Located between the car’s body and its axles, the springs absorb the up-and-down motion caused as the wheels roll over varying road surfaces. Though shock absorbers play a part in absorbing shocks, they are misnamed. Their main job is to keep the car from continuing to bounce up and down on its springs after passing over a bump.
The main types of springs are coil springs, leaf springs, torsion bars and air springs. Coil springs are the most common among passenger cars and are the simplest to visualize because they are in the prototypical spiral shape. Springs are simple. With the exception of air springs, which are more like tires or inner tubes filled with air, all the springs mentioned above are made of spring steel that resists bending. As incorporated in the suspension system, their job is to resist compression and expansion, which allows the wheels to move up and down independent of the vehicle — but always returning them to a center position.
Information for this was taken from the Cars.com’s glossary, written by Joe Wiesenfelder.
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