Car Suspension Bible

What does it do?

Apart from your car's tires and seats, the suspension is the prime mechanism
that separates your bum (arse for the American) from the road. It also prevents
your car from shaking itself to pieces. No matter how smooth you think the road
is, it's a bad, bad place to propel over a ton of metal at high speed. So we rely
upon suspension. People who travel on underground trains wish that those
vehicles relied on suspension too, but they don't and that's why the ride is so
harsh. Actually it's harsh because underground trains have no lateral
suspension to speak of. So as the rails deviate side-to-side slightly, so does the
entire train, and it's passengers. In a car, the rubber in your tyre helps with this
little problem. In its most basic form, suspension consists of two basic
components:

Springs
These come in three types. They are coil springs, torsion bars and leaf springs.
Coil springs are what most people are familiar with, and are actually coiled
torsion bars. Leaf springs are what you would find on most American cars up to
about 1985 and almost all heavy duty vehicles. They look like layers of metal
connected to the axle. The layers are called leaves, hence leaf-spring. The
torsion bar on its own is a bizarre little contraption which gives coiled-spring-like
performance based on the twisting properties of a steel bar. It's used in the
suspension of VW Beetles and Karmann Ghias, air-cooled Porsches (356 and
911 until 1989 when they went to springs), and the rear suspension of Peugeot
205s amongst other cars. Instead of having a coiled spring, the axle is attached
to one end of a steel shaft. The other end is slotted into a tube and held there by
splines. As the suspension moves, it twists the shaft along it's length, which in
turn resist. Now image that same shaft but instead of being straight, it's coiled
up. As you press on the top of the coil, you're actually inducing a twisting in the
shaft, all the way down the coil. I know it's hard to visualize, but believe me,
that's what is happening. There's a whole section further down the page
specifically on torsion bars and progressive springs.

Shock absorbers
Strangely enough, absorb shocks. Actually, shock absorbers are one of those
great misnomers in life. They're really called dampers, because they actually
dampen the vertical motion induced by driving your car along a rough surface. If
your car only had springs, it would boat and wallow along the road until you got
physically sick and had to get out. Or at least until it fell apart. Shock absorbers
perform two functions. Firstly, they absorb any larger-than-average bumps in the
road so that the shock isn't transmitted to the car chassis. Secondly, they keep
the suspension at as full a travel as possible for the given road conditions.
Shock absorbers keep your wheels planted on the road. Without them, your car
would be a traveling deathtrap. Technically, they are actually dampers. Even
more 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?)

A modern coil-over-oil unit

The image above shows a typical modern coil-over-oil unit. This is an all-in-one
system that carries both the spring and the shock absorber. The type illustrated
here is more likely to be an aftermarket item - it's unlikely you'd get this level of
adjustment on your regular passenger car. The adjustable spring plate can be
used to make the springs stiffer and looser, whilst the adjustable damping valve
can be used to adjust the compression damping of the shock absorber. More
sophisticated units have adjustable rebound damping as well as a remote
reservoir. Whilst you don't typically get this level of engineering on car
suspension, most motorbikes do have preload, rebound and spring tension
adjustment. See the section later on in this page about the ins and outs of
complex suspension units.

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.

Front suspension - dependent systems

So-called because the front wheel's suspension systems are physically linked.
For everyday use, they are, in a word, shite. I hate to be offensive, but they are.
There is only one type of dependant system you need to know about. It is
basically a solid bar under the front of the car, kept in place by leaf springs and
shock absorbers. It's still common to find these on trucks, but if you find a car
with one of these you should sell it to a museum. They haven't been used on
mainstream cars for years for three main reasons:
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.......

Front suspension - independent systems

So-named because the front wheel's suspension systems are independent of
each other (except where joined by an antiroll bar) These came into existence
around 1930 and have been in use in one form or another pretty much ever
since then.
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.

