rev up your engines, today I'm gonna show you how you can save thousands of
dollars in suspension repair on your car, now suspension systems have gone a long
way since I was a young mechanic, no longer do cars all have simple shock
absorbers with a bolt on the top of both on the bottom, take the two bolts off
putt new shocks on, they have McPherson struts, they even have
computer-controlled McPherson struts that have electronics and hydraulics
inside them, and being so complex of course they're expensive as can be, you
want your suspension parts to last as long as possible, I'm gonna show you how
you can make that possible, now realize that many of your suspension parts have
rubber seals or rubber bushings in them, over time these things are going to rot or
crack leading to really expensive repairs, and that's why over the years
I've used this at 205 reseal, it's just a clear polymer it looks just like water
but it doesn't smell like water, it rejuvenates rubber, keeps it pliable so
it doesn't crack, now I filled this old spray bottle with
the at 205 reseal to show you how I treat rubber suspension parts, so they don't
break down in the first place, we'll just take off this wheel, off it comes and as
we look inside here's the first thing, this is the boot that's on the power
steering rack, it keeps dirt the dust from getting inside the power steering, so a
few times a year get the at 205 reseal and spray it all
over the boot, that'll keep the rubber nice and supple, it's a royal pain in the
rear end taking all the suspension apart to replace it if it cracks, so a little
preventive maintenance goes a long way and on the top of the strut the same
thing, this is a dust shield, spray it every once in a while, it'll keep the rubber
nice and supple so it won't crack, and you can do the same here on the torsion bar
right here, and of course here's the CV axle you can spray the rubber boot there
to keep it from cracking, and hiding inside here are rubber control arm
bushings, you want to keep them nice and lubricated with at 205
reseal, because if that control arm goes bad you gotta take a lot of suspension
parts to replace it, they're very expensive, you want to prevent that
rubber from getting brittle cracking and then your suspension gets off and you
have to replace them, now the next thing to think about to let your suspension
system last longer is your tires because realize your tires actually
absorb a lot of the shocks, they're flexible, when you hit bumps
these things flex in and up, they often take just as much shock away from the
car as the shock absorbing system does so of course you want to keep the right
amount of air in your tires, and you want to watch your tires to make sure they're
not wearing out oddly, because if they start to wear out oddly, one that shows
that you often have a problem in the front end where you need a ball joint, or
a tie rod, and if your tire is worn badly out of balance its shakes a lot at
speeds, it's gonna wear things out faster the more shakin you have the worse it's
gonna be, now the next tip of course is don't carry excess weight, let's take an
extreme example I had a customer who was a scuba diver instructor, and he always had
big old scuba diving tanks lying in the trunk, that really weighed it down and
things wore out faster, so don't be a slob like me and keep all this junk in
your trunk, be more like my wife, have a trunk that's clean, it's got a yoga mat and
a little box with a few tools in it don't carry a lot of excess weight, now
crucial part your suspension system is your power steering, if you've got a car
that has hydraulic power steering, of course check the fluid every once in a
while, this is on the low mark now when it's cold and it goes up to the high
mark when it warms up because it expands over time, but this stuff does get dirty
over time, and guess what dirt does, dirt is friction, friction wears out parts, if
you have to buy an uber expensive power-steering pump, or even worse if
your power steering rack goes bad, then you're gonna have to spend a small
fortune, so if you like me and want to keep your car for hundreds of thousands of
miles, 15-20 years or more, it's good idea to change your power steering fluid
let's say, ah once every six seven years or something, it's
not that big of a deal but you do need to change it, because eventually gets so
dirty it turns into a cutting fluid 1,400 psi pressure and the fluid is dirty,
that actually turns the fluid into a cutting fluid that will eat through
metal parts eat up hoses, do all kinds of damage, so
do change it every once in a while and find out what kind you have, some of them
are red, if the red turns black you know it's dirty, some of them are
clear they're easier to see when they get dirtier, it only has to be changed
every once in a really long time, just do it if you want to keep your car for as
long as possible now for those of you who live up north
or by saltwater sea shore, it's a good idea to
rinse the undercarriage of your car once a week to get that salt off, salt is an
enemy of suspension parts, as an example I used to
have a photographer when I did a show with CBS, he lived across the street from
the ocean in Galveston, and just the spray of the salt water coming in, he
didn't drive on the beach or anything, his Chrysler's they just rotted away, I
looked at one of his vehicles, and the thing was three and a half years old
it was just rotting through everywhere, he never rinsed them, and of course
anything that causes corrosion is gonna create problems with suspension
systems, but salt this is absolute worst thing that you're generally gonna run
into on this planet, so if you live in an area like that you want to rinse your
car a lot, if you're not going to do it yourself just take it to somewhere
where they drive it through and it all hoses the bottom out and gets all the stuff
off the suspension system, now another part that's rubber that can have
corrosion on it is your strut mounts, this is all rubber inside here, so get
the reseal on pour it on the rubber, the rubber is on the inside here on
the edge, it'll keep it from cracking, the mounts themselves aren't that expensive,
those particular ones are like 80 something dollars a piece of you buy
factory ones, but you have to take the whole strut off the vehicle, take it all
apart, put the new mount on and put it back together, and if you gotta go
through all that trouble you might as well has changed the strut too, not just
the mount itself, but the mounts themselves are the crucial part, the whole
thing sits on that, if it cracks and breaks the suspension can pop
right up through it, you hit a bump it'll just lose control, I've had cars that
came here when I jacked them up in the air the whole things just fell off the car, cuz
the only thing holding them on was the weight of the car, so when they were
hitting bumps they were actually coming out of the hole, it's dangerous so you
don't want the mounts to go bad, a little maintenance goes a long way, maybe once a
year you can put a little bit on the rubber seals, so it won't crack and
then you got to take the whole thing apart and replace it all, just because
the rubber decided to crack, and here's my last warning to save you thousands,
when things do wear out replace them with quality parts, don't go on eBay and
buy the cheapest strut, or the cheapest wheel bearing assembly you can get your
hands on, I tried that in the past to save my customers money, boy it bit me in
the rear-end, parts didn't last long
sometimes they didn't even work in the first place, because they weren't machined
correctly, always buy quality suspension parts when you do have to change them
unless of course you're planning on get rid of the car, a lot of guys will put
those quick struts on to save money, they're selling a car,,they realize hey
it's not gonna last forever but if it really rides like crap and I can't get
any money for the car, make it ride halfway decent so you can then sell it, but
if you're planning on keeping the car for years, my advice is don't use those
quick struts, the quality just isn't there, so now you know how you can save
thousands in suspension repair cost with a tiny bit of maintenance, so if you
never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that
Bell!