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DISCLAIMER:I am in no way affiliated with any branch of the motor industry. I am just a pro-car, pro-motorbike petrolhead :-) The information on these pages is
the result of a lot of information-gathering and research. This website was originally established in 1994 to answer a lot of FAQs from posters on the old transportrelated usenet groups. By reading these pages, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless me (Christopher J Longhurst), any sponsors and/or site providers
against any and all claims, damages, costs or other expenses that arise directly or indirectly from you fiddling with your car or motorbike as a result of what you read
here. In short : the advice here is worth as much as you are paying for it.
One more thing : the Google ads are only at the top of the page here - I need to pay for my site space and bandwidth somehow. The rest of the page is ad-free for
your reading pleasure.
technically, they are velocity-sensitive hydraulic damping devices - in other words, the faster they move, the more resistance there is to
that movement. They work in conjunction with the springs. The spring allows movement of the wheel to allow the energy in the road
shock to be transformed into kinetic energy of the unsprung mass, whereupon it is dissipated by the damper. (phew!....and you thought
they just leaked oil didn't you?)
Suspension Types
In their infinite wisdom, car manufacturers have set out to baffle use with the sheer number of different types of suspension available
for both front and rear axles. The main groupings are dependant and independent suspension types. If you know of any not listed here,
e-mail me and let me know - I would like this page to be as complete as possible.
Shimmy - because the wheels are physically linked, the beam can be set into oscillation if one wheel hits a bump and the other
doesn't. It sets up a gyroscopic torque about the steering axis which starts to turn the axle left-to-right. Because of the axle's
inertia, this in turn feeds back to amplify the original motion.
Weight - or more specifically unsprung weight. Solid front axles weigh a ton and need huge springs to keep their wheels on the
road.
Alignment - simply put, you can't adjust the alignment of wheels on a rigid axis. From the factory, they're perfectly set, but if
the beam gets even slightly distorted, you can't adjust the wheels to compensate.
I frequently get pulled-up on the above statements from people jumping to defend solid-axle
suspension. They usually send me pictures like this and claim it's the best suspension system for
off-road use. I have to admit, for off-road stuff, it probably is pretty good. But let's face it; how
many people with these vehicles ever go off-road? The closest they come to having maximum
wheel deflection is when the mother double-parks the thing with one wheel on the kerb during the
school-run.......
MacPherson strut
This is currently, without doubt, the most widely used front suspension system in
cars of European origin. It is simplicity itself. The system basically comprises of a
strut-type spring and shock absorber combo, which pivots on a ball joint on the
single, lower arm. At the top end there is a needle roller bearing on some more
sophisticated systems. The strut itself is the load-bearing member in this
assembly, with the spring and shock absorber merely performing their duty as
oppose to actually holding the car up. In the rendered image here, you can't see
the shock absorber because it is encased in the blue strut tower, inside the spring.
The steering gear is either connected directly to the lower shock absorber housing,
or to an arm from the front or back of the spindle (in this case). When you steer, it
physically twists the shock absorber housing (and consequently the spring) to turn
the wheel. Simple. The spring is seated in a special plate at the top of the
assembly which allows this twisting to take place. If the spring or this plate are
worn, you'll get a loud 'clonk' on full lock as the spring frees up and jumps into
place. This is sometimes confused for CV joint knock.
Potted history of MacPherson: Earle S. MacPherson of General Motors
developed the MacPherson strut in 1947. GM cars were originally design-bound by
accountants. If it cost too much or wasn't tried and tested, then it didn't get built/
used. Major GM innovations including the MacPherson Strut suspension system sat
stifled on the shelf for years because innovation cannot be proven on a
spreadsheet until after the product has been produced or manufactured.
Consequently, Earle MacPherson went to work for Ford UK in 1950, where Ford
started using his design on the 1950 'English' Ford models straight away.
Further note: Earle MacPherson should never be confused with Elle McPherson the Australian ber-babe. In her case, the McPherson Strut is something she does
on a catwalk, or in your dreams if you like that sort of thing. And if you're a bloke,
then you ought to....
