What Is Suspension Fluid And Why Do You Need It?

What helps your racing machine glide around corners with finesse and power, braking smoothly, and navigating uneven surfaces with ease?

Why, it’s the humble suspension system of course.

Not just there for show, the suspension system can be a secret weapon in your high-speed adventures.

But, only if it is powered by a liquid gold that keeps your vehicle grounded, stable, and ready to race.

What is that liquid?

It’s suspension fluid. Keeping you in control, traveling at lightning speeds, and cornering on a dime, suspension fluid keeps your suspension functioning optimally.

Find out all about suspension fluid here and why it is the unsung hero of your racing success.

What Is Suspension Fluid?

Suspension fluid is a specialized fluid that aims to optimize the performance and function of the suspension system in high-performance vehicles like race cars and motorcycles as well as your everyday commuting vehicle.

The fluid plays a crucial role in maintaining the performance, durability and safety of your vehicle’s suspension system while experiencing the demanding conditions of racing. With a synthetic base and specially selected additives, suspension fluids are engineered to offer consistent performance, heat resistance, foam elimination and reduced wear. Suspension performance is critical in the high-speed, g-force inducing race environment.

Because the best suspension fluids are formulated by lubricant experts (like the team here at Blud), we are able to introduce customizable characteristics to meet the specific needs of the high-performance racing environment.

The Role Of A Suspension System

Right, so suspension fluid helps your suspension system to function optimally. But, what does your suspension system actually do for your racing vehicle? Let’s break it down:

Stability and Control

The main job of your suspension system is to maintain stability and control as you race. It helps keep the tires in contact with the road or track surface, ensuring you have maximum grip during acceleration, braking, and cornering maneuvers.

Handling and Cornering

When racing, you will be cornering at high speeds and the suspension system helps to minimize your vehicle’s body roll and pitch. It makes handling more precise and responsive by controlling the vehicle's body movements, distributing weight transfer, and optimizing tire contact with the road surface for better cornering performance.

Navigating Bumps

As much as you’d love them to be, no road or track will have a 100% perfect surface. Your suspension system helps to mitigate the problems of uneven surfaces. It absorbs and dampens the impact of bumps, ruts, and imperfections on the road or track. This ensures your vehicle maintains traction and stability, even when encountering uneven surfaces. It provides you with a smoother, safer ride and prevents loss of control.

Adjustability

No two racing tracks are the same, so you want the flexibility of being able to race effectively on all of them. Adjusting components like the shock absorbers, springs and linkages within your suspension system allows you to fine-tune your setup to suit different trucks and driving conditions. It means you can optimize your performance for specific racing scenarios.

Weight Transfer

Racing is never simply done in a straight line. The center of gravity of your vehicle will move during acceleration, braking, and cornering. It means the weight transfers between the front and rear and between the vehicle's left and right sides.
If not properly managed, you cannot race as you’d like and could even lose control of the vehicle. Your suspension system prevents this from happening by managing and distributing this weight transfer effectively so that you maintain optimal balance and stability for improved performance.

Responsiveness

A well-tuned suspension system not only helps your vehicle operate optimally, but it helps you to be a better racer. By communicating information about the road’s surface, tire grip, and vehicle behavior, the suspension system allows you to make informed decisions and adjustments while driving.

Suspension Fluid - The Winning Ingredient

Now that we understand what the suspension system does for your vehicle, let's see how suspension fluid helps improve your racing performance.

Consistent Performance

When you race, it is not like a Sunday drive in the park! Your vehicle is operating under some tough conditions. High speeds, hard braking, and sharp turns are just some of the things your suspension system has to deal with, all while trying to help you maintain control.

As you can imagine, that suspension system will need plenty of lubrication to keep all the components functioning under those conditions. High quality suspension fluid maintains consistent viscosity across all temperatures and conditions. This consistency ensures the suspension functions predictably, providing optimal handling and traction on the track.

Reduced Wear and Tear

Minimizing the amount of wear on your engine will help prolong its life. Choosing the right suspension fluid can help you do this.

Premium suspension fluids contain additives that minimize friction between the moving parts in your suspension system. This reduction in friction helps to extend the lifespan of your engine’s critical components by reducing wear and tear, ensuring your suspension continues to operate smoothly and efficiently during races.

Suspension fluids also help to dissipate the intense heat generated within the engine. By dissipating this heat effectively, they prevent overheating from occurring. Overheating can lead to component (and performance) degradation or even failure.

Better Racing And Faster Times

Being able to maintain a consistent performance throughout a race is crucial for a good end result. Quality suspension fluids help maintain your suspension's performance over short or long race durations, ensuring that handling characteristics remain stable even as conditions change.

Suspension fluids also contribute towards better control of the vehicle. With better control, you can gather information about the track surface, allowing for quick and precise adjustments in your driving strategy to achieve the ultimate finish.

Choosing The Right Suspension Fluid

Achieving optimal racing performance comes down to choosing the right suspension fluid. You can’t go wrong when you select from the Blud range though.
Specially formulated to give you the ultimate performance and protection, our suspension fluids are up to the task! Browse our range now or get in touch with our friendly team to ask any questions.