5 Suggestions for maintaining your car’s shock absorbers

Not only for aesthetics or the replacement of fluids but also because your well-being and those around you could be at stake, it should be a requirement that you perform routine maintenance on your vehicle and inspect its various components at regular intervals.

For those who make automobiles. They prioritize safety highly, which is why they work so hard to make the workplace safer.

Safety comes before anything else. To protect the lives of all people riding in a vehicle at any given time, we now have two types of protection: active and passive.

To help us understand, active safety refers to the collection of systems and components that work together to give a moving vehicle the highest possible efficiency and stability.

Put, active safety is the type that actively works to reduce the risk of vehicular collisions (tires, braking, steering, suspension, etc.).

On the other hand, passive safety refers to the features that minimize or reduce to the maximum the potential for harm to occur after an accident that cannot be reversed; in other words, it refers to the safety systems whose purpose is to protect you to the greatest extent possible after you have already been involved in a collision (airbags, belts, glass, etc.).

The active safety of accident prevention includes the suspension system (damping), which is the one that we will deal with in this article.

The primary function of the suspension system is to keep the vehicle stable and absorb any kinds of irregularities that may be encountered on the road.

When the vehicle turns corners, it is equipped with stabilizer bars, which connect the two wheels of the front and rear axles and keep the vehicle stable.

How to properly maintain your vehicle’s shock absorbers and suspension system

It is possible to think of the suspension system as being used to provide comfort and convenience to the occupants of the vehicle; however, we must not forget that they are also a key element in the active safety of the car, which ensures that the vehicle does not leave the road.

Please keep us in contact with the ground, damping vibrations and preventing shocks from affecting the frame.

A vehicle’s shock absorbers can be compared to a muscle with a memory.

This is because they provide stability to the vehicle by reducing the transmission of irregularities in the asphalt to the car, providing more excellent poise and grip to the ground.

As a result, the shock absorbers are the primary system responsible for the vehicle’s stability.

Concurrently with all of this taking place, the shock absorbers will wear out with time, and it is essential to review them periodically to prevent going off-track.

The suspension can be broken down into two parts: the first is the torsion bars, which are the element that absorbs the energy of the impact of the vehicle with the irregularities of the terrain, and the second is the shock absorber, which is responsible for dissipating the energy that was absorbed by the bars in a controlled manner.

The suspension can be understood in two parts: the first part is formed by the torsion bars, which are the element that absorbs the energy of the impact of the vehicle with the

There are three different kinds of suspension based on how the impact is transferred: an independent suspension receives the impact without transferring it to the other wheel of the same axle; a semi-independent break moves the effect to the further rotation of the same axle; and finally, there is a dependent suspension, in which the product that is taken by one wheel is distributed among all of the other wheels.

Then there are three ways in which the shock absorbers absorb the impacts of the road: the mechanical, where in this case, the “comings and goings” of the wheels are absorbed by springs (the most well-known); the hydraulic, where a set of hydraulics hold the movements of the wheels, and the hydropneumatic, where the action of a liquid and a gas is combined to resist the displacements of the tires; however, we will be focusing on the mechanical method for this article.

In a nutshell, shock absorbers typically experience a gradual decline in their level of effectiveness as time passes.

When this occurs, the car, when passing over irregularities, tends to what the driver is getting used to, which makmakingotice the deterioration.

Be highly cautious because keeping the car in contact with the road is more challenging if it bounces.

In this article, we will provide you with five helpful hints for maintaining one of the components that contribute to your vehicle’s active safety.

This component is the suspension or damping system, one of the primary protagonists in ensuring your safety, but it does not receive the importance it deserves.

1. Take special care with the springs

The suspension spring is the element that acts as a link and relationship between the wheels and the body of the vehicle. It can be thought of as the “link” between the wheels and the car.

Its primary purpose is to ensure driving stability by compensating for unevenness and irregularities in the road and ensuring that the wheels remain in contact with the road’s surface at all times.

Even though they are intended to last for the entirety of the life of the vehicle, there are situations in which they become worn out and require immediate replacement.

If you hear bumps when going over a lump or bump, this could indicate that the springs are worn and, as a result, unable to provide the appropriate stability for your safety.

This is one way to determine whether or not they have worn out.

If this occurs, do not be afraid to go to your reliable mechanic to have them checked out; it is recommended that the springs (and shock absorbers) be inspected every 20,000 kilometers.

2. When in doubt, ensure the shock absorbers are working correctly (with your weight).

The springs are subjected to continuous vibrations, and the shock absorbers, technically referred to as vibration dampers, are the components responsible for reducing the severity of these vibrations.

These convert kinetic energy into thermal energy through fluid friction, which indicates that the oil flow is distributed through the valve passages in the damper, thereby reducing the vibrations of the springs from the very beginning.

In a nutshell, dampers are “the layer” that covers the springs and work to reduce the oscillations (bounces) caused by the springs as the vehicle travels over bumps and other irregularities in the road.

We recommend that you periodically check the condition of the shock absorbers by pressing down on one of the car’s corners.

This can be done at any time. The lifespan of the shock absorbers ranges between 60,000 and 80,000 kilometers, so if the car bounces more than a couple of times, this could indicate that the shock absorbers are in poor condition or have worn out.

3. Ensure that the tires are in good condition at all times

This is potentially essential advice for maintaining your vehicle’s suspension system.

Maintaining the health of your tires and rims is necessary if you want to get the most out of your suspension, and it’s also a prerequisite for maintaining the health of your boundaries.

Wear is caused not only by driving over uneven terrain but also by frequently driving with tires that are in poor condition, which in turn causes the suspension system’s internal components to deteriorate over time.

Therefore, when parking, you should avoid hitting any “curbs,” make sure that all valves are plugged to prevent air leaks, and check the tire pressure in addition to driving responsibly and not driving recklessly, which can cause the tires to overheat.

Tires have a useful life of approximately five years. Check the tires’ manufacture date, which has a useful life of roughly five years.

4. Watch your weight gain with extreme caution.

The overall performance of the vehicle is directly impacted by the amount of excess weight it carries.

When the vehicle is loaded beyond its capacity, one of the most significant issues that can arise is a reduction in the service life of the suspension system (and more if all the weight goes to the trunk).

Oversteer is common when driving through curves when a vehicle is overloaded, which can lead to a loss of control due to a lack of stability and an increased risk of a severe accident.

As we have just mentioned, the rear axle damping is the part of the suspension system most affected when a vehicle is overloaded.

In addition, the weight load affects many other factors, such as the braking system, which causes the stopping distance to increase significantly.

This is just one example of how many other factors are affected.

Overloading the car is a very internalized bad habit among drivers.

Our recommendation (and not only to watch over the suspension system) is to keep the heaviest weight packages in the center of the vehicle and distribute the weight throughout the car so that the load is level.

5. Drive over craters without losing your composure.

We experience a significantly higher frequency of potholes, speed bumps, and speed bumps than you might imagine.

When objects are driven over as if they were not there, the most common damage caused is to wheels and tires.

As was mentioned in point 3, the rims are an essential component that contributes to the overall health of our suspension system.

Since the rim and the tire need perfect synchronization to ensure a good level of pressure, the dent leads to offsetting the latter, causing pressure losses that directly damage our suspensions.

Driving aggressively over potholes can cause severe dents in the rim.

The suspension arms, in particular (which are the component that, for example, connects the body to the steering pivot), have been damaged, which is causing sources of creaking, vibrations, or rattling.

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