The following four types of system are all essentially a variation on the same theme.
Double Wishbone
So-called because the lower and upper arms are the
shape of wishbones. Yes I know they don't look like
wishbones here, but believe me, they are. The
spindle is a highly complex construction in this
Multi-link suspension
This is the latest incarnation of the double wishbone system described above. It's
currently being used in the Audi A8 and A4 amongst other cars. The basic
principle of it is the same, but instead of solid upper and lower wishbones, each
'arm' of the wishbone is a separate item. These are joined at the top and bottom
of the spindle thus forming the wishbone shape. The super-weird thing about this
is that as the spindle turns for steering, it alters the geometry of the suspension
by torquing all four suspension arms. They have complex pivot systems designed
to allow this to happen.
Car manufacturers claim that this system gives even better road-holding
properties, because all the various joints make the suspension almost infinitely
adjustable. There are a few variations on this theme appearing at the moment,
with differences in the numbers of joints, numbers of arms, positioning of the
parts etc. But they are all fundamentally the same.
Trailing-arm suspension
The trailing arm system is literally that - a shaped suspension arm is joined
at the front to the chassis, allowing the rear to swing up and down. Pairs of
Solid-axle, leafspring
This system was
favoured by the
Americans for years
because it was dead
simple and cheap to
build. The ride quality
is decidedly
questionable though.
The drive axle (purple
in this image) is
clamped (green) to
the leaf springs (red).
The shock absorbers
(yellow) are also
attached to the
clamps. The ends of
the leaf springs are
attached directly to
the chassis, as are the
shock absorbers.
Simple, not
particularly elegant,
but cheap. The main
drawback with this
arrangement is the
lack of lateral location
for the axle.
Solid-axle, coil-spring
This is a variation and update on the system
described above. The basic idea is the same,
but the leaf springs have been removed in
favour of 'coil-over-oil' spring and shock
combos. Because the leaf springs have been
removed, the axle now needs to have lateral
support from a pair control arms. The front
ends of these are attached to the chassis, the
rear ends to the axle. A variation on this has
the shock absorbers separate from the
springs, allowing much smaller springs. This in
turn allows the system to fit in a smaller area
under the car.
Beam Axle
This system is used in front wheel drive cars,
where the rear axle isn't driven. (hence it's full
description as a "dead beam"). Again, it is a
relatively simple system. The beam runs across
under the car with the wheels attached to
either end of it. Also at the ends, the springs
and shock absorbers are attached. The beam
has two integral trailing arms built in instead of
the separate control arms required by the solidaxle-coil-spring system. Variations on this
system can have either separate springs and
shocks, or the combined 'coil-over-oil' variety
as shown here. One notable feature of this
system is the track bar (or panhard rod). This
is a diagonal bar which runs from the rear
corner of the beam to a point either just in
front of the opposite corner, or in this case,
above the opposite spring mount. This is to
prevent side-to-side movement in the beam
which would cause all manner of nasty handling
problems. A variation on this them is the twist
axle which is identical with the exception of the
panhard rod. In this system, the axle is
designed to twist slightly. This gives, in effect,
a semi-independent system whereby a bump
on one wheel is partially soaked up by the
twisting action of the beam. Yet another
variation on this system does away with the
springs and replaces them with torsion bars
running across the chassis, and attached to the
leading edge of the beam supports. These
beam types are currently very popular because
of their simplicity and low cost.
4-Bar
4-bar suspension can be used on the front and rear of vehicles - I've chosen to show it in the "rear" section of this page because
that's where it's normally found. 4-bar suspension comes in two varieties. Triangulated, shown on the left here, and parallel,
shown on the right.
The parallel design operates on the principal of a "constant motion parallelogram". The design of the 4-bar is such that the rear
end housing is always perpendicular to the ground, and the pinion angle never changes. This, combined with the lateral stability
of the Panhard Bar, does an excellent job of locating the rear end and keeping it in proper alignment. If you were to compare
this suspension system on a truck with a 4-link or ladder-bar setup, you'd notice that the rear frame "kick up" of the 4-bar setup
is far less severe. This, combined with the relatively compact installation design means that it's ideal for cars and trucks where
space is at a premium. You'll find this setup on a lot of street rods and American style classic hot rods.