Coil Spring type 1

This is a type of double-A arm suspension. The wheel spindles (purple) are
supported by an upper and lower 'A' shaped arms (green). If you look head-on
at this type of system, what you'll find is that it's a very basic lever system that
allows the spindles to travel vertically up and down. When they do this, they also
have a slight side-to-side motion caused by the arc which the levers scribe
around their pivot point. This side-to-
side motion is known as scrub. Unless
the links are infinitely long the scrub
motion is always present. There are
two other types of motion of the wheel
relative to the body when the
suspension articulates. The first and
most important is a toe angle (steer
angle). The second and least
important, but the one which produces
most pub talk is the camber angle, or
lean angle. Steer and camber are the
ones which wear tires. Also note that
the springs/shocks in this example are
in a so-called 'coil over oil'
arrangement whereby the shock
absorbers (yellow) sit inside the springs (red).

Coil Spring type 2

This is also a type of double-A arm suspension

although the lower arm in these systems can
sometimes be replaced with single solid arms. The
only real difference between this and the type 1
system mentioned above is that the spring/shock
combo is moved from between the arms to above
the upper arm. This transfers the load-bearing
capability of the suspension almost entirely to the
upper arm and the spring mounts. The lower arm
in this instance becomes a control arm. This
particular type of system isn't so popular in cars as
it takes up a lot room.
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 system, as are the wishbones
themselves. This rapidly becoming
one of the most favoured
suspension types for new cars as
it gives excellent road-holding
capabilities whilst taking up very
little room under the car. This
allows for smoother lines on the
bodywork, and less intrusion in to
the engine bay. A 3D rendering
such as that on the right does not
do this system any justice. To really appreciate it, you need to get your head in a
wheel well and have a look. And I know a few mechanics who've still not been
able to figure it out even then.

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 these become twin-trailing-arm systems
and work on exactly the same principle as the
arms in the coil spring type systems described
above. The difference is that instead of the arms
sticking out from the side of the chassis, they
travel back along it. If you want to know what I
mean, find a VW beetle and stick your head in the
front wheel arch - that's a double-trailing-arm
suspension setup. Simple. It's used mostly in older
cars and beach buggies now.

Moulton rubber suspension

This suspension system is based on the compression of a

solid mass of rubber - red in both these images. The two
types are essentially derivatives of the same design. It is
named after Dr. Alex Moulton - one of the original design
team on the Mini, and the engineer who designed its
suspension system in 1959. This system is known by a few
different names including cone and trumpet suspension (due
to the shape of the rubber bung shown in the lower image).
The rear suspension system on the original Mini also used
Moulton's rubber suspension system, but laid out
horizontally rather than vertically, to save space again. The
Mini was originally intended to have Moulton's fluid-filled
Hydrolastic suspension, but that remained on the drawing
board for a few more years. Eventually, Hydrolastic was
developed into Hydragas (see later on this page), and
revised versions were adopted on the Mini Metro and the
current MGF-sports car. Ultimately, Moulton rubber
suspension is now used in a lot of bicycles - racing and
mountain bikes. Due to the compact design and the
simplicity of its operation and maintenance, it's an ideal
solution.
Rear suspension - dependant systems

Contrary to the front version of this system, many many cars are still designed
and built with dependant (linked) rear suspension systems.

Solid-axle, leaf-spring

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 solid-axle-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.
Rear suspension - independent systems

It follows, that what can be fitted to the front of a car, can be fitted to the rear to
without the complexities of the steering gear. Simplified versions of all the
independent systems described above can be found on the rear axles of cars.
The multi-link system is currently becoming more and more popular. In
advertising, it's put across as '4-wheel independent suspension'. This means all
the wheels are independently mounted and sprung. There are two schools of
thought as to whether this system is better or worse for handling than, for
example, Macpherson struts and a twist axle. The drive towards 4-wheel
independent suspension is primarily to improve ride quality without degrading
handling.

