UPDATED: Replacing Rear Shocks: Reducing the rear end bounce.

[azerik]

Faker!! ? The calipers were the tip off.

Gt's in my neck of the woods were $10k or more higher than a AWD Prem. Pretty much every used one was selling for MSRP. In hind sight I should have held out another month and gotten a GT. A little too upside down in projects on this one to turn around and flip it 3 months later.

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[i8iridium]

Awesome. The composure is so much better. Glad you're happy!

I'm thinking because your car is a 2023 the suspension is a bit higher than mine ('21 with almost 30k on it now) It might settle and be a touch lower in a few years.

I had the same issue as @voerman having to jack up the suspension a bit to get the bolts in, but it's really a non-issue. I've had to do that on other cars I've done work to. Like you said, I'm sure it'll settle out after a while.

 

[markboris]

WOW - thank you to everyone who participated in all the testing and instructions for making this mod a success. I literally have a new car that is much more competent in handling bumps. My wife complained about the ride since the first day we picked up the car. I told her about you guys working on a suspension fix that might cost about $500. She said it may be worth it. It was.

I collected all the parts so that I did not have to reuse anything from the original shocks (a pet peeve of mine) and did the install today. It went as expected with a few comments:

1) I used a scissor jack rated at 2 tons to raise the car with a jack stand on each side of it (safety and spreading the load if the jack failed). This worked well with no drama.

2) The driver's side was easier than the passenger's side because I am right handed and on the driver's side I was using my right hand to place the washers for the lower shock mount vs my left hand for the passenger's side.

3) I did need to raise the control arm on both sides because the Koni shock mounts were a good 1/2 inch short of the top holes. I used a second jack for this so I did not need to drop the car onto the jack stands and reuse the scissors jack.

4) A six inch extension on my torque wrench provided enough clearance to torque the lower mounting bolt without raising the car up farther.

All that being said, I am more than impressed with the results. We drove the car on a frequently traveled stretch of ill constructed and ill maintained NC roa seed. Before the mod the car subjected us to uncontrolled bouncing especially when bumps occurred close to each other. Now you still feel the bumps but the bouncing is minimal and predictable.

As you can tell, I am having trouble finding the words to describe the results but once again, I want to thank everyone involved.

Lou

This is great news Lou. Thanks for the review and let us know how things go down the road.

 

[mkhuffman]

Following Mark's awesome instructions, I did this to my GT today. It is still too early to give a ride quality assessment, but I can comment on the installation process.

My car has over 27k miles, and I needed to use the floor jack to raise the lower control arm in order to attach the shocks at the top. So apparently, 27k isn't enough to settle a GT to make that step unnecessary.

This picture is before I used the jack to raise the control arm:

So overall this is a easy modification to do. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish, but that included reading Mark's instructions, getting all my tools out and putting everything away. Actual installation time per side can easily be 30 minutes if you have everything ready to go.

 

[kennethjk]

Following Mark's awesome instructions, I did this to my GT today. It is still too early to give a ride quality assessment, but I can comment on the installation process.

My car has over 27k miles, and I needed to use the floor jack to raise the lower control arm in order to attach the shocks at the top. So apparently, 27k isn't enough to settle a GT to make that step unnecessary.

This picture is before I used the jack to raise the control arm:

So overall this is a easy modification to do. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish, but that included reading Mark's instructions, getting all my tools out and putting everything away. Actual installation time per side can easily be 30 minutes if you have everything ready to go.

Looking forward to hearing your report . How was the Steeda rear bar? Any banging or rough marks?

 

[mkhuffman]

Looking forward to hearing your report . How was the Steeda rear bar? Any banging or rough marks?

I inspected both sides thoroughly and there are no marks at all. So mine has not hit anything yet. It is rare that I have anyone in the back seat, which could explain the difference.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Did you clean everything before taking this photo or can you always eat off the wheel wells of your car?

 

[Dadams]

I did the mod the yesterday (23 GT, Stock Sway bars) following Marks easy to following directions and burning up my cordless drill..oops. The hardest part is drilling the hole bigger, but still no big deal. Overall everything went well. My new Koni's were a little lower than Mike's pic on post 439, we only have 3k miles on ours, it was also the first time putting the car on my 2 post lift.

I went for quick test drive, It feel the ride is way better. Before it seemed that my body would be coming back down to the seat after a bump and then the car would bounce back into you at the same time, so I feel I would get a buck from the car.(What I feel riding a bull would feel like, to an extent).

