Can't deal with the bouncy ride anymore after two weeks with the Mach-E. What do I do?

[Neil4Real]

I have 19,990 miles and the suspension, unfortunately, does not settle in. As time goes on you either get used to it and learn to live with it….or it really starts to drive you crazy once the novelty of owning a new car wears off

Which camp are you in?

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[Joetz]

Which camp are you in?

You know it’s kind of funny how things progressed with me

I thought all the people bringing up this issue were idiots and didn’t know what they were talking about. I felt like the car ride just fine. Then I hit the wrong set of bumps on i95 at a speed that completely confounded the rear suspension. Had I not experienced this kind of under-car anarchy, I might still be calling all of you folks idiots. But you are right! This is a serious problem if you live on imperfect roads. It’s hard to believe someone said “good enough” and signed off on this suspension.

as time goes on I am finding it more and more annoying

 

[GW Shark]

I have 6K on mine and I feel as if mine has "settled in". I feel like about 70% of the "excess bounce" has gone away. Am I more used to it - probably. But I'm in the "doesn't bother me" camp. Now, I had been driving a 2014 Prius V for 8 years (kept her), which is a different riding vehicle. I really only felt it "a lot" when going over bad local roads at low speeds. I hope you have a great experience with the MME.

 

[bellyer]

I am definitely not a "car guy," so I have no idea if we could potentially just take this suspension kit and swap it in on the Mach-E (I would think probably not), but what are the odds that we could use this Unplugged Performance Model Y Luxury Coilover Suspension system in the Mach-E? I am getting to the point where I feel desperate for some sort of relief on the bouncy and harsh ride that so many of us have with this car. I have e-mailed the company this afternoon to see if they have any way to help with the Mach-E, but don't expect I will hear back for a day or so. I have also contacted Steeda, but they informed me that they have yet to receive a Mach-E to start developing any suspension systems...

Link -> Tesla Model Y Luxury Coilover Suspension Kit by Unplugged Performance

Thoughts?

 

[Neil4Real]

I am definitely not a "car guy," so I have no idea if we could potentially just take this suspension kit and swap it in on the Mach-E (I would think probably not), but what are the odds that we could use this Unplugged Performance Model Y Luxury Coilover Suspension system in the Mach-E? I am getting to the point where I feel desperate for some sort of relief on the bouncy and harsh ride that so many of us have with this car. I have e-mailed the company this afternoon to see if they have any way to help with the Mach-E, but don't expect I will hear back for a day or so. I have also contacted Steeda, but they informed me that they have yet to receive a Mach-E to start developing any suspension systems...

Link -> Tesla Model Y Luxury Coilover Suspension Kit by Unplugged Performance

Thoughts?

Why don't you trade your car in? The math checks out if you can find a GT/GT PE at MSRP. You'd come out well ahead with equity from your FE and get $15k fed tax rebates instead of the $7,500 that you can put down.

 

[mkhuffman]

I am definitely not a "car guy," so I have no idea if we could potentially just take this suspension kit and swap it in on the Mach-E (I would think probably not), but what are the odds that we could use this Unplugged Performance Model Y Luxury Coilover Suspension system in the Mach-E? I am getting to the point where I feel desperate for some sort of relief on the bouncy and harsh ride that so many of us have with this car. I have e-mailed the company this afternoon to see if they have any way to help with the Mach-E, but don't expect I will hear back for a day or so. I have also contacted Steeda, but they informed me that they have yet to receive a Mach-E to start developing any suspension systems...

Link -> Tesla Model Y Luxury Coilover Suspension Kit by Unplugged Performance

Thoughts?

Any independent reviews? Personally I am skeptical an after market company can improve what a billion dollar car company developed, but who knows. Maybe there is a better way. If it costs $3k it won't be worth it to me. I would do it for $1k. The ride in my GT is not that bad.

 

[Neil4Real]

Any independent reviews? Personally I am skeptical an after market company can improve what a billion dollar car company developed, but who knows. Maybe there is a better way. If it costs $3k it won't be worth it to me. I would do it for $1k. The ride in my GT is not that bad.

Wait, what? After market companies can 100% improve on "billion dollar car company" developments. I mean, that's the whole point of them... There is most certainly a better way for the MME, especially since there are actual comparisons between the Premium and the GT/GT PE by actual people that owned the cars and the GT PE is way better. So clearly the billion dollar company was able to fix the suspension, they just chose to only offer it on the GT PE... so enter after market company.

 

[mkhuffman]

Wait, what? After market companies can 100% improve on "billion dollar car company" developments. I mean, that's the whole point of them... There is most certainly a better way for the MME, especially since there are actual comparisons between the Premium and the GT/GT PE by actual people that owned the cars and the GT PE is way better. So clearly the billion dollar company was able to fix the suspension, they just chose to only offer it on the GT PE... so enter after market company.

