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Ultimate Guide to Shock Absorber Replacement Procedure

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shock absorber replacement procedure

Does your car is shaking too much? Are you spilling coffee very frequently in your shirt while riding? Then maybe you have a faulty shock absorber. A shock absorber is a vital part of your car, for starters, which reduces the shocks you get while riding a car. This is attached to each of your car wheels.

While the wheel runs over an uneven surface, the best shock absorbers absorb the impact and gives you comfort. You will not feel any difference most of the time if your car is equipped with a good shock absorber. But without proper maintenance, your shock absorber might become faulty.

There are situations when you can repair your shock absorber, or you need to replace it completely. So, before starting our shock absorber replacement procedure, we must ensure that it is repairable or not.

shock absorber

Is It Repairable or Replaceable?

There are some signs in your car that you should look for before thinking of shock absorber replacement. If you feel uncomfortable while riding, then the chances are huge that the culprit is the shock absorber.

Sometimes faulty shock absorbers are reparable. There might be some loose connections as well. In most of the cases, you need to replace your shock absorber. Also, some shock absorbers aren’t reparable.

So, my suggestion will be if you can repair your shock absorber, do it. You will be able to save some money from this. But I’m guessing you are here because you need to replace the shock absorber for your car. Let’s see the shock absorber replacement procedure of a car.  

Shock Absorber Replacement Procedure

There are two key steps you should follow in the shock absorber replacement procedure. First, you need to detach the faulty shock absorber from your car. Then you need to replace the faulty shock absorber with the new one. 

Detaching the Faulty Shock Absorber

  • At first, you need to set your mind and get the best shock absorber for yourself. Currently, various types of shock absorbers are available with various qualities. You need to get the right one for you. There are coil shocks, twin-tube shocks, monotube shocks, reservoir shocks, etc. Not every shock absorber will be ideal for your car. Talk with a mechanic to get the right type of shock absorber for your car.
  • Before any car maintenance, you need to park the car at a level surface. Put your car on the parking mode and make sure there is no chance of the car sliding down.
  • Take a car jack to jack up the car. Find the jack point near to the wheel. Raise the car using the jack. You should raise the car depending on the height you can work comfortably. Put a jack stand under the car for safety precautions.
  • Suppose you need to detach the wheel at first if you can't reach your hand to the shock absorber mountings. Sometimes, it is a must to remove the wheel. After that, clean the shock absorber and look for the bolts that are attached to the car.
  • There is a top bolt that needs to be detached at first. It is situated in the trunk under the fabric. You can use a ratchet to unplug the bolt. You should rotate it counterclockwise to remove the top bolt.
  • There is a nut that connects the shock absorber and suspension together. It will require a socket set to disconnect this nut. A nut splitter can also remove this nut from the suspension.
  • Now, remove the top and bottom bolt from the shock absorber. After that, you need to take out the faulty shock absorber from the car. It might not come out that easily. You will need to wiggle the absorber for a few times. After some continuous wiggling, you will see the shock absorber is coming out from the car. Put the absorber aside and clean the mounting space before replacing the new shock absorber.

Installing the New Shock Absorber

  • First of all, take the user manual out and read the instruction carefully. Search for the required torque and other information. Unbox the shock carefully and do not lose any nut or bolt that comes with the shock absorber.
  • At this point, you will require a torque wrench. Set the torque according to the user manual of the shock absorber. Now attach the shock absorber with the suspension using the torque wrench. If you don't have a torque wrench, you can use the same tools you used to detach the faulty shock absorber.
  • When the attachment between the shock absorber and the suspension is done, you need to attach the top and bottom bolts in the same way you removed the bolts from the faulty shock absorber. But in this case, you need to rotate the wrench clockwise to attach them.
  • Repeat the whole process for other shock absorbers as well if you need to change other shock absorbers as well. Sometimes it is difficult to find out which one of the shock absorbers is creating the issue. In that case, you need to replace shock absorbers one by one and need to check if the problem is gone. I personally prefer changing all of them, but if you are on a budget, you can only go for the faulty ones.
  • Now attach the wheel in the same way you've removed it in the first place. If you have a torque wrench, make sure you are changing each bolt's torque amount if required.
  • At this moment, your car shock absorber replacing task is complete. Now remove the jack stand from the car while the car jack is still holding the car. You need to lower the car right now and make it to the ground safely. Do it very slowly; otherwise, you can damage the car.  

Taking the Car to a Test Drive

When the shock absorber replacement is complete, you need to take your car for a test drive. Before that, double-check you've attached all nuts and bolts which you've detached during the replacement. Also, check the nuts and bolts are properly tightened or not. If you get a green signal, start the engine and take it for a ride.

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During the test drive, you should focus on the comfort in your ride and the feeling of shocks while riding on an uneven surface or riding over a speed breaker. My suggestion will be to take the car for a ride to a known road. The road where you drive usually. Only then can you feel the difference because you have the previous experience of diving on that road.

If the problem is fixed by now, you will get great comfort while riding. If you don't feel like it, then you need to change the other shocks as well. To do that, perform the tasks mentioned above again for each wheel.      

Conclusion

Most of the time, we do not take proper care of our cars. The perfect example of this is faulty shock absorbers. They are designed to perform under rough conditions for a long time. But our insincerity and lack of maintenance of the car leads to damage to our car parts.

Most of the faulty shock absorbers aren’t repairable. Sometimes, repairing a shock absorber will not make a difference. But regularly investing in shock absorbers are also very hard. That is where quality products come to save you. When you buy a cheap shock absorber, you have to face the shock replacement hassle after a few days. So, invest wisely and choose the right shock absorber replacement for your car. 

Last Updated on November 21, 2020 by Marcus Ford

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