Now it felt like I would settle back into the seat after a bump instead of getting the buck or jolt again. The car would not get the bounce up again so I would say I felt lighter in the seat. (I hope my explanation is understandable.)

The real test will be the when the wife drives it on her daily commute tomorrow. She has put the majority miles on the car.

Thanks for every ones time and effort for figuring this out.

 

[markboris]

I did the mod the yesterday (23 GT, Stock Sway bars) following Marks easy to following directions and burning up my cordless drill..oops. The hardest part is drilling the hole bigger, but still no big deal. Overall everything went well. My new Koni's were a little lower than Mike's pic on post 439, we only have 3k miles on ours, it was also the first time putting the car on my 2 post lift.

I went for quick test drive, It feel the ride is way better. Before it seemed that my body would be coming back down to the seat after a bump and then the car would bounce back into you at the same time, so I feel I would get a buck from the car.(What I feel riding a bull would feel like, to an extent).

Now it felt like I would settle back into the seat after a bump instead of getting the buck or jolt again. The car would not get the bounce up again so I would say I felt lighter in the seat. (I hope my explanation is understandable.)

The real test will be the when the wife drives it on her daily commute tomorrow. She has put the majority miles on the car.

Thanks for every ones time and effort for figuring this out.

Thanks for your review on the Koni’s Darrin. Glad to see all have been positive so far. Looking forward to see what your wife has to say. ?

 

[mkhuffman]

Thanks for your review on the Koni’s Darrin. Glad to see all have been positive so far. Looking forward to see what your wife has to say. ?

The only opinion that matters is the wife's. ?

 

[mkhuffman]

Did you clean everything before taking this photo or can you always eat off the wheel wells of your car?

I remove the wheels once a month to clean them and everything behind them.

?

?

 

[mkhuffman]

Here is my preliminary assessment. And I emphasize that it is preliminary because the roads around here are pretty good, and there is no bounce issue.

This week we are going to Florida, so not much MME driving to analyze. But next week we are driving to the Outer Banks and the roads down there are much worse. I will have more subjective data to share in a couple weeks.

So objectively, the rebound damping is noticably improved. See below for the rear hatch manual bounce comparison.

So what I measured above seems to be exactly what others are describing and what I feel when driving. The initial bounce is the same as stock, but car settles much faster.

When driving, it feels like rough patches are smoother, and big bumps feel about the same. I am not sure if it is my imagination, but normal roads feel smoother also.

Subjectively the difference is subtle. But I emphasize again that the roads around here are good, and there isn't much rebounding to assess. However, I did some really aggressive driving today and holy guacamole, this car drives so great. I do have both Steeda sway bars set at the stiffest setting, so already it handled well. I do feel like the shocks have taken it up another level. It isn't as dramatic as the sway bars, but I really like it. I have no desire to take the shocks back to stock at this point.

When we get down to the OBX next week, I will provide another update.

 

[azerik]

I’ll take a holy guacamole any day of the week.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Here is my preliminary assessment. And I emphasize that it is preliminary because the roads around here are pretty good, and there is no bounce issue.

This week we are going to Florida, so not much MME driving to analyze. But next week we are driving to the Outer Banks and the roads down there are much worse. I will have more subjective data to share in a couple weeks.

So objectively, the rebound damping is noticably improved. See below for the rear hatch manual bounce comparison.

So what I measured above seems to be exactly what others are describing and what I feel when driving. The initial bounce is the same as stock, but car settles much faster.

When driving, it feels like rough patches are smoother, and big bumps feel about the same. I am not sure if it is my imagination, but normal roads feel smoother also.

Subjectively the difference is subtle. But I emphasize again that the roads around here are good, and there isn't much rebounding to assess. However, I did some really aggressive driving today and holy guacamole, this car drives so great. I do have both Steeda sway bars set at the stiffest setting, so already it handled well. I do feel like the shocks have taken it up another level. It isn't as dramatic as the sway bars, but I really like it. I have no desire to take the shocks back to stock at this point.

When we get down to the OBX next week, I will provide another update.

Mike, what app/settings are you using for your measurements? It looks like exactly what I want to use to do my before and after comparisons - you know, for science ???

 

[mkhuffman]

Mike, what app/settings are you using for your measurements? It looks like exactly what I want to use to do my before and after comparisons - you know, for science ???

I am using Physics Toolbox: https://www.vieyrasoftware.net/

I am only showing the Z sensor, which is up and down movement. To get the measurements, I am violently pushing down the rear bumper while my phone sites on the back hatch opening (the hatch is open).

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