The triangulated design operates on the same principle, but the top two bars are skewed inwards and joined to the rear end
housing much closer to the centre. This eliminates the need for the separate panhard bar, which in turn means the whole setup
is even more compact.
Hydrolastic Suspension
If you've got this far, you'll remember that Dr. Alex Moulton originally wanted the Mini to have Hydrolastic suspension - a system where
the front and rear suspension systems were connected together in order to better level the car when driving.
The principle is simple. The front and rear suspension units have Hydrolastic displacers, one per side. These are interconnected by a
small bore pipe. Each displacer incorporates a rubber spring (as in the Moulton rubber suspension system), and damping of the system
is achieved by rubber valves. So when a front wheel is deflected, fluid is displaced to the corresponding suspension unit. That
pressurises the interconnecting pipe which in turn stiffens the rear wheel damping and lowers it. The rubber springs are only slightly
brought into play and the car is effectively kept level and freed from any tendency to pitch. That's clever enough, but the fact that it can
do this without hindering the full range of motion of either suspension unit is even more clever, because it has the effect of producing a
soft ride. Pictures and images of anything to do with hydrolastic suspension are few and far between now, so you'll have to excuse the
plagiarism of the following image. The animation below shows the self-leveling effect - notice the body stays level and doesn't pitch.
But what happens when the front and rear wheels encounter bumps or dips together? One cannot take precedent over the other, so the
fluid suspension stiffens in response to the combined upward motion and, while acting as a damper, transfers the load to the rubber
springs instead, giving a controlled, vertical, but level motion to the car.
Remember I said the units were connected with a small bore pipe? The restriction of the fluid flow, imposed by this pipe, rises with the
speed of the car. This means a steadier ride at high speed, and a softer more comfortable ride at low speed.
Hydrolastic suspension is hermetically sealed and thus shouldn't require much, if any, attention or maintenance during its normal
working life. Bear in mind that hydrolastic suspension was introduced in 1965 and you'd be lucky to find a unit today that has had any
work done to it.
The image below shows a typical lateral installation for hydrolastic rear suspension. The purple structure is the subframe, the green
parts are the suspension swingarms, and the red cylinders are the displacer units containing the fluid and the rubber spring. The pipes
leading from the units can be seen and they would connect to the corresponding units at the front of the vehicle.
Hydrolastic suspension shouldn't be confused with Citron's hydropneumatic suspension (see below). That system uses a hydraulic
pump that raises and lowers the car to different heights. Sure it's a superior system but it's also a lot more costly to manufacture and
maintain. That's due in part to the fact that they don't use o-rings as seals; the pistons and bores are machined to incredible tolerances
(microns), that it makes seals unnecessary. Downside : if something leaks, you need a whole new cylinder assembly.
Hydrolastic was eventually refined into Hydragas suspension.......
Hydragas Suspension
Hydragas is an evolution of Hydrolastic, and essentially, the design and installation of the system is the same. The difference is in the
displacer unit itself. In the older systems, fluid was used in the displacer units with a rubber spring cushion built-in. With Hydragas, the
rubber spring is removed completely. The fluid still exists but above the fluid there is now a separating membrane or diaphragm, and
above that is a cylinder or sphere which is charged with nitrogen gas. The nitrogen section is what has become the spring and damping
unit whilst the fluid is still free to run from the front to the rear units and back.
Hydragas suspension was famously used in the 1986 Porsche 959 Rally car that entered the Paris-Dakar Rally, and today you can find it
on the MGF Roadster.
Hydropneumatic Suspension
{Thanks to Jonathan Bruce and Pieter Melissen for some updates to this information.}
Since the late forties, Citron have been running a fundamentally different system to the rest of the auto industry. They call it
hydropneumatic and it encompasses features as diverse as brakes, suspension & steering. As its name may suggest, its core technology
and mainstay of its functionality is hydraulics. Superbly smooth suspension is provided by the fluid's interaction with a pressurised gas.
