Suspension components are the second most important feature of your car. They are the messenger between the tires and your brain, making you believe that your car will behave the way you want.
The suspension determines whether your car will oversteer (steer too much) or understeer (steer too slowly). It determines whether your car will feel comfortable on gravel roads or whether you can avoid drivers who are not paying attention when crossing four lanes without turn signals.
Right now, we can’t help BMW provide additional turn signals for only $5,000, but we can make sure that our suspension components work properly, and we know the variants and their uses!
However, you may have some confusion about shocks versus struts or maybe someone mentioned you should upgrade to coilovers. Keep reading to see how these three suspension components compare.
What Are Shocks
Think of your impact as a suspension manager. They control the speed at which your spring compresses and help manage the heat generated by the movement of fluid in your shock absorber.
When your car is at a standstill, it will have the best contact surface, and your shock absorbers will not have any effect. However, when you take that sick Ford Raptor out of some sweet jumps, your spring compression rate will be helped and suppressed by your impact.
There are big shocks, small shocks, performance shocks, and economic variations. Their applications are slightly different, but almost all do the same thing.
Your Honda Civic will suffer a basic economic shock with little travel, but it may cost you $50 to go out at your local auto parts store. On the other hand, you can get KING suspension components with extra long travel and an external fuel tank, allowing you to participate in BAJA 1000 competitions.
If you want to compare and contrast shock absorber manufacturers, ECCPPAutoParts is worth considering.
What Are Struts
The pillar bears the brunt of the suspension workload of the car. Think of them as subordinates, because their task is to bear the full weight of each corner of the vehicle so that it can move up and down with the road conditions.
For struts, your shock absorber is usually located inside the strut assembly, and the spring coils around the strut when compressed during normal operation. Your pillars are important because they control almost all the behavior of your car while driving on the road.
You should double-check your pillars every 60-80k miles, or earlier if you live in a saltwater area or your vehicle is often overloaded. The harder they work, the sooner they burn out!
What Are Coilovers
Coilovers and Struts are sometimes used interchangeably when describing exactly the same thing. The "coil" "ends" the impact. This is basically a pillar, isn't it? Well, not exactly.
Coilovers is a strut in which the spring is coiled all the way to the top. The only difference here is that shock absorbers usually provide more adjustability in terms of ride height and damping, and also allow users to change the spring to obtain a more customized spring rate.
I like to think of "pillars" as an OEM option for many manufacturers for their vehicles, while shock absorbers are often used in high-performance variants or modified cars you see when commuting home.
All in all, your suspension is important, as it controls how you interact with your car and the road ahead of you. Make sure you check today if your car needs new shocks, struts, or coilovers. You may be surprised at their replacement cost.
