Right, so I replaced the 32mm seals in my Fox Vanilla R fork about a year ago with brand new ones from Fox, carefully following instructions in this video.

However, upon trying to remove the said seals today, they seem completely stuck. I even started cutting them out with a knife out of desperation, but they feel as though they’re super-glued in – obviously, I didn’t use any glue when installing them in case you’re wondering!

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a solution??? I really need the bike this weekend!

Bet they’re not.

I believe the trick is to prise them out with a steel DH tyre lever leveraging off the top of the fork leg ? http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/en/x-tools-pro-tyre-lever-set/rp-prod55953 I bought levers for this purpose when I was doing mine but they popped out easily.

Chances are you don’t have a steel DH tyre lever to hand so quickest option is probably to pop in to local bike shop for assistance.

or just use a big screw driver for the same effect as a tyre lever

Use a 15mm open ended spanner or a large flat head screwdriver. The longer the better. And lever them out. It’s never failed for me yet.

I certainly tried the 15mm open ended spanner, tyre levers and the flathead screwdrivers – no luck. When I did the previous service, the seals popped out without any problems using the 15mm spanner.

SOLUTION: having read around the internet, it turns out that sticking the lowers seal-end into a pan of boiling water for about a minute works wonders. It loosened the the seals sufficiently to pop them out with just a little bit of pressure.