They pioneered in the rear suspension of the 15 (Traction Avant) model, and it has been fitted to many of their cars since. I've had to
separate it into it's own category because it is quite different from any other type of suspension system.
The system is powered by a large hydraulic pump operated directly by the engine in much the same way as an alternator or an air
conditioner is, and provides fluid to an "accumulator" at pressure, where it is stored ready to be delivered to servo a system. (This
pump is also used for the power steering and the brakes, and in the DS for the semi-auto box.)
Because this page is all about suspension, for clarity we'll look at the simplified
version of this as installed in the "BX" model. The Citron BX was a major turning
point in the company's history as it was the first car to be produced under the
company's new Peugeot management, following the 1970s take-over of Citron by
Peugeot. As a direct consequence of the Peugeot influence, the car is somewhat
more conventional than its larger sibling designed earlier - the CX. This Peugeotenforced "normalisation" of the design makes it easy enough to examine as an
illustration of how hydropneumatic suspension works.
There are two main components you need to familiarise yourself with and to
understand. The spheres are like the springs on the car, and the struts are the
hydraulic components that make the fluid act like a spring.
Lets start with the sphere. The spring in this suspension system is provided by a
hydraulic component called an accumulator, which is gas under pressure in a bottle
contained within a diaphragm, effectively a balloon which allows pressurised fluid to
compress the gas, and then as pressure drops the gas pushes the fluid back to keep
the system's pressure up. As you can see in the drawing above the pink gas
(nitrogen) is compressed when the pressure in the green fluid (LHM) overcomes the
gas pressure, and pushes back the diaphragm which compresses the gas. Then as
the pressure in the fluid reduces, the gas pushes back the diaphragm and as the
gas overcomes the fluid, it expels the fluid from the sphere, returning gas and fluid to equilibrium. This is the hydropneumatic
equivalent to the spring getting compressed (bound) and getting depressed, ie springing back (rebound).
Still with me? We can keep going...
How can a gas, a diaphragm and a hydraulic fluid compressing, form a spring? Simple(ish): The pressure of the gas is the equivalent to
the spring weight. The inlet hole at the bottom of the sphere restricts the flow of the fluid and provides an element of damping. By
replacing the sphere for ones of different specs, it is possible to adjust the ride characteristics with these cars. Rumour even has it that
a racing team in Anglesey is customising their car by pressurising their own spheres to custom pressures to make an exact match for
the circuit the are on.
Before we go any further it is pretty important that you understand where the fluid acting on the diaphragm in the sphere gets its force
from, and to do that we are going to have to look at the operation of the other key component in the Citron system - the strut.
As you can see in this diagram, the strut has a sphere on top of it and the strut in itself acts like a syringe
to inject fluid into the sphere. When the wheel hits a bump it rises, pushes the piston of the strut back and
this squeezes fluid through the tiny hole in the sphere to let the gas spring absorb the energy of the bump.
Then when the car is over the bump and its time to let the wheel back down, the gas pushes the diaphragm
back out, pushing the fluid down to the strut, pushing the wheel down to the ground.
Some interesting possibilities were opened up by the company deciding to use this system to spring their
cars. One or two of the more obvious ones are that since the system is hydraulic, the ride height can easily
be altered, a trend low riders are now following on with in California, nearly fifty years later. Also, they
could link the four corners together to make a system that prepared the car for the bump to keep it even
and offer the passengers a smoother ride. Basically they put fancy valves called height correctors on the
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anti-roll bar. These were mounted in such a way that as the suspension twisted, this operated the valves
that controlled the transfer of fluid to the struts. It was possible to isolate the front and rear systems and
have the front suspension set at a height which required 'x' litres. So when the front nearside wheel takes a
knock compressing its sphere, x/2 L is lost in the sphere, then the height correctors allow another x/2 L in,
to inflate the offside strut by that much. This keeps the front of the car level in a horizontal plane.
