I have a SunTour XCR fork. Not wanting to ruin it I am worried that a significant amount of water has penetrated beyond the seals. I have recently ridden the bike in rain, snow, and washed it in a bathroom with a showerhead.
The symptom that I am observing is the following. I just cleaned the stanchions, oiled them, compressed them rapidly to get oil beyond the seals, then wiped off excess oil and dirt, from the seals.
But unlike usually, when compressing the fork, there was a "whum" sound of air leaving the fork boots and passing throught some liquid at the seals.
On one hand, I had just put oil just there. On the other hand, I have never heared this sound (with a brand-new fork), when applying this procedure.
Should the fork be disassebled and dried? What other tell-tales are there that there is water in the a (spring-operated) suspension form?