Suspension
AGA Automotive provides full suspension servicing which includes checks on the many components that make up your car suspension as well as tuning and replacing suspension parts as necessary to ensure you vehicle performs to it maximum road handling and comfort capabilities.
What is vehicle suspension ?
Car suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Vehicle suspension systems contribute to the car's road holding, handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure as well as keeping the vehicle occupants comfortable and reasonably well isolated from such things as road noise, bumps, and vibrations etc. These objectives are generally at odds, so the tuning of your cars suspension involves finding the right compromise. It is important for the suspension to keep the road wheel in contact with the road surface as much as possible. The suspension also protects the vehicle itself and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear. The design of front and rear suspension of a car may be different.
For front-wheel drive cars, rear suspension has few constraints and a variety of beam axles and independent suspensions are used.
For rear-wheel drive cars, rear suspension has many constraints and the move to the superior but more expensive independent suspension layout has taken a long time. The dynamics of such a vehicle are that the rear suspension must counteract by the tendency of the rolling wheel traveling in the opposite direction from the vehicle. This must be countered by the rear suspension taking up a counter clockwise torque, otherwise the body and frame of the car will strip itself off the rear suspension whatever it is. It is that need which dominates several of the varieties of rear suspension.
Rear wheel drive vehicles today frequently use a fairly complex fully independent, multi-link suspension to locate the rear wheels securely while providing decent ride quality.
Independent suspension
Independent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump or dip in the road) independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle or live axle system in which the wheels linked movement on one side affects the wheel on the other side. Note that “independent” refers to the motion or path of movement of the wheels suspension. It is common for the left and right sides of the suspension to be connected with anti roll bars or other such mechanisms. The anti roll bar ties the left and right suspension spring rates together but does not tie their motion together.
Most modern vehicles have independent front suspension. Many vehicles also have an independent rear suspension (IRS). IRS as the name implies, has the rear wheels independently set. A fully independent suspension has an independent suspension on all wheels. Some early independent systems used swing axles, but modern systems use Macpherson struts, trailing arms, multilink, or wishbones.
Independent suspension typically offers better ride quality and handling characteristics, due to lower unsprung weight and the ability of each wheel to address the road undisturbed by activities of the other wheel on the vehicle. In the case of straight line drag racing though it can be more of a burden because of the design, IRS may cause the vehicle to experience wheel hop on a hard launch. Independent suspension requires additional engineering effort and expense in development versus a beam or live axle arrangement. A very complex IRS solution can also result in higher manufacturing costs.