As the car clears the bump, the reverse happens; the sphere displaces that fluid, the strut returns to its
own height pulling the anti roll bar back true with it which in turn tells the height corrector to lose that extra
x/2 litres of fluid from the other side. As one side extends its strut in reaction to clearing the bump, the
other is retracting by the same amount to return the car to its set height above the road. Neat huh?
A further mechanical advantage of hydraulic suspension is that the car is able to link its braking effort to
the weight on the wheels. In the Citron BX, the rear braking effort comes from the pressure exerted on
the LHM fluid by the weight on those struts. This means that as the weight travels forward under braking,
there is less pressure on the back suspension. The suspension is the able to exert less pressure on its fluid,
and as weight and grip diminish on the wheels, so does the braking effort, thus the hydropneumatic system
prevents rear wheel lock ups.
In addition to these benefits, Citron pioneered computer controlled suspension in the early nineties by inserting a computer to take
readings from the cars' chassis and control systems and let the computer make informed decisions about how to handle the cars
suspension. The computer could then effect these decisions by things like servo valves, and offered benefits like soft suspension for
cruising, but stiffer, sportier suspension for faster harder driving, allowing the driver to cruise in comfort and still enjoy a responsive
car. It also moves substantially towards eliminating body roll and if used for a sportier driver will save tyre wear as well (they claim).
There was a further refinement / development in this suspension design in the 1990s called the Activa system, designed to compensate
for body roll. It was quite effective although only the Xantia has been fitted with it. The main setback was that ride comfort was even
worse than a BMW (although cornering speeds were fantastic) which did not go too well with the traditional Citron clientele. The
current adjustable systems (computer controlled) lack this anti roll characteristic, and there are owners who always prefer the "comfort"
setting rather than the "sporty" one, because again, that is not what Citron is about.
Its worth noting that when Mercedes launched their latest 600 SLC version with a computer controlled anti roll system, Auto Motor und
Sport then proudly claimed that to be the first such anti roll system in world, only having to correct that one issue later by having to
mention a French invention.
Rolls Royce was the only company ever to buy the patent and they used in in the rear suspension of the Silver Shadow. When Citroen
was the owner of Maserati some of their cars were also hydropneumatised.
More in-depth information can be found here - http://www.citroen.mb.ca/citroenet/html/h/hydro.html - or - http://www4.tpgi.com.au/
ozway/page5.html. Meanwhile, the rest of us can hopefully feel satisfied with our newly enriched understandings of hydropneumatic
suspension. If you're still awake.
Hydraulic Suspension
Hydraulic suspension is an innovation making its way into motor sports, no doubt to trickle down to consumer vehicles eventually. It
has been designed and pioneered by the Racing For Holland Dome S101 sports car team. In the image below you can see both the
traditional coilover system (the yellow/blue/red units) at the front of the car. This photo was taken before scrutineering for the 2005 24
Hours of Le Mans race. The team had both systems online and when scrutineering passed the car, the coilover units were removed, to
race for the first time completely with hydraulic suspension.
Central to their system is a control unit mounted next to the cockpit. They tell me the system can't be compared to the hydropneumatic
suspension Citron uses because this system doesn't use a pump and has less than a litre of hydraulic fluid in the entire system.
More news on this development as I get it.
Thanks to Sander van Dijk for sending me this photo, plus a ton of others of their racing car.
instead of springs and shock absorbers on each corner of the car, a single liner
electromagnetic motor and power amplifier can be used instead.
Inside the linear electromagnetic motor are magnets and coils of wire. When electrical power
is applied to the coils, the motor retracts and extends, creating motion between the wheel and
car body. It's like the electromagnetic effect used to propel some newer rollercoaster cars on
launch, or if you're into videogames and sci-fi, it's like a railgun.
One of the big advantages of an electromagnetic approach is speed. The linear
electromagnetic motor responds quickly enough to counter the effects of bumps and potholes,
thus allowing it to perform the actions previously reserved for shock absorbers.
In it's second mode of operation, the system can be used to counter body roll by stiffening the
suspension in corners. As well as these functions, it can also be used to raise and lower ride
height dynamically. So you could drop the car down low for motorway cruising, but raise it up
for the pot-hole ridden city streets. It's all very clever.
