Shock absorbers and ride quality

[Greenbot35]

Has anyone ever found a shock absorber fail that causes a really harsh ride over small surface inperfections such as drain covers or those road marking across the road to warn of an island but fine over larger more rounded bumps? Handling is fine and taught but small sharp bumps seem to come straight through the car.

[PositronicRay]

Greenbot35 said:

Has anyone ever found a shock absorber fail that causes a really harsh ride over small surface inperfections such as drain covers or those road marking across the road to warn of an island but fine over larger more rounded bumps? Handling is fine and taught but small sharp bumps seem to come straight through the car.

Yup

[trickywoo]

Broken spring?

[Greenbot35]

trickywoo said:

Broken spring?

It doesn't look like it, the ride height is equal on all 4 corners. It feels like the damping is really firm and not responding too small bumps seems like an unusual way for dampers to fail though. The car has done 70k miles and 12 years old.

[ExPat2B]

Greenbot35 said:

trickywoo said:

Broken spring?

It doesn't look like it, the ride height is equal on all 4 corners. It feels like the damping is really firm and not responding too small bumps seems like an unusual way for dampers to fail though. The car has done 70k miles and 12 years old.

Broken spring doesn't usually affect the ride height. They normally snap at the tail end at the bottom.

[IanCress]

Surely that's exactly what you would expect from a seized shock absorber. The small sharp bumps will be very harsh. More larger more rounded bumps won't cause as harsh a shock through the vehicle.

[Greenbot35]

IanCress said:

Surely that's exactly what you would expect from a seized shock absorber. The small sharp bumps will be very harsh. More larger more rounded bumps won't cause as harsh a shock through the vehicle.

I've never encountered a seized shock though, all mine in the past have lost all damping and handlings become awful.

[kambites]

There's several days a damper can fail which feel very different. What you describe is one of them.

[Mr2Mike]

Cold weather naturally makes suspension less compliant. Damper oil thickens, tyre rubber hardens.

[PaulKemp]

Mr2Mike said:

Cold weather naturally makes suspension less compliant. Damper oil thickens, tyre rubber hardens.

Not been cold enough to make that much difference and I’m anycase a short period of driving will warm the shock up to operating temperature.

So back to the issue, how old is the car? How many miles has it done?
Do you feel any difference with a simple push on each corner?

[Krikkit]

Depends how the valving is set up, but I've also experienced this.