Why A Suspension System Is Crucial For Car Handling & Safety

When you think about what keeps your car safe and comfortable on the road, the suspension system might not be the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, many drivers only view their suspension system as something that helps with comfort. And while this is certainly a factor in their design, they also play a crucial role in how your car handles, how it feels to drive, and (most importantly), how safe it is.

Here’s everything you need to know about why suspension systems are crucial.

What is a car suspension system?

Before we get started, it’s important to be clear about what we mean when we say “car suspension system”. Simply put, the suspension system connects your vehicle to its wheels. It includes several components such as springs, shock absorbers (or dampers), struts, control arms, and more – and they all work together to:

• Absorb bumps & dips in the road
• Maintain tyre contact with the road’s surface
• Ensure a stable and smooth ride
• Help with steering & brake control

In essence, it’s what stops you bouncing off the road every time you hit a pothole or encounter a bumpy country lane. 

Why is this important for car handling?

One of the most important jobs of your suspension system is to manage how your car responds when you steer, accelerate, or brake. In other words, it’s there to manage handling.

Here’s how it does this:

1. Maintaining road contact

In order for your car to handle well, your tyres need to maintain consistent contact with the road. Without proper suspension, your tyres can easily lift off the road’s surface – especially around corners or over bumps. This has the effect of dramatically reducing grip and making it harder to control the car.

2. Reducing body roll

When you take a corner at speed, your car naturally leans. A well-functioning suspension system reduces this “body roll” – which means that your wheels are able to stay in consistent contact with the road and you’re able to maintain traction.

3. Improving steering response

Another byproduct of being able to keep your tyres in firm contact with the ground is that your steering will feel more responsive and accurate. When your suspension components are worn, you’ll often find that your car steering feels loose or unpredictable – especially when turning.

How the suspension system affects safety

So, as you may be guessing by now, the suspension system isn’t just ensuring more accurate steering and driving, but much safer steering and driving. It’s doing this fundamentally by helping to keep the wheels in contact with the ground, but there are some other specific ways in which it’s helping.

1. Better braking

Your brakes and suspension act as a team. When you brake, especially in an emergency stop, the suspension helps to keep your car balanced, which spreads the stress more evenly across all tyres and brakes – so there’s much less chance of one particular brake pad slipping. Faulty suspension can also result in the car lurching unpredictably while braking.

2. Enhanced control in wet and icy conditions

We can’t really deny that the UK gets its (un)fair share of wet, cold, and slippery conditions. A responsive suspension system therefore helps to ensure your tyres stay firmly planted, which gives much greater safety in adverse conditions.

3. Preventing tyre wear

The main way your tyres grip the road is with their tread depth and pattern. An uneven or faulty suspension system puts a lot of extra stress on certain parts of the tyres (usually the outer edges) – which in turn reduces grip and runs the risk of a blowout.

Common signs it's time to look at your suspension

The good news is that, short of a collision or really big bump, suspension components tend to wear gradually – so you’re unlikely to have a sudden shift from working components to not. But this also means that it’s often not that obvious, as the changes to handling and comfort happen subtly. 

Here are some red flags to look out for:

• Bumpy or unstable ride – if every pothole feels like a crater, your suspension isn’t doing a good job of absorbing those shocks, which indicates a problem with your springs or shock absorbers.
• Nose-diving when braking – a car will always lean forward a certain amount when braking, but if it really nose-dives then this is a classic sign of worn shocks.
• Pulling to one side – this can also be a brake or wheel alignment issue. But indicates that something’s not quite right.
• Uneven tread wear – a broken or worn suspension component usually causes the wheel to roll unevenly as you drive, so you’ll often get irregular wear patterns on your tyre tread.
• Leaking shock absorbers – if you notice any oil or oily fluids on your tyres or near your wheels, this indicates the need for a fairly urgent attention.
• Knocking or creaking noises – especially when going over bumps or turning. This usually means that the suspension isn’t “suspending” the car, so steering components are knocking into the chassis.

How often should you be checking your suspension?

There’s no hard and fast rule for how often you should check your suspension, as it depends a lot on mileage, driving conditions, driving style, and the type of roads that you tend to drive on. 

It’s a good idea to have your suspension checked at least once a year – and this may need to be more if you do a lot of inner-city driving or driving on rural roads.

Trust the experts at Tyre Pros

If something doesn’t feel quite right with your car’s handling, don’t wait for the next MOT or until something is clearly wrong. Fixing or replacing  before it becomes a real problem can often save you having to replace a whole set of parts that have been damaged, due to the failure of one particular component.

So get rid of any guesswork and trust the experts at your local Tyre Pros centre to keep your suspension system in the best shape possible. Book a free suspension check here.