I had planned on replacing shock absorbers upcoming Spring and I still plan on doing so but I got to thinking and started wondering which is more likely, bad shock absorbers or bad tires? I have mediocre no name tires. The ratings are all good (A's) but the brand is virtually unknown (Rotalla) and the tires themselves are I think $50 a piece which doesn't really inspire confidence.

Ever since I bought the car I've noticed that my car has a bad ride. In comparison a 1995 Accord with its suspension never changed and every other car I've drove or sat in as a passenger has never been this bad:
1. On flat smooth roads the car feels fine. On bumps the car shakes like a shock not a calm bounce. You can literally hear everything smashing together like dashboard plastics and stuff as if a shockwave travelled through the car.
2. I feel everything. If there's a street for example that's totally flat and bare but there's a small one foot by one foot patch of snow that's about half an inch in height off ground, driving over that will cause the car to feel like I hit a curb or something.
3. Have you ever seen a street where they tore up the top (milled it?) to get ready for new pavement? I've driven on one such street in two other cars, didn't feel a thing. If I drive on it with my car it sounds like I'm hitting potholes every second, I have to drive at 5mph while the car literally rocks left and right as the wheels go over each bump, literally feels like I'm on a rodeo horse. I feel like I'm being thrown to the left and right.
4. The main symptom here is that the reaction of the car seems cartoonishly overexaggerated for what I perceive to be minor conditions on the road.
5. Strangely the "bounce and jounce test" doesn't really do anything. If I push down on the car it doesn't bounce up and down repeatedly. Similarly if I hit a dip at speed I can feel the car go down but it doesn't like go up and down and up and down.
6. On really windy days the car feels like it's about to go left and right (I have to fight the steering wheel) as the winds buffet the sides of the car.

So one of the failure modes for shock absorbers is that it fails to dampen the shock so the car bounces repeatedly until the shock is lost through the bouncing. I don't have that but I'm wondering if it could fail in other ways where it doesn't do that but yet it still causes a rough ride.

To be fair I think bad tires could at most convey the road quality to the steering wheel. Like vibrations or shimmy. But I think the actual movements of the car are too severe for the tires to cause them, these aren't the steering wheel moving or vibrating its the whole car! Even if the sidewalls were inferior or had too many plies or were too large or too small or the tires were out of round or the wheels were bent.

One thing I will mention is that when I jacked up the corners to unload the front suspension on both sides the strut boots were all torn up (so the bellows were cut between every gap). This is not visible when the suspension is loaded (the boot is compressed which hides the cuts). No idea how that happened but it's probably been like this for a while which makes me wonder if something got in on the piston and wore a seal as the piston and foreign matter went up and down together. How likely is the boot to tear? What could cause that?

I checked around the suspension and everything else looked fine like compliance bushings.

 

Honda OEM struts tend to perform "adequately" for a long time,... but good ride quality can be lost much earlier. When shocks are worn to provide minimal damping you get what I call "slamming".

Slamming occurs over a small drop or rise, resulting in an immediate input/sound. A test is to drive slowly over a small vertical drop (1-2" as garage exit elevation change). If you get a "slam" when wheel immediately goes down to contact lower level, then ride quality is compromised. A really good shock will soften the slam.

However, the "bounce and jounce" test will only uncover shocks w/ zero damping (springing keeps going after input is halted). Minimal damping will pass this test.

Bad tires will cause lots of road noise, vibration (out-of-roundness), and poor handling (bad tread design), but should not affect ride quality unless they are overinflated or too small (very thin profile non-stock size).

Torn strut boots are quite common and only expose the strut upper rod to corrosion/dirt. They don't directly affect ride.

Worn anti-sway bar bushings can cause poor steering quality and clunking noise when turning (reason most bushings are replaced).

good luck

 

Wouldn't a torn boot spell the end of the strut? I'm feeling like it's a torn CV boot.

If dirt got on the piston wouldn't the piston eventually carry the dirt in with it and wear the seals the piston rubs on faster? Sort of like the reason why they tell you not to grab the piston with vise grips when you're trying to tighten the nut on the top, if you score it the scoring will ride on the inner seals as the piston goes up and down and tear it up.

 

Depends on exposure to dirt and corrosive items. Most boots I've ever seen are split and damaged.

good luck