I bought a peugeot 307 and after driving it for a while I realised that the ride is not so smooth. The suspensions are very stiff and very uncomfortable. I can feel every single bump in the road. How do i fix this. Do I need to change the suspension or the shock absorbers??? Or maybe something else. Please helpPeugeot Suspensions and Shock Absorbers?
It's it's stiff it may well be a shock absorber. If the springs are gone, then the corner with a duff spring will tend to be lower than the rest. It is possible that someone (who didn't really know what they were doing!) had fitted %26quot;better%26quot; aftermarket springs/dampers, and knacked the handling up.
To test the dampers-
Try pressing each corner of car down (jump up and down on a corner of the bumper!), and seeing how quickly the car stops bouncing. Ideally when you jump off it should bounce back up past it's resting position, and then go back to it's normal position, without overshooting (called critical damping). A little overshooting isn't too much of problem, but shows you dampers aren't working as well as they could be (ideally). If your problem is due to the dampers being overly stiff, then you would have over-damping, and the car simply slowly return to it's resting level without overshooting it's resting level. This is NOT good as it puts very large forces of the suspension mounts.
A visual inspection is usually OK for springs. You will be able to see if they broken/cracked/corroded.
You could try taking it to a garage who'll have a look for you. In the UK, Quick Fit, will check your suspension (and many other things) for free.Peugeot Suspensions and Shock Absorbers?
Check the tyre pressures - if these are too high this will affect the ride comfort quite significantly. Small, sharp bumps are normally absorbed more by the tyres than by the suspension.
Does the car have standard wheels and tyres? 17%26quot; wheels with very low profile tyres will be less comfortable than 15%26quot; wheels with higher-profile tyres.
There should be no reason to change the dampers (shock absorbers) on a Peugeot - unlike other manufacturers Peugeot make their own dampers, and design them to last the life of the car. However, if a previous owner changes them for non-Peugeot replacement parts that could be the cause of the problems.
However, it could be that the normal settings of this car do not suit you.
