New "MEYLE Mechanics" video: How to identify defective shocks and prevent hazards

Potholes, bumpy roads, heavy loads or towing are some of the scenarios putting shock absorbers under heavy strain. When combined with other environmental factors including dirt, humidity or road salt, shock absorber life can be dramatically reduced. As shock absorber performance deteriorates, driver safety is no longer guaranteed. The tyres lose road grip, resulting in reduced vehicle stability and increased stopping distance. At the same time, poor road grip affects the tyres' lateral guiding capabilities when cornering, and state-of-the-art driver safety systems, including ABS, ESP and TCS, may not be working properly.

Workshops performing a shock absorber test as part of the servicing routine offer their customers safety-critical added value. In their latest video, the "MEYLE Mechanics" guide repair professionals through different methods of diagnosing shock absorber damage. In some cases, visual inspection of the tyres may reveal areas of local wear – a typical symptom of shock absorber damage. Sometimes, a test drive reveals the telltale signs: if the vehicle feels unresponsive, especially when cornering, or does not go straight without steering corrections or if there are loud clunking noises coming from the car, the shocks are due for replacement.

MEYLE offers a comprehensive range of 650 high-quality MEYLE ORIGINAL shock absorbers catering for some 214 million vehicles registered across Europe. MEYLE ORIGINAL shock absorbers are designed to offer advanced wear resistance: An electro-mechanical coating process ensures reliable protection of the piston rod against abrasives and heavy loads. In addition, salt spray tests have shown that the MEYLE piston rod is by far the least vulnerable to corrosion among all seven competitor products tested.

MEYLE workshop advice: MEYLE's in-house engineers recommend that shock absorbers be always replaced in pairs to ensure there is as little difference in the damping performance as possible between the left and right-hand shock absorbers. Otherwise, the vehicle's road-holding behaviour is poor or even dangerous.

To watch the latest "MEYLE Mechanics" video on shock absorber function testing, follow this link: youtu.be/kD-du6S5TZY.

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