Suspension Systems

A car's suspension system comprises of several parts all working to ensure stability and eliminate road imperfections.

Variants of a suspension system

1. Wheels and Tires.

Tires provide traction (“grip”) that allows the car to accelerate, decelerate (slow down), and turn. They also absorb the shock from small bumps and other road irregularities.

2. Springs.

Springs protect the passengers and cargo from larger bumps.

A Macpherson strut showing a coil spring

A leaf spring

3. Shocks or struts.

While the spring cushions the jolt when a vehicle hits a bump, the shock absorber or strut, a cylinder filled with a thick oil, absorbs the energy from the same bump, which causes the vehicle to stop bouncing.

Struts

4. Steering system.

The steering system translates driver inputs from the steering wheel into back-and-forth movement of the wheels.

A steering system

5. Linkages, bushings, and joints.

Every suspension includes numerous linkages (solid parts such as control arms and other rods) to keep the wheels properly positioned as the vehicle moves, and bushings and joints to connect the linkages while allowing the right amount of movement.

Bushings

Notice that “sway bar” doesn’t appear on that list, because some cars don’t have one. A sway (or actually anti-sway) bar tends to keep the car from swaying (or more precisely, from leaning to one side or the other). That is what a sway bar does: prevent body lean. A sway bar does nothing at all unless the vehicle is inclined to lean to one side, but when it does start to lean (which usually means the vehicle is turning — every car or truck tends to lean to the outside of a turn), the sway bar applies force to the suspension on each side, upward on one side and downward on the other, that tends to resist the leaning.

Sway bars

In summary the major functions of a suspension system are

i. Maintain correct vehicle ride height.

ii. Reduce the effect of shock forces.

iii. Maintain correct wheel alignment.

iv. Support vehicle weight.

v. Keep the tyres in contact with the road.

vi. Control the vehicle's direction of travel.

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