"STRUTS" defined please

[willy2004]

I understand struts to be long planks of steel that were not used on my car. As far as I know, my car (the wrecked SD) uses Bilstein shock absorbers and metal coil springs.

Now does the term "struts" have a generic usage that may refer to (up/down) shock absorbers and springs.

Based on my non perfunctory observations over the years, struts were never used on MBZ past at least 1977...I have always seen shocks/springs.

I know this is a potentially silly topic but I wanna clear this up. Thx.

[willy2004]

oops, meant to post this in Open Disc. Another blunder.

[Ara T.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPherson_strut not sure if there are buncha different types of struts but that is a good place to start.

Leaf springs and struts are not the same thing

Just for others reading

[Old300D]

Technically I believe a "STRUT" is a load bearing suspension component, in other words supporting the spring. It's also a convenient place (for the manufacturer) to house a shock. Personally I dislike having to replace a shock on a strut suspension.

[bobbyv]

A strut is a suspension-locating component, that controls movement of a component along the strut's length. It is typically implemented as a piston, that is designed with sufficient strength to withstand the twisting forces imparted on the end of the piston (that attaches to the hub).

As such, its function is typically combined with others: shock absorbers that are used as struts (i.e., the shock absorber IS the strut) are heavily fortified to resist twisting forces. A spring is also typically integrated into this component, as in a Macpherson strut.

One advantage of the strut design is that the suspension location points on the chassis are located relatively far apart, which results in lower stresses at those points, and hence the opportunity to use relatively softer bushings. A Macpherson strut also presents a compact package, especially for front-wheel-drive cars. One disadvantage of the strut design is limited camber control, since the hub is forced to travel along the length of the strut.

As an aside, the Benz front struts on a 201 do not have integrated springs. On a BMW Macpherson strut, the (integrated) springs are offset from the center to counteract the twisting forces imparted by the hub, which would normally cause "stiction" on the strut.

[t walgamuth]

and i dont care for struts much either.

one other thing is that at the top of the strut there is a large bearing that will allow the entire strut to rotate. at the bottom it all rotates on the ball joint.

on a benz the struts have the springs mounted beside the strut as bobby noted above. this simplifies the removal of the strut by eleminating the need to deal with the spring (i think) ( i have never been brave enough to change one myself).

on a strut suspension it all bears on the sheet metal of the car, so if you get rust there the whole thing begins to poke up through the bearing parts of the sheet metal. this is a common failure point on bmw 2002 and other models of that era.

they are also used on lots of porsches so i couldn't say they work poorly for handling.

and you dont have struts on a 126.

tom w

BMW 3 series used them quite a bit too..

the bearing seems to fail and then the spring pops as it compresses/releases going around corners

Annoying car...ex girlfriend now