What Do Shock Absorbers Do?
Thanks to their common name, most people think that shock absorbers absorb the shocks and bumps experienced by the car as it travels down the road. Technically, this is not true. In reality, the springs carry the load of the car and regulate the suspension’s reaction to any bumps or dips in the road. They’re the ones that really absorb the shocks. The shock absorbers time the springs’ reaction by changing kinetic energy (the spring moving up and down) into thermal energy (the heat built up as the shock’s oil passes through the various pistons and valves). “Springs hold the car,” explains Lex Carson of JRZ Suspension Systems. “Shocks control the spring loading and unloading.” Since the shocks are damping the springs, technically shock absorbers should be called dampers. However, we’ll stick with the name shocks or shock absorbers, out of a matter of habit. A strut is basically a shock that is also a load-bearing member, but once again we’ll stick with the catch-all name of shocks. To un
