Eek.. whilst changing round the wheels today I noticed the rear suspension (drivers side) was exposing the shaft.

The rubber has worn away letting the plastic cover slip exposing the the metal bit.

Is this anyway important?

Car is under warranty still - can this bit replaced/does it need to be?

It's a grime shield to stop the damper shaft getting crud on it, and its just wedged onto the rear bumpstops, its not critical as such but will reduce the life of your shocker a bit.

Has the rear bumpstop perished totally or were you able to wedge it back up? If your still under warranty it'd be woth mentioning it to the stealer, but could be classed as fair wear and tear as its a suspension componont. Either way its not a hugley expensive or intensive repair.

The bit the bumpstop would screw onto has worn away, nothing grippable to wedge it back onto unfortunately.

If it shortens the life of anything it isn't a big shame as I just remarked today it's running far too high

Lol, the perfect excuse ("It's cheaper in the long run darling" tends to work for me)

Lol, the perfect excuse ("It's cheaper in the long run darling" tends to work for me)

I'm not saying a word

I replaced my dampers with the Koni FSDs at the time - to be fair, they do last longer than the stock ones with Eibachs