Blown shocks are comfy!

OK, I really have not been driving other people's cars a whole lot in recent years. But today I'm borrowing from my 92-year-old mother-in-law her 2001 Toyota Corolla S; she no longer drives and I thought I'd put a few miles on it.

About 80K miles, "S" trim give you a sporty steering wheel (same as MR2S) and a tach and not much else. The requisite Power Loser transmission option. Rock hard Michelins her late husband liked for the high miles they got out of them. Otherwise stock except when new, I installed longer bolts and stacks of washers for them to raise the driver's seat an inch (he was short) which puts my head up near the headliner.

Wow, the shocks are gonesville but I presume this is why the car rides so softly. I cannot remember the last Caddy I was in (1968 Calais comes to mind) but I figure about this soft. Alas, they also explain why the car exhibits cornering that is, ahem, "worrisome"; and you cannot really discuss "turn in" unless you're more accustomed to Great Circle Route navigation.

Other than that, it's hard to fault the little beast, it does everything asked of it. Plenty of room, comfortable enough for my Spartan tastes, even the ergonomics are not bad. Coming from a household with "more car than we need" for simple commuting, this is a taste of How the Other Half Lives. Once I got past one too few pedals and two too many doors, would I really care for DD'ing? With upgraded stereo speakers one could turn up the tunes and submit to a more leisurely commute.

It cries out for care. It needs shocks, rotors and tires (and I already acquired a set of alloys for it, Miata "daisies", for free). Sadly it's at a crossroads in its age: too new to discard, too old/cheap to make substantial refurbishing a logical expenditure.

 

With blown shocks, wouldn't it ride MORE harshly? My truck has worn out front shocks (I have Bilsteins ready to go on this weekend) and it crashes HARD over bumps, presumably because the impact isn't absorbed properly by the gas/fluid cushion. It also wallows more if it hits moderate bumps, since it has very little effective damping.

 

Worn shocks will ride very soft because they can't control body movement, but if they get too blown, they can't control wheel movement and you end up having the wheels literally bounce up and down off the pavement when they hit bumps. I would imagine that would take things from comfortable to crashing in a hurry.

 

On a car from 60-70 years ago, shocks were considered a wear item and you'd be lucky to get 30,000mi out of shocks/struts. But modern dampers will often outlast the life of the car. A Toyota with only 80k miles is pretty unlikely to have blown shocks unless the owner was off-roading it or it was on lowering springs on OE shocks.

This is an extreme example what happens with blown shocks - The shock/strut can no longer dampen the oscillation of the spring, and you get a harsh, bouncy ride:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-i2_g33wXQ

Andrew

 

Blown shocks are definitely NOT comfy. Wife's Mazda 3 had blown front struts and rear shocks, you had to take any kind of road hazard ridiculously slowly or it felt like a minor collision as the car bounced and careened all over the place.

New struts/shocks and the car is MUCH smoother and of course the handling is also HUGELY improved.

 

When the shocks (or more accurately, dampers) don't work, you get to experience the springs without dampers to tamp their rebound.

OP, you just like riding in a Corolla with soft springs and minimal/no damping.