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What is a shock absorber? I'm going to answer the basic title question with a carefully selected quote from the great Wikipedia: ... their intended sole purpose is to dampen spring oscillations. Think of how you want your car to ride when driving down a smooth road that has a bump or pothole. You expect to feel a mild jolt when the car travels ...

A simple test that you can perform in your own driveway is: For each corner of the car, push down hard several times (the car should be bouncing visibly up and down) When pushed down, release and watch The car should bounce upwards (above the normal resting point) and then immediately settle at the resting point. Additional bouncing indicates worn or ...

Realistically, there's not a whole lot you can do. What will help though is to clean them periodically, especially where the parts slide in and out of each other. The objective being to keep foreign matter away from the seals. Depending on shocker design a high pressure cleaner can be quite useful here. A common cause of rapid shocker failure is faulty ...

You have a couple of simultaneous questions going on here: You have an older / non-new car. Should you have to replace the shocks? Shocks wear out over time and mileage. I'm going to be replacing the wife's shocks this weekend (assuming they arrive on schedule). The existing shocks have at least 50K miles on them so they're at the end of their expected ...

As long as your cousin isn't using the bike for jumps and stunts, and is just riding it on roads this shouldn't pose a problem. As @Bob pointed out in the comment below - the spring is what takes the weight. The damper is what slows down the movement of the spring, preventing bouncing. If the shock bottoms out under his weight, then it may damage the ...

With respect to your original question: What is a damper? A damper (AKA strut or shock absorber) is "a mechanical device designed to dissipate kinetic energy." In it's automotive use, it works with the springs to absorb the impact of bumps and rough spots in the road before those impacts bother your car and the passengers therein. In answering a ...

It sounds like the mechanic is citing the maintenance schedule rather than a particular symptom. 74K miles is a good long way for a set of shocks and, while it's great that you aren't currently worried about their state, the vehicle will begin to suffer as they eventually fail. Here's a previous question that describes some of the rebounding that will ...

Dirt is a killer of shocks. Dirt on the cylinder ends up scoring the cylinders and getting into the seals, causing the effectiveness of the seal to drop. Then you get leaking and eventual failure. Keep the moving portions as clean as possible. On our airplanes (which don't have any dust boots), we clean the struts with hydraulic fluid and a cotton cloth ...

I remember having issues like these about 5 years ago, and we ended up having to grip the screw/stud that was sticking out while turning the nut. Does the bolt have a flat piece that you can maybe get a wrench on? Try this if possible. Another option, assuming you are replacing them, vice grip the polished rod with some beefy vice grips and removed the nut. ...

If properly installed, there's really nothing to be done. As mentioned above, you can clean them to prevent the seals from being damaged by grit. Most setups have covers over them anyways that keeps most of the dirt out. Those covers tend to fall apart after a few years though. Either way, I don't think I've ever seen a failure due to seal damage. Have ...