by Brian Byrne. Almost half of all cars on the road in Europe with 100,000 km on the clock could have damaged or badly worn shock absorbers, with serious implications for road safety.
That's one result of a 'testing tour' carried out by shock absorber manufacturers Tenneco Automotive in Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries over the last few months. The results were released at a presentation in Montpellier, France, this week.
Tenneco's Monroe ride control systems are the most widely used as original equipment in Europe, and the second most widely used in the US. its mobile units tested 16,500 cars in the survey, which was carried out in association with aftermarket dealers and local authorities.
The worst result was in Germany, where 52.8 percent of cars tested were found to have one or more defective shock absorbers.
The equipment is a key safety component, on which the efficiency of the other elements of the 'safety triangle' - brakes and tyres - rely to work properly.
Tenneco has introduced its own awareness-building programme, which involves the graphic of a crash test dummy - 'Mr Monroe' -holding a shock absorber.
