Mach-E Lowering Spring Development

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50 Deep

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In the process of developing a lowering spring for the Mach-E. Needed to get my wheels on first to see the overall change. I Currently have the OEM springs being tested and need to settle on a ride height and rate change.
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I have found the Premium AWD Extended Range springs to be fairly firm for the street, but needs a little more for the track. Spring rates appear different across models.
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Big question is how much of a height reduction do you think it needs? And would you want them any stiffer? Let me know your model and thoughts.

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machefan

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I’m personally glad the MME is not any lower, but hight really is a personal preference. The lower the MME the more chance you have of scraping the bottom front.
 

Carsinmyblood

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Keep the original parts so you can sell it. I can't imagine anyone being happy the first time they get hung up on a sleeping policeman. Or a mild snowfall.
 

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From my perspective, spring rate should be chosen in order to keep the car from bottoming out given the forces foreseen, and dynamic ride height. Anti-roll bars would then be chosen in order to put vehicle roll where needed and to tune over/understeer. Damper valving would be chosen in order to control all those forces. In the old days, that would require a lot of trial and error. With7- and 8-post shaker rigs, simulation software, and other tools available now, it takes less tial and error, but we're still out there putting O-rings on dampers, shooting photos of cars, and fine-tuning after all of the off track stuff is done.

That said, for most street applications, a little stiffer on springs shouldn't hurt. Given the published specs on the Mach-E models, the GT and GT-PE have a static ride height that is roughly 0.39" lower than the other models. Do you have enough room in the wheel wells (given tire and wheel combo) to go with any less clearance than that? Can you *make* room to go lower? Case in point, my Trans Am could actually rub the tires on the front inner fender wells when on the jounce bumpers with my chosen tire OD/width/wheel offset so the inner fender wells were cut away around the point of contact and all of the fender lips bent up and out of the way.

Being that I do not yet have a MME, I'm going to guess that by looking at the photos you can probably go to the height of a GT, maybe a little lower. Maybe make the static ride height 0.500" lower than stock. That would put your wheel to fender clearance at about 85% of where it is now, so another guess at spring rate would be to up it by 10%-15% from its current configuration. Once we'ree there, then we need to take it to a skid pad to determine a baseline for where we want the anti-roll bars.
 

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In the process of developing a lowering spring for the Mach-E. Needed to get my wheels on first to see the overall change. I Currently have the OEM springs being tested and need to settle on a ride height and rate change.
.
I have found the Premium AWD Extended Range springs to be fairly firm for the street, but needs a little more for the track. Spring rates appear different across models.
.
Big question is how much of a height reduction do you think it needs? And would you want them any stiffer? Let me know your model and thoughts.

C8BED405-649B-4ED7-AEB3-D1343D250156.jpeg
DB828B36-DBC6-4CB4-B9B0-FDA43B7AF816.jpeg
B69508AE-C743-4C8B-A5FC-C34A5E3D89D3.jpeg
3FF67912-7A46-4F58-B6CA-642081D3F49E.jpeg
FA60436D-41C6-4924-B051-0F8C5B2226BA.jpeg
0A65F742-231B-4B4D-833A-9050E53BCA33.jpeg
I posted the ride height reduction I would like to see in my thread a month or so ago but since you started a new one specifically on this topic, I will chime in again. I ended up lowering my car 0.5" after replacing the OEM springs (AWD, extended battery) with the AWD standard battery springs. The extra 400 lbs or so of extra weight on the new springs lowered the car about 0.5". It was the fastest way for me to drop the car since there are no manufactures yet that have lowering springs (I do not cut springs to lower cars).

In doing so, I also got a softer, more cushy ride. I am not a fan of the way it rides now and would like to have back the higher spring rate but with a lower ride height. While I like the 0.5" height reduction, I would not mind a bit more to maybe 0.75"-1". I would also like to see a slightly stiffer spring maybe 10-15%. I could replace the Premium springs with the GT springs in a couple of months when they are available but since they will barely lower the car 0.5" it is not worth it. I am glad you are pursuing having lowering springs made and hopefully it will not be long before you get this all figured out.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Mach-E Lowering Spring Development IMG_44541900
 


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50 Deep

50 Deep

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I’m personally glad the MME is not any lower, but hight really is a personal preference. The lower the MME the more chance you have of scraping the bottom front.
I can definitely see the desire for a higher ride in something that will be street only vehicle. My background is more in motorsports and car shows. Managing things like body roll, fender gap, and compression with a better spring will definitely help in the areas I frequent.

Keep the original parts so you can sell it. I can't imagine anyone being happy the first time they get hung up on a sleeping policeman. Or a mild snowfall.
I guess we have it good here in California. Snow is a rare occurrence except for certain areas, and with those you usually can plan ahead. Those will be Bronco or Raptor situations

From my perspective, spring rate should be chosen in order to keep the car from bottoming out given the forces foreseen, and dynamic ride height. Anti-roll bars would then be chosen in order to put vehicle roll where needed and to tune over/understeer. Damper valving would be chosen in order to control all those forces. In the old days, that would require a lot of trial and error. With7- and 8-post shaker rigs, simulation software, and other tools available now, it takes less tial and error, but we're still out there putting O-rings on dampers, shooting photos of cars, and fine-tuning after all of the off track stuff is done.

