Springs are elastic components on car suspensions, and they mainly reduce vibrations caused by ground undulations, support suspensions, and improve vehicle comfort. If a spring fails, the center of gravity of the vehicle will shift (some heavy-loaded or old vehicles "collapse" and the vehicle's handling will decrease, while comfort will also decrease.

The first leaf springs to appear, hardworking and durable. The use of leaf springs in automobiles can be said to be a very early thing. The first car built by Karl Benz used leaf springs on the rear suspension (the front suspension of this three-wheeled car had no elastic elements). Leaf springs have a simple structure and strong load-bearing capacity. In addition, they have a guiding function (eliminating the need for components such as the longitudinal arms in the suspension), so they were once widely used in models including cars and trucks. In addition, there are some more special leaf springs, such as the composite leaf springs on the Corvette. Due to the material properties and the layout method, it has completely different effects and forces from ordinary longitudinal leaf springs. This is a special case.

Relatively compact, the most popular coil spring

Coil springs should be the most familiar elastic elements to everyone now. They may be seen on many tools or toys, and are also widely used in cars. Compared with leaf springs, coil springs absorb more energy per unit mass, that is, if the same elastic effect is achieved, their weight is smaller. At the same time, the longitudinal space occupied by coil springs is also small, which is conducive to the compactness of the suspension structure. Of course, the function of coil springs is relatively simple. For example, there is no shock absorption effect, and shock absorbers must be installed, otherwise they will bounce like a bouncy ball; in addition, coil springs can only withstand vertical forces, and guide devices (such as thrust rods, longitudinal arms, etc.) must be installed to ensure the correct tracking of the suspension. Due to the compact structure and easy layout of coil springs, both independent and non-independent suspensions are widely used in current passenger cars, and of course, there are also a large number of modified parts.