The power amplifier delivers electrical power to the motor in response to signals from the
control algorithms. These mathematical algorithms have been developed over 24 years of
research. They operate by observing sensor measurements taken from around the car and
sending commands to the power amps installed with each linear motor. The goal of the control
algorithms is to allow the car to glide smoothly over roads and to eliminate roll and pitch
during driving.
The amplifiers themselves are based on switching amplification technologies pioneered by Dr.
Bose at MIT in the early 1960s. The really smart thing about the power amps is that they are
regenerative. So for example, when the suspension encounters a pothole, power is used to
extend the motor and isolate the vehicle's occupants from the disturbance. On the far side of
the pothole, the motor operates as a generator and returns power back through the amplifier.
By doing this, the Bose system requires less than a third of the power of a typical vehicle's
air conditioner system. Clever, eh?
Bose have also managed to package this little wonder of technology into a two-point harness ie it basically needs two bolts to attach it to your vehicle and that's it. It's a pretty compact
design, not much bigger than a normal shock absorber.
The official Bose suspension page can be found here if you want more info.
It's worth noting that a company called Aura Systems
devised (or at least tried to market) a similar linear
electromagnetic suspension system around 1991. They
published an article in the Automotive Engineering Journal
claiming that electromagnetic actuators could be used for vehicle suspensions and it said
that small devices could be designed with a typical thrust capability of about 2500
Newtons and for a reasonable power demand. This happened at the same time that linear
electromagnetic rams were being developed for entertainment simulators and full flight
simulators to replace hydraulic systems. In fact, it could be argued that the Aura Systems
ram was a direct descendant of the rams found on Super-X entertainment simulators.
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The units looked very similar to the Bose devices and had the same limitation - they
couldn't carry the dead weight of the vehicle. Aura Systems ran into financial troubles in
2000, and filed for Chapter 11 in 2005. The time scales fit quite nicely into the declared
Bose time frame (start of development versus going public). Of course they could have
been parallel developments, but the bigger question is why was Aura not able to sell their
system to an OEM at some time during the previous 15 years? Could it be to do with
mechanical limitations - that the sway bars carrying vertical loads are very good at
transmitting road inputs into the vehicle structure even if the bar rate is low? Time will
tell if Bose manage to succeed where Aura Systems failed.
If you're loaded, you can buy cars with active anti-roll technology now. These sense the roll of the car into a corner and deflate the
relevant suspension leg accordingly by pumping fluid in and out of the shock absorber. It's a high-tech, super expensive version of the
good old mechanical anti-roll bar. You can buy anti-roll bars as an aftermarket add-on. They're relatively easy to fit because most cars
have anti-roll bars already. Take the old one off and fit the new one. In the case of rear suspension, the fittings will probably already be
there even if the anti-roll bar isn't.
Typical anti-roll bar (swaybar) kits include the uprated bar, a set of new mounting clamps with polyurethane bushes, rose joints for the
ends which connect to the suspension components, and all the bolts etc that will be needed.
Suspension bushes
These are the rubber grommets which separate most of the parts of your suspension from each other. They're used at the link of an AArm with the subframe. They're used on anti-roll bar links and mountings. They're used all over the place, and from the factory, I can
almost guarantee they're made of rubber. Rubber doesn't last. It perishes in the cold and splits in the heat. Perished, split rubber was
what brought the Challenger space shuttle down. This is one of those little parts which hardly anyone pays any attention to, but it's
vitally important for your car's handling, as well as your own safety, that these little things are in good condition. My advice? Replace
them with polyurethane or polygraphite bushes - they are hard-wearing and last a heck of a lot longer. And, if you're into presenting
your car at shows, they look better than the naff little black rubber jobs. Like all suspension-related items though, bushes are a tradeoff
between performance and comfort. The harder the bush compound, the less comfort in the cabin. You pays your money and makes
your choice.
