Hard ride

Meanie · Post by **Meanie** » March 12th, 2006, 11:26 am

Does the MX3 normally have a hard ride to it or is it time for my springs/shocks to be replaced?

I'm looking for a softer ride anyway, therefore, anyone care to recommend a set of shock or springs ? Should I replace both shocks and springs or only one or the other? I'm not looking to spend a great deal of money but just enough to provide that softer ride.

All help appreciated.

Thank you.

DavidOS · Post by **DavidOS** » March 12th, 2006, 6:45 pm

no normally if all is stock they are smooth.

Time to have your suspension looked at.
Not just struts n springs, but control arm bushings, end links and other little goodies under the car

Yoda · Post by **Yoda** » March 12th, 2006, 9:44 pm

How do you define a "hard ride"? Does the car bounce when you hit a bump? Or feel like the tire are solid rubber? Also did you just get your car or is this some thing you noticed recently? Chances are that the shock are gone since you didn't mention that one of the corners is high or lower that the rest of the car. The job for the spring is to support the weight of the car and maintain the ride height over uneven surfaces by compressing and extending the road surface. The job of the damper more commonly called a shock is to control the oscilations of the compression and rebound of the spring. It controls how fast the spring compresses and how fast it extends every time you hit a bump. If it not doing its job when it compresses it will over compress then over extend on the rebound stroke. When it happens the car starts to pitch up and down making the bump feel bigger that they are. If you were to use a stiffer spring up would get a similar effect because the spring cannot control the conversion of energy in the spring fast enough. If the shock is to stiff then the tire would lift of the ground and slap the top of the next bump because it is not pushing down as fast on the rebound.

kmvmx3 · Post by **kmvmx3** » March 28th, 2006, 11:19 am

Good insight, YODA. Now... Give the guy a list of ALL that needs to replaced so his car can ride like NEW again.

precidian · Post by **precidian** » March 28th, 2006, 12:55 pm

kmvmx3 wrote:Good insight, YODA. Now... Give the guy a list of ALL that needs to replaced so his car can ride like NEW again.

Before anyone can make suggestions, we need to hear more specific details from the original poster. As his descriptions was a little vague.