5 Symptoms Of A Bad Or Failing Shock Absorber

The primary function of the shock absorbers in your car is to keep your tyres in contact with the ground at all times. Another purpose is to limit the overall car body movement.

Most of the cars we drive have a shock absorber for each of the four tyres. Please, we are talking about our regular cars and not 6×6 or trailers.

Driving a car with bad or leaking shock absorber is never a good idea. It will surely give you a very poor ride quality and can ruin the fun of driving for you. Imagine driving a car and it’s bouncing. It is very dangerous because controlling a bouncing car is very difficult.

Below are the 5 signs of a bad shock absorber.

1. Your car bounces:

This is the upward and downward car movement you get when you car is in motion. You can get this same effect even when you use your weight to depress the car when it is standstill.

You also notice this motion when you slam your brakes and your car jumps up and down or even swerve.

This bouncing will always put you at risk because the controlling of your car is compromised.

2. Your car may lean to one side:

When your shock is bad, it may cause the weight of your car to lean towards the side with the bad shock.

3. Uneven tyre wears:

It’s not only misaligned car that can cause this; bad shock absorbers can cause this as well.

This is so because of the uneven contact of the tyres with the road.

3 Signs That Indicate Your Car Needs Wheel Balancing

4. Leaking fluid:

Have you ever taken out time to look through your shock absorbers?
If you do that and you notice oil drips all around the shock absorber, it should tell you something is wrong. The loss of fluid within the absorber will reduce the effectiveness of the shock.

5. Weird noises:

Your car may rattle and rock over bumps.