Dampen my ride

Often do I here someone asking, “when should shock absorbers be changed” and “what brand should be used if they need to be replaced.” My answer to the first question is following the service dealers periodic maintenance schedule would be a good guide. However, there would be some instances where the shocks would fail way before the recommended time stated it would need replacing. Another question to consider is how abused or used your car is? Is it in stock form? If we use mileage or distance traveled by a particular car, the same question applies; how was the car used? Was it driven hard? What were the road conditions traveled by the car? Even if we got two identical cars traveling the same route, but two different drivers with different driving styles using them, then one car would wear out differently from the other.

Just to give you an idea, I weigh about 260 pounds. if I were to drive a Toyota Vios along with another guy weighing 180 pounds driving a similar Vios on a given daily route for one year, the driver’s side on my car would show a slight difference in fender to tire clearance as compared to the other guy who is 80 pounds lighter. Not to mention the slightly higher gas consumption.