Bilstein recommends a winter health check - for your dampers!

As the weather chills down, the road temperatures drop and the holiday season approaches, many people start planning big driving trips to their relatives. You’ve checked your route, you’ve stocked up on sweets, but what about the car? You’ve checked the battery, oil and radiator and hopefully you’ve put on winter tyres too, but the shock absorbers are usually missing from most people’s checklist. When a vehicle is fully loaded, however, the consequences of a defective suspension can be severe, especially in winter road conditions, and for this reason, suspension specialist BILSTEIN recommends a shock absorber check before setting off with a full car in the winter months.

Many drivers pack in everything that will fit, especially before heading off on a long-planned road-trip. This often takes the car close to its maximum permissible load-bearing capacity, however, because the passengers and driver still have to fit in too. The fairly common combination of a heavy load and a roof box has a negative effect on handling and extends braking distances. This can be dangerous, especially on country roads and even more so if the shock absorbers have seen better days.

Because the aging process takes place inside the shock absorber, drivers don’t usually notice the wear and tear, or only when it’s too late. What most people don’t know is that even younger vehicles can be affected by worn shock absorbers at an advanced stage. Worn shocks not only impair comfort but above all driving safety, as the tyres lose their grip on the road. The vehicle goes into a skid more easily, especially when driving on twisty roads or taking evasive action. Braking distances are also extended by roughly 20 percent and the dreaded aquaplaning effect sets in sooner.

“A regular check of the suspension, including the shock absorbers and springs, is essential for road safety,” emphasises Rainer Popiol, head of training at BILSTEIN. “Drivers should therefore ensure while their car is in the workshop anyway that a suspension check is a fixed component of the winter check-up. The change from summer to winter tyres provides the ideal opportunity to check the safety of the suspension and prevent possible damage by replacing worn parts”.

Thanks to their competence as an original equipment manufacturer, the automobile coil springs and shock absorbers BILSTEIN produces as OEM replacements are just as good as the originals. The high damping force and enduring quality of the products are not the only decisive factors for drivers and workshops, however. Because the fit of the BILSTEIN shocks is identical with the original, installation time is reduced considerably. With intact or new shock absorbers, nothing more stands in the way of your next winter roadtrip.

For more information, visit bilstein.de.