How much resistance should there be in the strut of a car shock absorber?

Sorting out my Mazda's front nearside shock/strut and after removing coil spring etc resistance is more going up than pushing down! In fact if left to its own devices, the thing just sort of tiredly slips down without a sound on its own! Presumably it's shot..is it? No rattly noises off it and no evidence of oil/lubrication leak - but it does look prettly old & manky!

Answers:
if it sinks down without you pushing it down then it is definately nakerd. You will find that you have to push fairly hard on a new one to push it in. The same for pulling it out.
push down hard on that side, if bounses more than 2 small bounses, its going bad or is bad. and don't let someone tell you that you have to buy the whole thing, you can just buy the shock and use the same spring.
It`s shot!! It should not bleed down without extreme pressure applied. Did the car bounce prior to removing it? One bounce +ok, more than one is not ok.
yep your shocks are shot, as a matter of safety change both the left and right at the same time, even if one seems to be OK, as this will affect the handling of the car.
it should be quit hard to push down and it should go down on its own if anything it should go back up!
you have to replace as a pair to

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