[Z Beast]

Well it appears all is well! I received this e-mail back this morning....Big thanks to Patrick at Multimatic for the explanation and great media presentation.

The fitting you see is a “breather” which allows air to enter and exit the strut as it strokes. The gel you see is a grease which is applied between the upper and lower “DU” Teflon bushings for lubrication.

Note that the z/28 strut is actually what is sometimes known as a “superstrut”, meaning that a full damper is present inside the steel outer strut body you see externally. The above-mentioned DU bushings form the sliding interface between the damper and the outer strut body. Note that the damper itself is a separate ‘sealed’ unit inside the outer strut body.

If during assembly, slightly too much of this grease was applied, and/or some of the grease was wiped past the lower bushing, it may be expelled through the breather. The pristine condition of the grease suggests that there is not any unusual wear internally. Our suggestion is to simply wipe off the grease. Once the ‘excess’ grease is expelled, you should no longer see this condition (as with your right strut). The damper/outer strut body interface will continue to be lubricated by the grease between the upper and lower DU bushings.

In case you haven’t seen it, here is an overall backgrounder for the vehicle. Embedded in it is a Multimatic presentation given by my colleague, Larry Holt, regarding the specifics of DSSV dampers in general, and your vehicle’s DSSV dampers in specific. On page 37, there is a cross-sectional view of the front super-strut, which may (or may not!) give you a better idea of what I am trying to describe above.

http://media.chevrolet.com/content/dam/Media/documents/US/PDF/Camaro-Z28-Tech-Backgrounder-2013.pdf

Please let us know if you have any further questions or require additional detail.

I trust you are enjoying your z/28!

Regards,
Patrick