 

Hi everyone....This is Sonny....
Here is the deal with Bilstein and there mounting...

With Bilstein Shocks per Bilstein, when the shock is mounted on the vehicle, you have to be able to read the word "Bilstein" that is written on the shock from left to right like normal...Some applications will have a boot up or down and most people mount the boot down so it does not collect moisture at the seal cap where the shaft goes in and out and the boot protects the shaft from debris.This rule also applies to the "4100" series (Yellow and Blue)...

I hope this helps....

Thank you,

 

You guys rock! I just finished the install. This weekend comes the Toytec coilover install and diff drop. Pics coming soon...

 

thats gonna be a nice setup!