That said, for most street applications, a little stiffer on springs shouldn't hurt. Given the published specs on the Mach-E models, the GT and GT-PE have a static ride height that is roughly 0.39" lower than the other models. Do you have enough room in the wheel wells (given tire and wheel combo) to go with any less clearance than that? Can you *make* room to go lower? Case in point, my Trans Am could actually rub the tires on the front inner fender wells when on the jounce bumpers with my chosen tire OD/width/wheel offset so the inner fender wells were cut away around the point of contact and all of the fender lips bent up and out of the way.

Being that I do not yet have a MME, I'm going to guess that by looking at the photos you can probably go to the height of a GT, maybe a little lower. Maybe make the static ride height 0.500" lower than stock. That would put your wheel to fender clearance at about 85% of where it is now, so another guess at spring rate would be to up it by 10%-15% from its current configuration. Once we'ree there, then we need to take it to a skid pad to determine a baseline for where we want the anti-roll bars.
Really good info here. As it stands the Mach-E has around 3" of room from the top of tire to the fender. That is with the 22" wheels I have now. I am going to try and ride the line with these and not go so low that it overwhelms the current shock valving and travel. Also not go with a rate so stiff it throws off the balance of the car. First step will be a spring setup for the street, and then test it a bit on track to see how it needs to be changed for that environment.

Ideally I will be able to find a shock with the approriate damping and sway bars with increased stiffness to create a bit of synergy.

I posted the ride height reduction I would like to see in my thread a month or so ago but since you started a new one specifically on this topic, I will chime in again. I ended up lowering my car 0.5" after replacing the OEM springs (AWD, extended battery) with the AWD standard battery springs. The extra 400 lbs or so of extra weight on the new springs lowered the car about 0.5". It was the fastest way for me to drop the car since there are no manufactures yet that have lowering springs (I do not cut springs to lower cars).

In doing so, I also got a softer, more cushy ride. I am not a fan of the way it rides now and would like to have back the higher spring rate but with a lower ride height. While I like the 0.5" height reduction, I would not mind a bit more to maybe 0.75"-1". I would also like to see a slightly stiffer spring maybe 10-15%. I could replace the Premium springs with the GT springs in a couple of months when they are available but since they will barely lower the car 0.5" it is not worth it. I am glad you are pursuing having lowering springs made and hopefully it will not be long before you get this all figured out.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Mach-E Lowering Spring Development IMG_44541900
Your insight is very Much appreciated. After seeing your car in person today I really like the way it sits. This is probably just about the perfect ride height for most who just want to get rid of some of the gap. I should be able to address the rate concern easily.
 

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I’ll end up having the GT Performance Edition so springs won’t be an option with Magneride. Personally I hate wheel well gap so whatever ride height makes the tires flush with the fenders is a good height for me, BUT I’ve done that in my current car with springs and it simply rides way too stiff to be enjoyable as a daily driver. I was never able to find a good middle man of good looks and good ride quality so I’ll probably keep my GT stock height
 

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I’ll end up having the GT Performance Edition so springs won’t be an option with Magneride. Personally I hate wheel well gap so whatever ride height makes the tires flush with the fenders is a good height for me, BUT I’ve done that in my current car with springs and it simply rides way too stiff to be enjoyable as a daily driver. I was never able to find a good middle man of good looks and good ride quality so I’ll probably keep my GT stock height
Dave, I don't quite understand what you mean by "springs won't be an option with Magneride". Maybe if you want to lower the car 3 inches there might be an issue but I installed 1" lowering springs on my GT500 with Magneride shocks and have had no issues. I intend to do the same when my GT/PE arrives. I was at a car meet yesterday with quite a few GT350/GT500 members. I don't remember seeing one at stock height and all had magnaride. The two GT's below have been dropped about 2".

Ford Mustang Mach-E Mach-E Lowering Spring Development IMG_47261900
 
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Dave, I don't quite understand what you mean by "springs won't be an option with Magnaride". Maybe if you want to lower the car 3 inches there might be an issue but I installed 1" lowering springs on my GT500 with Magnaride shocks and have had no issues. I intend to do the same when my GT/PE arrives. I was at a car meet yesterday with quite a few GT350/GT500 members. I don't remember seeing one at stock height and all had magnaride. The two GT's below have been dropped about 2".

Ford Mustang Mach-E Mach-E Lowering Spring Development IMG_47261900
Well then I stand corrected. I made an assumption and clearly I was wrong. Good to know.

