My Mondeo is giving me a harsh ride at the moment. I took it to my local garage and he couldn't find anything wrong, either bushes, springs or shocks.
I suspect its the shocks and I've seen that Kwik-Fit do a 14-day money back guarantee if not entirely satisfied so I'm thinking I may as well try them? What does the panel think?
Any idea how much it would cost to change the rear shocks (pair) and should I go for the gas ones rather than the oil? Anything else I should look out for?
Thanks
I would disagree more and more now as sporting cars and ones that handle are being fitted with firmer springs and the bounce test will no longer work as the springs themselves are so firm they won't naturally oscillate like the soft ones of old would..
Tim..
Any spring will oscillate - firmer ones just need a firmer push. But older leaf springs had a degree of built in friction that would mask poor damping.
Butthere's a point where you cant supply the needed force to make the car bounce, the front shockers were knackered on my van when i bought it, (it's one of the big iveco turbo daily's) this thing has torsion bars for the front springs, and they are designed to take a front axle load of nearly 2 tons, the van will move on the suspension slightly when you bounce on the step of the cab, but there's no way you can get the front srpings to occilate by pushing down with your body weight.. i tired it, even had 3 people on the cab step bouncing and then jumping off on the last downward bounce, the van would just rise back up and hold steady.
However i knew all was no well when i decided to see how fast i could go over the new raised zebera crossing in twon one night, the fact that the vans so long when the front wheels come off the raised bit the rears are not even climbing to begining upward bit yet, but i did it at about 25 mph, and the van bounced about 5 times after we'd gone over the bump.. shockers knackered for sure then.
I then found out the differances between VW LT van parts and iveco parts.. namely iveco wanted 100 quid per shocker!! a truck parts place managed to get me them for 50 quid each, so i replaced the front ones, pumping them up before i fitted them took all my strength, they are strong and very big buggers, and the old ones felt the same as the new ones when i moved them through their stroke off the van,
However the ride was transformed, it was a lot smoother, soaked up the bumps better, and she passed the riased zebera crossing test next time i tried it, hardly 1 occilation when 'landing'
The rears prolly need doing sometime, but they are much easier to test due, just stand in the rear doors and bounce, the overhang of over a meter gives a see saw effect, but they don't occilate too badly, maybe when it's loaded things will be different, and i'll have air bags on the rear by then, so new shockers are a must.
I heard that off a lad who had his gas shock replaced at KF after they leaked oil...... he said he didnt know gas shockers had oil in....
not the sharpest tool....
We took out nissan micra to them for new front shockers just before it was due it's mot, 5 days later after we had driven a good 200 miles up and down the A1 took it to the local nissan garage for its MOT, it failed on..the front shockers...
no they had replaced them with new ones, but didn't tighten half the bolts up properly, the people who drove it had said it felt a bit loose when driving it.
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