Vehicle axle vertical characteristics strongly affect ride comfort and handling, but the influence of individual components is not well quantified. It remains unclear to what extent individual components contribute to the stiffness, friction, and damping characteristics of a vehicle axle. This study aims to quantify the contribution of individual components to the axle characteristics, with particular emphasis on axle damping. To address this question, a MacPherson strut axle was tested on an axle test rig in 19 configurations. In addition to the intact axle, components were removed, deliberately degraded, or mechanically decoupled to prevent force transmission between selected components. The axle was excited quasi-statically and dynamically, using both single-sided excitation and harmonic in-phase excitation of both wheel carriers. For each axle configuration, stiffness, damping and friction were evaluated. The results show that removing either the main springs or the anti-roll bar substantially reduced axle friction, indicating that these components introduce preload within the axle assembly that increases friction. In addition, a sand-contaminated lower ball joint significantly increased friction in the linear evaluation region. The damping analysis revealed that draining the shock absorbers of oil reduced axle damping by approximately 80 % relative to the intact axle for all investigated excitations.