[swale84]

Originally Posted by Gangsta

Correct me if i'm wrong.

Well, to begin with, a torsion beam is a suspension component

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by swale84

Well, to begin with, a torsion beam is a suspension component

Suspension Component? Duh!! dude which torsion beam are you talking about? i'm not talking of Suspension Arm or something like that. I'm talking of the Torsion beam in the bumper. It seems you are mistaken.

[raj_5004]

yes, even i feel that the torsion beam is a type of suspension of which the torsion bar is a component!

[abhinav.s]

Scratches and dents in choked city traffic is unavoidable. Its not always the drivers mistake that there is a scratch or dent. As pointed out by others, we may be standing at a traffic light when a biker decides to get to the front of the pack and scracth my wheel arch or ORVM, even worse break the ORVM itself.

Cars & Drivers of those cars are not the only cause of scratches but there will be lot of external influence also involved in the form of ignorant bikers, pranksters, school kids etc etc.

Driver error is also one of the causes when you are upgrading from a small sized car to a big one. I learnt it the hard way on my Indica. I had very newly graduated from a Santro to an Indica. Ours is a very narrow lane and there is an electric pole bang at the left turn protruding a bit outward to the road. When i first took the Indica towards that turn, I ended up scratching the entire left wheel arch and the rear door to an extent as well.. Gosh! Did that hurt!

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

yes, even i feel that the torsion beam is a type of suspension of which the torsion bar is a component!

How can it be possible? can you please let me know in details?

How a Torsion Beam in the bumper is a part of the suspension?

Well..!! You can see such torsion beams in the bumpers of all Hyundai Cars, Santro, i10, Getz, Accent, Verna, Elantra, Sonata, Tucson and Terracan.

and this is absent in Maruti Suzuki Cars.

[Strangerintown]

Originally Posted by Gangsta

How can it be possible? can you please let me know in details?

How a Torsion Beam in the bumper is a part of the suspension?

Well..!! You can see such torsion beams in the bumpers of all Hyundai Cars, Santro, i10, Getz, Accent, Verna, Elantra, Sonata, Tucson and Terracan.

and this is absent in Maruti Suzuki Cars.

The torsion beam is a suspension component and is not present in the bumper. It is under the car (in cars having torsion beam suspensions). The beam in the bumper you are referring to is probably called something else.

I think people here are getting confused by the name "torsion beam" used by you. Don't think anyone is denying the presence of an impact protection beam in the bumper of some cars.

Anyway this is .

[Gangsta]

1. What are Bumpers made of?
Front and rear bumpers on today's cars generally consist of a plastic cover over a reinforcement bar made of steel, aluminum, fiberglass composite, or plastic. Some automakers design the bumper bar and its attachment brackets to crush in a low-speed crash to absorb energy. Polypropylene foam or plastic honeycomb, also called "eggcrate," sometimes is used in addition to or instead of crushable brackets and bar. But frequently this foam's main purpose is to serve as a spacer between the bar and the bumper cover and not as an energy absorber. A very few bumper bars are attached to the vehicle structure through mechanisms like shock absorbers.
A bumper reinforcement bar, shown without the plastic bumper cover





2 | Why are bumpers important?
Bumpers are supposed to keep damage away from safety-related equipment such as headlights and taillights and protect vehicle parts such as hoods, fenders, and exhaust and cooling systems that are expensive to repair. When bumpers are poorly designed, these car body parts sustain most of the damage in parking-lot collisions and other low-speed impacts. Bills to fix fender-bender damage can add up to thousands of dollars fast, not to mention the hassle of getting repair estimates and waiting for your car to get out of the shop.









We don't have such beams in Swift, but present in all Hyundai Cars. Instead of soft foam, Hyundai uses hard foam which also acts as the shock absorber for low intensity impacts.



Thats what we call Cost Cutting. not many people know about this. Swift just have the plastic bumper cover. rest nothing is there bet. the radiator support and plastic bumper cover.


Correct me if i'm wrong.

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by Strangerintown

The torsion beam is a suspension component and is not present in the bumper. It is under the car (in cars having torsion beam suspensions). The beam in the bumper you are referring to is probably called something else.

I think people here are getting confused by the name "torsion beam" used by you. Don't think anyone is denying the presence of an impact protection beam in the bumper of some cars.

Anyway this is .

lol yes, Torsion Beam is there in the suspension, i clearly mentioned about the beam used in the Bumper, not the suspension.

Anyways, i had explained a bit of myself in my previous post. Well.!! we are talking of the bumpers, so i guess its not an off topic. Cheers cheers:

[watashi75]

This impact protection beam is present in Swift, at least in my Swift Zxi. If you peep through the rubber grill maybe you can see it. It goes just in front of the the radiator.

I know this because I had a frontal collision with a bike at maybe around 40 kmph. The beam got bent and portruded into the radiator making it leak. Nothing happened to the bike and the bikers drove off immediately. But I had a ugly dent on my bonnet. More importantly, nothing happened inside the car. Infact my wife and myself we hardly felt the impact.

[raj_5004]

yes, there is a beam in every car's bumper, i think it is called the impact beam. in most of the cars, it can easily be seen from the front wheel arch.
suprised to know that the swift does not have one! isnt it a safety feature? are there no rules and regulations in india regarding this? what is ARAI doing then?

[aaggoswami]

This impact beam is not present in each and every car cause cars like Wagon R are without this beam, but in case of a mojor impact, this beam wont be that useful. Then it will be the crumple zones that will be playing the major role.
If we look at many cars like the earlier generation Nissan 350Z, the impact beam was not a part of body-in-white. I dont know if this is an add on or not, but it was not a part of the basic chassis.

Generally people think that if impact beam is present then the car has crumple zones, but this is misconception. Even Maruti 800 has crumple zones.

In this case, I dont think that Swift is unsafe or prone to accidents. I feel that this thread should be locked as there are not sufficient proof available to prove Swift as unsafe or prone to accidents.

[raj_5004]

but then wont impact beams protect the radiator and engine in the event of a collision?

[watashi75]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

but then wont impact beams protect the radiator and engine in the event of a collision?

I think it is meant to protect the radiator and engine only at low speed collisions. At high speed collisions it will break down and let the crumple zones absorb the impact. In the Swift it is made of some metal which is not so hard like steel. Moreover it is braced and not welded to chasis.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

but then wont impact beams protect the radiator and engine in the event of a collision?

In case of a huge impact like head on collosion with another car at combined speed of 120 kmph, the impact beam help at nothing. Its not the impact beam that is important, but rather it is the crumple zone that is the real energy absorber. Impact beam will, in case of a small accidnet, help protect the engine and also help in distributing the energy between the basic structural components, but for high speed crash, it wont be useful.

[Gangsta]

Originally Posted by watashi75

This impact protection beam is present in Swift, at least in my Swift Zxi. If you peep through the rubber grill maybe you can see it. It goes just in front of the the radiator.

I know this because I had a frontal collision with a bike at maybe around 40 kmph. The beam got bent and portruded into the radiator making it leak. Nothing happened to the bike and the bikers drove off immediately. But I had a ugly dent on my bonnet. More importantly, nothing happened inside the car. Infact my wife and myself we hardly felt the impact.

that's not the torsion beam. That's a very thin plate of iron and its not for the protection. Its for the Radiator Support. Its useless at the time of impacts.



Check out the thin red plate infront of the radiator. That's not the beam i'm talking about it. Its the radiator support and nothing else.

It looks something like this, covering the whole front of the car. ...