Suspension Repair in Fernley, NV

A shock absorber does its job by forcing fluid through small passages, and the energy it takes out of the suspension becomes heat in that fluid. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why a shock is warm after a drive.

On a washboard surface the shock is cycling continuously, many times a second, for as long as the vehicle is on that road. The heat builds faster than it can be shed, the fluid thins as it warms, and a thinner fluid passes through those passages more easily.

The practical result is a shock that damps progressively less the longer the corrugations go on. The vehicle starts out controlled and ends up skating, and the driver slows down, which is the correct response.

That is normal behavior rather than a fault, and it is why driving fast on corrugated dirt feels fine for a while and then does not.

What is a fault is a shock that behaves that way on ordinary pavement, or one that never recovers. A worn shock has lost its ability to control the wheel at any temperature, and that is the one to have looked at.

A wheel that is not being controlled is a wheel losing contact with the surface intermittently, and a tire that is not in contact is not steering or braking.

On loose surfaces, which is where the heat problem arises in the first place, there was not much grip to start with. See the national suspension repair page for the symptoms worth reporting.

Fine material gets into places designed to exclude it, and a shock shaft or a bushing working in dust wears faster than one that is not.

A vehicle that spends time on unpaved roads here is on a shorter interval than the manual's average assumes, which is the same point that applies to the air filter.

Replacing components changes the geometry, so alignment is the closing step. Both are done at this store.

The Fernley store runs sixteen services and is managed by John Jangula.

See the national suspension repair page for all 34 locations.