Damping of mechanical vibrations is often realized by viscous dampers with nonlinear characteristic. The progressive wear them leads to a deterioration of working conditions of machinery and vehicles. Bad technical condition of the damper also adversely affects the occupants of the means of transport. In many cases, there are no effective methods for determining their condition. The aim of the study was to develop a computational model of the viscous damper takes account of the characteristics such as nonlinearity and asymmetry and its dependence on the parameters of extortion. Taking into account the impact of these factors on the instantaneous value of the force generated by the element enables the use of computational model to determine the technical condition.