Shocks and Struts

Control of your vehicle depends primarily on how well your tires meet the road. Worn shocks and struts can allow excessive weight transfer from side to side and front to rear reducing your tire's ability to grip the road. Because of this variation in tire-to-road contact, a vehicle's handling and braking performance can be reduced.

Over time, shocks and struts deteriorate and lose their ability to perform. Performance falls off so slowly that problems often go unnoticed until it's too late. A vehicle with worn shocks is vulnerable to undercarriage damage. One severe jolt from a bump or pothole can damage your exhaust system, transmission pan, radiator mounts and other parts.

Good shocks and struts help reduce excessive movement and wear of other suspension parts like ball joints and steering components. Motorcraft Gas Charged Shocks and Struts are the best ride control technology available today.

What ride control is all about

"Tire Force Variation" is a measure of the roadholding capability of the vehicle, and is directly influenced by shock absorber or strut performance. Shock absorbers and struts help maintain vertical loads placed on the tires by providing resistance to vehicle bounce, roll and sway.

There are two basic shock absorber designs in use today: the two-tube design and the mono-tube design.

The advanced design of two-tube gas charged shocks solves many of today's ride control problems by adding a low pressure charge of nitrogen gas in the reserve tube.

Struts perform two main jobs

First, struts perform a shock dampening function like shock absorbers. Internally, a strut is similar to a shock absorber. Just like shock absorbers, the valving generates resistance to pumping forces created by the up and down motions of the suspension.

Struts also perform a second job. Unlike shock absorbers, struts provide structural support for the vehicle's suspension. As a result, struts affect riding comfort and handling as well as vehicle control, braking, steering, wheel alignment and wear on other suspension components, including the tires.