Nobody here has driven your car to know how hard or not the suspension is.

You had no idea when you came and posted first what suspension parts are fitted to your car.

You still seem to have no idea what is or how long they have been fitted.

12 hours ago, Sfmk1 said:

Then can you think of another car that you've driven and found it to be firmer than the Fabia? Except sport versions or fitted with aftermarket parts.

 

It's hard to say really. Old Ford Escorts with leaf springs on the back were pretty crashy. An Austin Maestro van, also with rear leaf springs, I used to drive was extremely firm (but strangely nice to drive - better than the car models!). I dunno, it's all subjective and I can't remember what various modern-ish cars I've driven were like. However, I don't think any of the more modern ones were as firm as the Fabia tbh.

28 minutes ago, TMB said:

However, I don't think any of the more modern ones were as firm as the Fabia tbh.

Thanks for the confirmation. Time to ditch the Fabia. I don't need a 80PS car that rides like a Zonda through potholes. Too bad for me I didn't find out before buying it, nobody talks about it, despite being important. 

 

One last question. Horrible comfort aside, how bad is driving fast through potholes with a hard suspension compared to a soft one for the car itself? Would a soft suspension protect the car bushes? If it's equally bad, at least I could try to disregard the discomfort and get fast where I need without worrying about losing a wheel in the middle of the road.

Edited 1 August, 20187 yr by Sfmk1

There was another Romanian guy on here called Alexandru from Iași and he seemed happy enough with his Fabia. Suppose it depends what roads you have to drive on, and personal taste to an extent.

Most people try not driving fast through potholes but around them if they can or slow down.

The hard suspension maybe gives you direct handling like a sports car.

 

Tyres tend to get damaged or rims or even wheel bearings, before you get to the story of bushes being damaged,

maybe the bushes are 12 years old as well as the rest of the cars suspension.

The rims are 14inch steel, I would go downstair with the car without any worry if it all depended on rims and tyres. I replaced the tyres since they were 11 years old but didn't see any changes in ride comfort and also the bushings on one side. The bushings were ok when I bought it (according to the mechanic's report) and needed replacing on one side 3 months later. Don't know if it's because of the roads in the past 3 months or because of their 12 year life if they have never never been replaced.

 

I'm not driving through potholes especially, I try to avoid them, but sometimes a patch is missing from the road and you can't see it because of the cars in front of you which are driving fast (I would too if I had a good suspension) or the road is all with small craters all over and there's an annoying rattling. It's bad on deep potholes when the car is rocking violently, but also on rough textured roads, when it's trembling.

 

Took the Bora again today, and daaamn, 40-50kmph on rough roads was a charm. Felt the wheels trembling and rattling a bit, but it didn't transmitt much of it to the actual car. Maybe it's equally damaging on both cars, don't know. I would't mind the problem that much if I knew I'm not more at risk of losing a wheel with the Fabia, despite the comfort issue.

Edited 2 August, 20187 yr by Sfmk1

I still reckon the shock absorbers are shot and stiff...

I agree with skomaz because fabias generaly seem to ride quite well when the suspension is not knackered, for example my mk2 fabia has done 76000 miles on pretty crap british roads and rides ok, yes you do occasionally hear a thump from the suspension but the car does not bounce or rock violently at all.

Mabye you could disconect some of the shocks at one end and see if they have seized

My technical abilities are severely limited, unfortunately. How is it done? And when you say 'one end', I presume you talk about the top end vs bottom. Which one is easier to tackle?

A mechanic took a look at then ans said none of them are leaking so I'm good to go, but I guess they can go bad without licking either.

 

I wrote licking first instead of leaking ,sorry if I got people confused, it's not my first language and when I'm tired it shows the most.

Edited 3 August, 20187 yr by Sfmk1

The shocks haven't seized they just don't damp properly any more, they need replacing.

 

This isn't rocket science people, if a car has a terrible crashy ride on old suspension it's the bump stops getting hammered because the shocks are not being absorbed any more.

This is why they're called SHOCK ABSORBERS!

I was always taught that they are dampers because they damp spring movement, and that shock absorbers is the wrong name. However, even most manufacturers label them as shock absorbers. Confused.

2 minutes ago, TMB said:

I was always taught that they are dampers because they damp spring movement, and that shock absorbers is the wrong name. However, even most manufacturers label them as shock absorbers. Confused.

 

The Yanks call 'em dampers, we call 'em absorbers, it's the same thing.

They are fitted to prevent rapid compression of the spring allowing the it to bottom out on the bump stop, similarly they also dampen the return stroke or 'rebound' as well.

Fair enough

Well, I figured it out after I had 4 big people in the car + luggage. Got over the speed bump like a Rolls Royce. This only means one thing: heavy duty setup, the only thing that loosens that much with increased load. I knew that something was off, but sports suspension didn't make sense on a 80PS car with fairly large ground clearance and owned by a lady with kids.

@TMB

Skoda has enough trouble with 'damp' from crap door seals so 'dampen' or 'dampening' never gets uttered by them.

See no evil, say and hear no evil.

 

Enough that sometimes 'misting' of a shock absorber gets mentioned in a MOT Advisory. 

 

(That might get lost in translation to Czech or German & again Skoda / VW would be getting into denial mode over H20.)