Usually, you'd be talking dampers (often called shock absorbers in the UK), and often the springs will have broken. Having said that, I remember that 20 years

Usually, you'd be talking dampers (often called shock absorbers in the UK), and often the springs will have broken. Having said that, I remember that 20 years ago, those kinds of parts would need to be replaced after maybe 60-80k miles. However, everything seems to be better built now - my van has 214k on it, and no sign of needing replacements - same goes for all the cars I've bought and sold (20 or so) in the last 3 years.