Understanding Your Vehicle’s Suspension System
Technically, your car doesn’t need a suspension system in order to transport you from one location to another. However, without it, you might experience aches and pains for days following a short ride. To understand the role this assembly plays in providing driving comfort, think back to the last time you rode a skateboard (or Razor, if you’re younger). As you rode along the sidewalk, every crack probably felt as if you were crossing a small ditch. Every twig may have seemed as if it would cause you to fall. By the time you reached your destination, you might have been mildly sore.
That’s how it would feel to drive a vehicle that lacked springs and shock absorbers. Below, I’ll explain the basics of how a suspension system works. I’ll also describe the responsibilities of your car’s springs and shocks.
Bridging The Distance
Picture a car with the hull and parts removed. Imagine the skeleton, excluding everything except the undercarriage and wheels. The axle must maintain a connection to the tires. If the tires share the same bridge to the axle, the movements of one wheel would be mirrored by the others. This is how a solid axle design works.
On the other hand, if each tire were supported by an individual bridge, each would move independent of the others. This is the design that you’ll find in most passenger vehicles (i.e. sedans, minivans, etc.)
Raising Your Comfort Level
Most cars today have a coil spring installed for each wheel. Their job is to absorb, or “soak up,” the impact of the road so that its effect on the driver and passengers is minimal. Each spring compresses or extends, as needed, to reduce the shock.
For example, suppose you were to drive your car over a ditch. The springs would extend to allow your tires to drop. Alternatively, suppose you were to drive over a speed bump. In this case, the springs would compress to allow your wheels to rise. By doing so, they prevent the brunt of the impact from hitting your vehicle’s chassis.
The True Nature Of Shock Absorbers
Your shock absorbers further reduce the amount of road impact that you and your passengers experience. They accomplish this by converting the up and down movement of the individual coil springs into energy, and allowing it to dissipate. Without the shocks, your springs would continue bouncing up and down for a long period until the energy simply drained from them. For example, have you ever pushed down on the hood of a vehicle and watched it bounce up and down? If it did so more than two times, the shocks were bad.
Those are the nuts and bolts of your car’s suspension system. The assembly is actually far more complicated than the above explanation implies. However, if you were completely unfamiliar with the suspension, the above overview provides a good introduction.
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