How to Make Your Car Last Forever: Avoid Expensive Repairs, Improve Fuel Economy, Understand Your Warranty, Save Money

Tom Dear Tom, Q I own a ‘96 Toyota Camry with 133,000 miles. The local Toyota dealer says that it’s wa ...

Tom Tom, Q I own a ‘97 Town and Country minivan with more than 140,000 miles. The dealer told me that I ...

Tom Tom, Q I own a beautiful 2006 Mustang GT with a manual transmission and hydraulic clutch system. I h ...

Tom Dear Tom, Q I own a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The transmission doesn’t shift to higher gears unless ...

Tom ...

Chapter 4 Steering, Suspensions, and Wheel Alignment What suspension and steering systems do the carmakers ...

SUSPENSION SYSTEMS Conventional Suspension Components Shock absorbers or struts dampen spring oscillation. They ...

As you can see in the illustration, many parts make up a conventional coil spring suspension system. The ...

The torsion bar suspension pictured here is basically the same in design as the coil suspension. The only exc ...

Here is a typical coil spring suspension. The red parts are the coil springs, yellow the shock absorbers, ...

This is a leaf spring suspension. Leaf springs (red) are flat spring steel bars that are heated up ...

Upper and lower control arms are connected to the vehicle’s frame at one end using rubber or steel bushings. ...

What a brilliant design the McPherson strut suspension is. Shock absorber, coil spring, and lower ball ...

In a strut assembly, the lower ball joint, steering knuckle, spindle, shock absorber, and coil spring ...

STEERING SYSTEMS Conventional Steering System Components Tie rods “tie” the steering linkage together. Bot ...

Look at all the parts that make up a conventional steering system. While the system works well when ...

Drag link is a long bar that provides a connection between the tie rods to form one big moveable link ...

Here we have the basic theory on which the rack and pinion steering system works. The steering shaft ...

Rack and pinion steering is another great design. With one fell swoop, the designer removed the steering ...

Here we have an illustration of a conventional steering and suspension system as compared to a rack ...