Why do Shocks go bad?

Why do Shocks or Struts go bad? Welcome to Mercie J Auto Care, where compassion and craftsmanship come together. I’m Rick Smith, master certified technician. If you’ve ever seen a video of an old, covered wagon and see how they bounce dramatically. Well as our vehicles are going down the road, our tires hit even the slightest bumps and those bumps want to bounce the tire off the pavement. So the purpose of a shock or strut is to keep that tire in contact with the road. When they lose the capacity to do that, our stopping distance gets extended and the car tends to roll or move around more than it should. So the problem is we could, in an emergency situation, accidentally bump into the back of somebody because we can’t stop fast enough. Or perhaps get too close to the outside of the road because maybe on a turn it starts to push us out. At Mercie J, when we look at the vehicle, that’s in the air, we look for leakage because inside of this shock or strut is fluid and a pressurized gas. Once it starts to lose either of those, it loses it's capacity. Also because they function a lot over the life of the car, by the time you hit 100,000 miles they are probably not working as well as they should either. Let me show you real quick what happens. This is pressurized in here so when I try to push, I can’t push it quickly and it extends slowly as well so that’s how it absorbs those oscillations. That’s why they are referred to as shock absorbers. Thanks for watching and until next time, safe travels and blessings to you.