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About this tool
Tick the noises and symptoms your car shows and get a ranked list of the suspension parts most likely responsible.
The Suspension Wear Checklist maps the noises, handling changes and tyre wear patterns you can observe onto the components that cause them, using a weighted symptom-to-cause matrix rather than a single guess. Each symptom points at several parts with different strengths — a wet, oily damper body is close to diagnostic on its own, while a low-speed knock could be any of five components — and the ranking shows which to inspect first. Every candidate comes with the physical check that confirms or rules it out.
Open Suspension Wear Checklist on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Add your input to the workspace.
Adjust the options until the result looks right.
Copy or download the output and put it to work.
Weighs every symptom you tick across twelve components and ranks them by combined evidence.
Each candidate lists the specific hands-on test that proves or disproves it.
Findings that affect steering or wheel security are called out apart from routine wear.
Use the bounce test: push down hard on one corner and release. A healthy damper lets the body return and settle within about one and a half rebounds; more than that means it is no longer controlling the spring. Back it up by looking for oil streaks down the damper body and for cupped, scalloped patches in the tyre tread.
The most common cause by far is a worn anti-roll bar link, which is also the cheapest to fix. Control arm bushes, strut top mounts, ball joints and a disintegrated bump stop produce a similar noise, so the confirming check matters: grip the drop link by hand with the car on the ground and feel for play.
It depends entirely on which part. A worn anti-roll bar bush is noisy but not dangerous, whereas a ball joint or tie rod end with play can separate and cause loss of steering or wheel collapse. Any play felt when rocking a jacked-up wheel, a growling wheel bearing, or one corner sitting visibly low should be inspected before driving far.
Yes — always replace them across an axle. A new damper on one side and a worn one on the other gives different rebound rates left and right, which makes the car pull under braking and unsettles it mid-corner. The same applies to coil springs, where a mismatched pair also leaves the ride height uneven.