Nissan Motor Company Limited

Tamiyoshi Kasahara

Kenji Kawagoe

Takuya Murakami

Takaaki Uno

Yoshihiro Kawabe

Hideo Aimoto

Masaharu Satou

Hiroshi Nagaoka

Yohsuke Akatsu

Yutaka Endo

Hiroshi Noguchi

Tamaki Horiuchi

A front suspension for an automotive vehicle includes a wheel supporting member for rotatably supporting a road wheel of the vehicle. A lower link has a first end section rotatably connected to a lower section of the wheel supporting member, and a second end section connected to a vehicle body-side member so as to be swingable generally in a vertical direction of the vehicle. A connection member is rotatably installed to an upper section of the wheel supporting member so as to be rotatable around a first axis which passes through the wheel supporting member and extends generally in the vertical direction of the vehicle. A shock absorber has an upper end section pivotally connected to the vehicle body-side member, and a lower end section swingably connected to the connection member to be rotatable around a second axis which extends generally in a fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle. A spring is supported by the shock absorber and has a third axis. The extension of the third axis is separate from an extension of the first axis on a horizontal plane extending in a horizontal direction of the vehicle. The third axis inclines relative to the first axis on a vertical plane extending in a vertical direction of the vehicle. An upper link has a first end section swingably connected to the connection member, and a second end section swingably connected to the vehicle body-side member. The upper link has a fourth axis which connects a first connecting point at which the first end section is connected to the connection member and a second connecting point at which the second end section is connected to the vehicle body-side member. The fourth axis crosses the first axis on the vertical plane and on the horizontal plane. Additionally, a tie rod is provided to turn the wheel supporting member upon its movement in the width direction of the vehicle in accordance with a steering operation for the vehicle.

Front suspension

A steering knuckle has an upper portion and a lower portion. A lower link has an outer end pivotally supporting the lower portion of the steering knuckle and an inner end swingably supported by a vehicle body. A connecting member is mounted to the upper portion of the knuckle and rotatable about a first axis relative to the upper portion. A shock absorber has an upper end pivotally connected to the vehicle body at a first point and a lower portion connected to the connecting member. An upper link is pivotally connected to the connecting member at a second point and pivotally connected to the vehicle body at a third point. A tie rod is connected to the supporting member to rotate the same about the first axis. The first axis intersects a second axis passing through the second and third points and passes through a limited area containing the first point.

Front suspension of motor vehicle

A steering knuckle has an upper portion and a lower portion. A lower link has an outside end rotatably connected to the lower portion of the steering knuckle and an inside end swingably supported by a vehicle body. A connecting member is rotatably mounted to the upper portion of the steering knuckle. A first axis (Lk) is defined about which the connecting member rotates relative to the upper portion of the steering knuckle. A shock absorber has an upper end pivotally connected to the vehicle body and a lower end connected to the connecting member. An upper link has an inside end pivotally connected to the vehicle body and an outside end pivotally connected to the connecting member. A second axis (Lu) is defined which passes through both the pivoted inside end of the upper link and the pivoted outside end of the same. A tie rod is connected to the steering knuckle to pivot the same about the first axis. The lower link and the upper link are arranged to exhibit a negative camber characteristics upon bounding, and the shock absorber is supported by the connecting member in a manner to pivot about a third axis (Ls). The third axis (Ls) is inclined with respect to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle in such a manner that a lateral distance of the third axis from the longitudinal axis increases as the third axis extends rearward.

A wheel suspension for rear wheels of an automotive vehicle, comprises a coil spring on a rear lateral link having an articulation point on an axle housing, a front lateral link, a radius rod and an upper arm having an articulation point on the axle housing at a position higher than a wheel center. A shock absorber is arranged such that its longitudinal axis crosses the wheel center as viewed the axle housing in a transverse direction with respect to a normal forward driving direction. The upper arm is connected to a suspension member via a forward pivot and a rearward pivot. The arrangement is such that loading the axle housing at the connection point with the upper arm in a rearward direction with respect to the normal forward direction causes the upper arm to position the connection point inwardly with respect to the vehicle body, and loading the axle housing at the connection point in the normal forward direction causes the upper arm to position the connection point outwardly with respect to the vehicle body.

Rear wheel suspension

A rear wheel suspension arrangement for an automotive vehicle provides an axle housing rotatably mounting rear vehicular road wheels, each of the wheels having a wheel center. At each wheel, a radius rod which extends forwardly and inwardly, as viewed in a normal forward direction of the vehicle, is connected to the axle housing at a first articulated connection at a position lower than the wheel center. Further, a front lateral link, extending generally transversely to the forward direction of the vehicle is connected to the axle housing at a second articulated connection also located below the wheel center. In addition, a rear lateral link, positioned rearwardly of the front lateral link and extending in the traverse direction of the vehicle, is connected to the axle housing at a third articulated connection also located below the wheel center. The suspension structure also includes an upper arm having an articulated connection to the axle housing at a position above the wheel center. A coil spring is disposed between a lower side of a vehicle body and an upper surface of the rear lateral link, while a shock absorber having a coaxially mounted bump rubber provided at an upper side thereof is connected at an upper end thereof to the vehicle body and at a lower end thereof to a fourth articulated connection at an upper side of the axle housing.

Wheel suspension for rear wheels

An axle supporting member for a rear wheel is suspended to a suspension member by an upper link system which includes an A-arm and a side rod. The forward lower link member and the side rod are respectively arranged in front and rear of a vertical plane passing through a rotary axis of the rear wheel, while a suspension spring and a shock absorber are seated on the forward lower link member positioned in front of the above-mentioned vertical plane with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. Accordingly, an initial load transmitted from the suspension spring is mainly borne by the front end part of the suspension member, so that an initial load exerted to the rear end part of the suspension member becomes smaller. Thereby, it is possible to reduce the resilient deformation of bushings in the front and rear parts of the suspension member upon application of a wind-up input force.

Rear suspension of vehicle

A vehicle axle suspension system including wheel support members for rotatably supporting road wheels, a suspension member for supporting the road wheel support members for vertical swinging movement, and elastic suspension elements. The elastic suspension elements include a pair of front elastic suspension elements provided at different suspension points in front of the road wheel support members for elastically mounting the suspension member to the vehicle and a pair of rear elastic suspension elements provided at different suspension points behind the road wheel support members for elastically mounting the suspension member to the vehicle. The elastic suspension elements are positioned to provide an understeer characteristic when a lateral force acts on a suspension roll center determined by suspension geometry to rotate the suspension member around a virtual roll axis extending through an elastic center of the front elastic suspension elements and an elastic center of the rear elastic suspension elements.

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Fujisawa, Japan

Tamiyoshi Kasahara