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 pressurizes 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

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
pressurized gas. They pioneered in the rear suspension of the 15 (Tractio
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 Peugeot-enforced "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 familiarize 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
pressurized 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, i.e. 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 customizing their car by pressurizing 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 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 preventsrear 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 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 coil over 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.
Linear Electromagnetic Suspension

This is the latest innovation in suspension systems,

invented by Bose. The idea is that 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 - i.e. 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.
Anti-roll Bars & Strut Braces

Strut Braces

If you're serious about your car's handling performance, you will first be looking
at lowering the suspension. In most cases, unless you're a complete petrol
head, this will be more than adequate. However, if you are a keen driver, you
will be able to get far better handling out of your car by fitting a couple of other
accessories to it. The first thing you should look at is a strut brace. When you
corner, the whole car's chassis is twisting slightly. In the front (and perhaps at
the back, but not so often) the suspension pillars will be moving relative to each
other because there's no direct physical link between them. They are connected
via the car body, which can flex depending on its stiffness. A strut brace bolts
across the top of the engine to the tops of the two suspension posts and makes
that direct physical contact. The result is that the whole front suspension setup
becomes a lot more rigid and there will be virtually no movement relative to each
side. In effect, you're adding the fourth side to the open box created by the sub
frame and the two suspension pillars.

Simple straight brace(highlighted) Complex brace (highlighted)

Anti-roll Bars (Sway Bars/Stabilizers)

No, these aren't the things that are bolted inside the car in case you turn it over - those are
rollover cages. Anti-roll bars do precisely what their name implies - they combat the roll of a
car on it's suspension as it corners. They're also known as sway-bars or anti-sway-bars.
Almost all cars have them fitted as standard, and if you're a boy-racer, all have scope for
improvement. From the factory they are biased towards ride comfort. Stiffer aftermarket
items will increase the road-holding but you'll get reduced comfort because of it. It's a catch-
22 situation. Fiddling with your roll stiffness distribution can make a car uncomfortable to
ride in and extremely hard to handle if you get it wrong. The anti-roll bar is usually
connected to the front, lower edge of the bottom suspension joint. It passes through two
pivot points under the chassis, usually on the sub frame and is attached to the same point
on the opposite suspension setup. Effectively, it joins the bottom of the suspension parts
together. When you head into a corner, the car begins to roll out of the corner. For example,
if you're cornering to the left, the car body rolls to the right. In doing this, it's compressing
the suspension on the right hand side. With a good anti-roll bar, as the lower part of the
suspension moves upward relative to the car chassis, it transfers some of that movement to
the same component on the other side. In effect, it tries to lift the left suspension component
by the same amount. Because this isn't physically possible, the left suspension effectively
becomes a fixed point and the anti-roll bar twists along its length because the other end is
effectively anchored in place. It's this twisting that provides the resistance to the suspension
movement.

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 (sway bar) kits include the upgraded 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 A-Arm with the sub
frame. 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.

The Ins and Outs of complex suspension units.

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,
i.e. 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, i.e. after you've crested the bump in the road. Too light,
and the feeling of control in your vehicle is minimized 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. i.e. 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.

Sprung vs. unsprung weight.

Simply put, sprung weight is everything from the springs up, and unsprung
weight is everything from the springs down. Wheels, shock absorbers, springs,
knuckle joints and tyres contribute to the unsprung weight. The car, engine,
fluids, you, your passenger, the kids, the bags of candy and the portable
Playstation all contribute to the sprung weight. Reducing unsprung weight is the
key to increasing performance of the car. If you can make the wheels, tyres and
swingarms lighter, then the suspension will spend more time compensating for
bumps in the road, and less time compensating for the mass of the wheels etc.
The greater the unsprung weight, the greater the inertia of the suspension,
which will be unable to respond as quickly to rapid changes in the road surface.
As an added benefit, putting lighter wheels on the car can increase your
engine's apparent power. Why? Well the engine has to turn the gearbox and
driveshafts, and at the end of that, the wheels and tyres. Heavier wheels and
tyres require more torque to get turning, which saps engine power. Lighter
wheels and tyres allow more of the engine's torque to go into getting you going
than spinning the wheels. That's why sports cars have carbon fibre driveshafts
and ultra light alloy wheels.

The Ins and Outs of complex suspension units.

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.