Just serviced the lowers on my Reba SL and bought a seal kit which includes oil seals as well as foam rings and wipers. However despite the forks originating from my 2008 Rockhopper they appeared to be of the 2009- variety missing the oil seals. I replaced the wiper seals but left the (cleaned) bigger old foam rings in rather than squeeze the oil seals in?

Seems to be OK for now but should I revisit and put the oil seals in or are they overkill?

Isn’t the oil seal on the underside of the wiper? Mine were. I changed them for Enduro seals anyway when they got their 1yr service.

As standard they come with just the wiper seal and fat foam ring.
The aftermarket kit, comes with the separte wiper (same as the original one) skinny foam to go underneath and then the oil seal at the bottom.

Will work fine, but extra oil seal is good as keeps more rubbish out the forks, they are a bit of a pain to get in unless you have the insertion tool though.

insertion tool? just grab a wide enough socket and away you go

however, i wouldn’t bother using them – no need on modern RS forks

Thanks Loco! I might try to get them in next service. I do have the tool but it looked so tight I wanted to be sure (wipers were hard enough to get out!).

A touch of grease, on the outside will help them slip in, you can use a socket, but it’s easier to get them going in ‘bonk’ unless it’s exactly the right diameter.