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So you feel that your vehicle has a suspension problem? What is bringing you to this conclusion? Is the diagnosis from a friend who has a friend that knows somebody who had the same problem with their vehicle? Is it because you have noticed a new vibration, or a new noise?
Well to start with, you need to do research on your certain vehicle and see what and if any factory recalls have been done for the suspension. You can do this easy enough by calling the dealer or searching it out on the web. There have been recalls on certain types of vehicles that are not made public and you need to ask, because it cost the manufacturer money, and you need to find out because they don't want to tell you.. Second, talk to a reputable shop, and there are shops that specialize in suspension areas. Most of these shops are little places that have built a customer base by being honest and fair with the consumer. The reason why I am saying this is that there are certain ways to check each vehicles parts that many "shade tree mechanics" don't know about.

Now, every part on your vehicle has a "life span". Certain shocks and struts are only rated for a certain mileage. The easiest way is to look at them and see if there is any seepage. If there is, it is easily spotted by a thin film of dust that has been attracted to the oil that has seeped out of it. Make sure that it is coming from the shock or strut and not something else. On vehicles with air shocks, you can tell if on or more a leaking if you turn on the ignition and listen to see if the air compressor turns off and stays off for a certain amount of time. If it doesn't than comes the troubleshooting of seeing if it is a shock or something else causing the leak.
Next are the springs, are they coil, torsion bar or leaf sprung? Most of the problems are are either when the break or become weak! The broken ones are easy to spot where the ones that are weak are a little harder to find. The best way to find weak springs are by measuring ride height side to side, making sure that the tire size and pressure are the same. The only problem with this method, is if both sides have weakened then you need to find out what the the original ride height was and if there haven't been any after market modifications to the vehicle. If you find a weak spring, always replace in pairs, and make sure you have the proper tools and knowledge when working on them.
Then there are ball joints or king-pins. This all depends on the year and make of the vehicle.

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