Generally speaking, this section will be more relevant to you if you ride a motorbike, but you can get high-end spring / shock combos
for cars that have all these features on them. The thing to realise is that if you're going to start messing with all these adjustments, for
God's sake take a digital photo of the unit first, or somehow mark where it all started out. It's a slippery slope and you can very quickly
bugger up the ride quality of your vehicle. If you don't know what the "stock" setting was, you'll never get it back.
Compression damping.
This is the damping that a shock absorber provides as it's being compressed, ie. as you hit a bump in the road. It's the resistance of the
unit to alter from its steady state to its compressed state. Imagine your riding along and you hit a bump. If there is too little
compression damping, the wheel will not meet enough resistance as the suspension compresses. Not enough energy is dissipated by
the time you reach the crest of the bump and because the wheel and other unsprung components have their own mass, the wheel will
continue to move upwards. This unweights or unloads the tyre and in extreme cases, it can lose contact with the road. Either way, you
briefly lose traction and control.
The opposite is true if compression damping is too heavy. As the wheel encounters the bump in the road, the resistance to moving is
high and so at the crest of the bump, the remaining energy from the upward motion through the shock absorber is transferred into the
frame of the bike or the chassis of the car, lifting it up.
Rebound damping.
Go on - have a guess at what this is. Well in case you're not following along, this is the damping that a shock absorber provides as it
returns from its compressed state to its steady state, ie. after you've crested the bump in the road. Too light, and the feeling of control
in your vehicle is minimised because the wheel will move very quickly. The feeling is the soft, plush ride you find in a lot of American
cars. Or mushy as we like to call it. Too heavy, and the shock absorber can't return quickly enough. As the contour of the road drops
away after the bump, the wheel has a hard time "catching up". This can result in reduced traction, and a downward shift in the height of
the vehicle. If that happens, you can overload the tyre when the weight of the vehicle bottoms-out the suspension.
Damping controllers.
High-end kit has controls on the shock absorber for both compression and rebound damping. Typically the rebound damping will be a
screwdriver slot at the top of the shock absorber, and compression damping will be a knob either on the side or on the remote
reservoir. Ultra-high-end kit has separate controls for high- and low-speed damping. ie. you can make the shock absorber behave
differently over small bumps (low speed compression and rebound) than it does over large bumps (high speed compression and
rebound). Of course you could buy yourself a nice big TV, a DVD player, dark curtains, a new couch and a year's supply of popcorn for
the same cost as four of these units.
Spring preload.
Some motorbike suspension units, as well as some found on cars, give you the ability to alter the spring preload or pre-tension. This
means that you're artificially compressing the spring a little which will alter the vehicle's static sag - the amount of suspension travel
the vehicle consumes all by itself. For example, if you ride a motorbike on your own, the preload might work on the factory setup. But if
you put a passenger on the back, the tendency is for the bike to sag because there's now more sprung weight. Increasing the preload
on the spring plate will help compensate for this.
Torsion bars
Torsion bars deserve their own section because they are a type of spring which can be used in
place of coil- or leaf-springs. It's one of the topics I get the most e-mail on, so instead of
continually sending the same answer, I thought I'd cover it on this page.
http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/suspension_bible.html (18 of 20)8/10/2005 10:46:32 AM
A torsion bar is a solid bar of steel which is connected to the car chassis at one end, and free to
move at the other end. They are almost always mounted across the car, one for each side of the
suspension. The springing motion is provided by the metal bar's resistance to twisting. To oversimplify, stick your arm out straight and get someone to twist your wrist. Presuming that your
mate doesn't snap your wrist, at a certain point, resistance in your arm (and pain) will cause you
to twist your wrist back the other way. That is the principle of a torsion bar.
Torsion bars typically have splines on one end so that they can be removed, twisted round one
spline and re-inserted. This can be used to raise or lower a car, or to compensate for the natural
'sag' of a suspension system over time.
Bouncy Links
Here's some links for you to follow.
Kinetic Suspension systems
Tim Stiles Racing - VW and Audi suspension mods etc
Monroe shock absorbers Suspension
Eibach Suspension
TMS Suspension catalogue for BMWs