Still though, my entire reasoning for going with the PE (aside from the speed) was because I was worried about ride quality. I would hate to ruin it with springs (if it would)
 

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I posted the ride height reduction I would like to see in my thread a month or so ago but since you started a new one specifically on this topic, I will chime in again. I ended up lowering my car 0.5" after replacing the OEM springs (AWD, extended battery) with the AWD standard battery springs. The extra 400 lbs or so of extra weight on the new springs lowered the car about 0.5". It was the fastest way for me to drop the car since there are no manufactures yet that have lowering springs (I do not cut springs to lower cars).

In doing so, I also got a softer, more cushy ride. I am not a fan of the way it rides now and would like to have back the higher spring rate but with a lower ride height. While I like the 0.5" height reduction, I would not mind a bit more to maybe 0.75"-1". I would also like to see a slightly stiffer spring maybe 10-15%. I could replace the Premium springs with the GT springs in a couple of months when they are available but since they will barely lower the car 0.5" it is not worth it. I am glad you are pursuing having lowering springs made and hopefully it will not be long before you get this all figured out.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Mach-E Lowering Spring Development IMG_47261900
My eyes perked up when you mentioned a cushier ride. I have a std rwd so I'm already at the lighter weight config so not sure how much it would help me, but can you go into more detail about the ride characteristics changing after swapping to the std awd suspension. I really would like a softer ride (but don't want it lowered if I can help it) and wanted to get your thoughts.
 

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Well then I stand corrected. I made an assumption and clearly I was wrong. Good to know.

Still though, my entire reasoning for going with the PE (aside from the speed) was because I was worried about ride quality. I would hate to ruin it with springs (if it would)
I am anxious to see what Ford does with the non-PE GT as far as the spring rates and shocks and then what the GT-PE has for springs if they are any different or if Ford just adds the Magneride shocks to the non-PE GT springs. The OEM springs in the Premium model are a bit stiff for the street but the real issue for me are the poorly damped shocks. I would give anything for Bilstein shocks right now to tame the bounce the Mach-E has. Let's hope that the addition of Magneride shocks will allow us to dial in a better ride.

The ride on my GT500 is slightly firmer but definitely smoother than the Mach-E. Having both cars and driving them quite a bit, I can tell you no matter what Ford does with the suspension on the GT-PE, it will never handle anything like an ICE Mustang especially the Shelby versions. You cannot have a taller car that weighs over 1000 lbs more handle the same way. Even with the much larger, wider tires I have on my Mach-E now, it does not come close to the handling of the GT500. I really hope people that buy the GT-PE are not expecting a race handing car. At most it will be a very sporty SUV.
 

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My eyes perked up when you mentioned a cushier ride. I have a std rwd so I'm already at the lighter weight config so not sure how much it would help me, but can you go into more detail about the ride characteristics changing after swapping to the std awd suspension. I really would like a softer ride (but don't want it lowered if I can help it) and wanted to get your thoughts.
Having that configuration your springs are at the lightest spring rate that Ford offers for the Mach-E. You would have to have custom springs made for a softer ride but I still believe that you can get a better ride if the shocks were damped properly. Three things happened when I switched out the OEM springs for the lower rate ones. The car dropped about 0.5", the "bounce" was not as pronounced (softer) and there was a bit more body roll.

Most of the bouncy ride comes from the rear where there is very little overhang of the body past where the springs are mounted. Because the car is rated to take 5 passengers and luggage in the rear (some people are even using the car to tow) the springs need to have a higher rate. Most SUV's have higher spring rates for this purpose. The ride does not bother me at all like it seems to with many others but if I didn't like the way it rides, I would add weight to the rear. I would add whatever weight it would take to drop the rear end height to match the front. Not like the extra weight will really make a big difference in the range and you should get a little better ride.
 

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I am anxious to see what Ford does with the non-PE GT as far as the spring rates and shocks and then what the GT-PE has for springs if they are any different or if Ford just adds the Magneride shocks to the non-PE GT springs. The OEM springs in the Premium model are a bit stiff for the street but the real issue for me are the poorly damped shocks. I would give anything for Bilstein shocks right now to tame the bounce the Mach-E has. Let's hope that the addition of Magneride shocks will allow us to dial in a better ride.

The ride on my GT500 is slightly firmer but definitely smoother than the Mach-E. Having both cars and driving them quite a bit, I can tell you no matter what Ford does with the suspension on the GT-PE, it will never handle anything like an ICE Mustang especially the Shelby versions. You cannot have a taller car that weighs over 1000 lbs more handle the same way. Even with the much larger, wider tires I have on my Mach-E now, it does not come close to the handling of the GT500. I really hope people that buy the GT-PE are not expecting a race handing car. At most it will be a very sporty SUV.
A sporty SUV is what I'm expecting and quite frankly, I don't want/need anything more. I won't be tracking this car but I will be daily driving it, so I want it to be comfortable (and not something my wife complains about the ride quality like she does in my GTI)
 

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I personally think it feels like the most sporty SUV I have ever driven and I have been in quite a few so the GT version is going to be one of the best ones on the market as far as I am concerned.
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