Your car’s suspension allows you to glide over rough pavement and small objects in the road with comfort and without damage to your vehicle. However, like any vehicle system, it is prone to wear and tear. Failure to maintain your suspension’s various components as your car builds miles will result in a noticeable decline in the comfort of your ride. You’ll also be opening yourself up to the potential of other expensive repairs if your tired suspension isn’t repaired.
A healthy car suspension is one you don’t notice. When you hit a bump, your car won’t jolt or cause you to curse in frustration. When you go over speed bumps at the appropriate speed, you won’t hear creaks or clunks. When you brake in traffic, your car won’t pull in one direction or the other. And when you’re driving straight, your car won’t pull to the right or left.
You probably aren’t reading this article if you aren’t experiencing at least one of these ailments. So what do they mean?
Part of your suspension system is the strut. If you look between the top of your tire and the top of your fender, you’ll see it behind the wheel. It’s the large spring with a hydraulic cylinder in the middle. A combination of the hydraulic pressure in the cylinder and the compression of the outer spring allows your tires to move up and down when they roll over imperfect pavement, but keeps the rest of your car as level as possible. The result is a ride that feels like you’re floating over bumps. When the strut wears out, though, the spring and cylinder can’t absorb the shock of bumps as well and transfers the excess force onto your car’s frame. This jolt in turn travels through the rest of the car, including into your seat and steering wheel. If hitting a pothole makes you shout explicative, it’s probably time to replace your struts. Fortunately for most vehicles, the strut is engineered to be a bolt-off-bolt-on replacement.
If you hear clunks when you go over speedbumps, a common issue is that the rubber cushion mount which connects the strut to the frame of the car has deteriorated. Now the two components – the strut assembly and the frame of your car – are rubbing metal-to-metal. This is also generally an easy repair, but it is rather urgent. Failure to replace this mount can result in frame damage to your vehicle – a very expensive shop bill.
If your car is pulling one way or the other while braking, or if it wants to pull to the right or left when traveling straight and on level ground, your control arms could be shot. Each wheel has a control arm, and it both ties the bottom of the strut to the wheel, as well as the wheel to the car’s frame. This allows the wheel to travel up and down over bumps as the strut compresses and expands, all while staying connected to the car (a desirable thing!). While the control arm itself is metal, each arm has a rubber bushing that gives it the necessary flexibility to move as it should. This bushing often wears out first and creates wiggle room in the wheel’s position relative to the car’s frame. This means your wheel can drift to the right and left, thus pulling the rest of your car in that direction. This is an urgent repair since unpredictability in your car’s steering behavior can cause an accident.
Automotive suspension is something that wears out on every car, no matter the make and model. Avoiding potholes, driving at a reasonable speed over speed bumps and cobblestone, and dodging objects in the road will prolong the life of your suspension, but it is a matter of when (not if) your struts and control arms fail. When you experience any of these symptoms, we look forward to the opportunity to earn your business.
