So the new B4 shocks went on yesterday (2011 V70 D3 manual, 138k).
I've done about 40 miles of A roads and a bit of town driving since and they are roads I use regularly so I know how the car felt before the change.
Definite improvement, although I was surprised by the nature of the change:
I still know when I hit a bump in the road, but at faster speeds the car feels more stable and more secure, whilst at lower speeds it no longer wobbles side to side afterwards; for example at 5-10 mph in town.
On A roads the car doesn't react to an HGV passing in the opposite direction.
Turning into a corner is much crisper, with less roll, and accelerating out of a corner the car is much more planted and feels less "squirrelly".
The front end dives less under braking and the back end squats less under acceleration.
My original shocks would have passed an MOT and there were no visible signs of deterioration, so they weren't THAT bad, but having new ones has made a real difference to the handling.
|