Shocks or struts

[travis2822]

92 sentra xe 1.6l

Are there struts or shocks on the rear?

[vgames33]

I'm pretty sure they have rear struts. Is the car around? Just take a peek through the wheel well.

[travis2822]

I thought they were struts but I was reading my Haynes manual and it said something about rear shocks. I just started thinking about it as I saw my car sitting really low in the rear.

[Torch]

Struts and shocks are completely different animals but they basically do the same job.

Struts are a thick tube that can have multiple mounting points at the bottom end that bolt to all kinds of things, they play a part in steering at the front end (and some rear ends in four wheel steering vehicles), at the top end there is a bottom and top plate for mounting a very large spring. They tend to be somewhat expensive for most cars.

Shocks are fairly small tubes with one mounting point at each end sometimes it is a round hole of some type or a threaded stud, or a small plate with two bolt holes. When unbolted the internal pressure will push the two halves apart and expose the chrome rod inside.

Shocks sometimes are mounted inside of the suspension springs, or sometimes beside the springs but they never actually touch each other. The price of shocks vary from very cheap to very expensive depending on your car.

A third variation is the shock-spring which combines the shock and the spring, but it still has the basic look of a shock.

Strut: http://www.kayaba.co.uk/mechanic/use...aled_strut.gif

Shock: http://www.1motormart.com/images/per...trackshock.jpg

Shock-spring: http://www.edelbrock.com/media/photos/cobra_shocks.jpg