Newbie - Shocks?

[iLLuCiv99]

sup...Ive been hearing alot of people when talking about suspension mention dampers. what exactly are they? shocks, struts, dampers? are they all the same thing? w/b thnx
-iLLuCiv

[00'Civic SR]

Correct me if I'm wrong but dampers are shocks. When people refer to dampers I think they mean just the shock unit without the springs.

[Kohhal]

Read this --> http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t7315.html

[Dezoris]

Dampers are a better name for shocks/struts, because that is actually what they do. Is dampen the springs.

[drift]

like dezoris said, damper is a correct term for both... but there's a difference between shocks and struts.

shocks merely dampen a spring. they are not an integral part of the suspension. for example, a truck leaf spring setup... the shock merely dampens the leaf spring, but the truck could still ride without the shock.

struts are an integral part of the suspension assembly and incorporate the spring and shock body into one assembly. any vehicle that uses struts cannot function without them. Honda or BMW for example... they both use struts, but Honda used double wishbone for a long time, while BMW used Macpherson strut suspensions. (macpherson design is more simplistic over double wishbone, but the details arent required for this conversation) if you were to remove the struts, the vehicle would not be driveable.