The PE is way better because it has an active suspension. The GT is better but that is subjective, because it is also more firm and harsher over bumps than the lower models.

I have yet to get my GT bouncing like you can do in a Premium, but it does rebound quickly over bumps and it is not exactly smooth when the road is rough. My wife has a hard time resting her head on the headrest because if we hit a few bumps her head gets pitched off the headrest.

I have no doubt for $5k it can be improved. I should have been more clear. I am doubtful it can be done with a replacement spring and standard strut, which should be well below $1k in parts. If someone does it, I am buying.

 

[bellyer]

I would gladly shell out as much as $3,000 to make this ride more comfortable. Maybe $1,000 or less is what is would really cost in parts, but I don't really care if I get to keep this gorgeous vehicle and manage to not have people getting car sick constantly. I don't necessarily want to trade in for a GT PE, but I guess I'm not totally opposed if I am able to test drive first over all the spots I know to be major issues. I have so been hoping someone would bring out a product to address this, but have come up dry thus far. The luxury suspension for the Tesla Model Y by this Unplugged Performance company seems to come the closest to what we would be looking for.

 

[miata]

Idealized, a suspension has a mass, a spring, and a dampener. Here, the spring and dampener together is a strut, and the mass is the ~25% of the weight of the car on each wheel. The square root of the spring stiffness divided by the mass gives the frequency of the system, when undamped. You want high frequency (quick response) for sporty handling; you want low for smoother ride. Either way, you pick your damping such that a displacement of the spring returns to normal in a smooth manner. If the system is underdamped, a single bump bounces repeatedly before damping out, overdamped and the car takes too long to return to normal, making the next bump worse.

Even for a "good" system (damping ~80% of "critical") there exists a frequency for which if road imperfections are spaced regularly and exactly right (or wrong!) you will drive the system at its resonant frequency and you will bounce. Those of you who have ride problems over just certain roads with regular-spaced imperfections (certainly sounds like SOME of the complaints here) changing tire pressure may change the stiffness enough the problem could go away. Changing to a smoother (or sportier) strut could help more. But the easiest thing is to just drive 10-20% slower (or faster) over that road section so you're no longer feeding bumps in at the resonant frequency of the system.

For those who find the ride too bouncy when hitting a single imperfection, (is this anyone?) your beef is with the struts...you're not getting enough damping. Maybe the damping would have been adequate if you had more mass (the ER battery? more passengers?) or if the springs were looser. Again a lower tire pressure may help but it's not as big a lever as the springs themselves.

For those who just find the ride just to0 stiff, the tire pressure is your easiest fix. Different struts (like the Tesla aftermarket product above) could be a great solution, but a design needs to be tuned for your flavor of MME. And this is NOT the direction the aftermarket usually goes. Most of the time Ford makes a car with a ride for 95% of the people. The 5% want to sacrifice ride quality for more fun in the curves. But that doesn't seem to be the issue here.

 

[bellyer]

Idealized, a suspension has a mass, a spring, and a dampener. Here, the spring and dampener together is a strut, and the mass is the ~25% of the weight of the car on each wheel. The square root of the spring stiffness divided by the mass gives the frequency of the system, when undamped. You want high frequency (quick response) for sporty handling; you want low for smoother ride. Either way, you pick your damping such that a displacement of the spring returns to normal in a smooth manner. If the system is underdamped, a single bump bounces repeatedly before damping out, overdamped and the car takes too long to return to normal, making the next bump worse.

Even for a "good" system (damping ~80% of "critical") there exists a frequency for which if road imperfections are spaced regularly and exactly right (or wrong!) you will drive the system at its resonant frequency and you will bounce. Those of you who have ride problems over just certain roads with regular-spaced imperfections (certainly sounds like SOME of the complaints here) changing tire pressure may change the stiffness enough the problem could go away. Changing to a smoother (or sportier) strut could help more. But the easiest thing is to just drive 10-20% slower (or faster) over that road section so you're no longer feeding bumps in at the resonant frequency of the system.

For those who find the ride too bouncy when hitting a single imperfection, (is this anyone?) your beef is with the struts...you're not getting enough damping. Maybe the damping would have been adequate if you had more mass (the ER battery? more passengers?) or if the springs were looser. Again a lower tire pressure may help but it's not as big a lever as the springs themselves.

For those who just find the ride just to0 stiff, the tire pressure is your easiest fix. Different struts (like the Tesla aftermarket product above) could be a great solution, but a design needs to be tuned for your flavor of MME. And this is NOT the direction the aftermarket usually goes. Most of the time Ford makes a car with a ride for 95% of the people. The 5% want to sacrifice ride quality for more fun in the curves. But that doesn't seem to be the issue here.

I agree with lots of what you said there. Miata, from an uneducated perspective anyway. The harmonic bounce issue tends to happen regardless of speed, though. I have tested on the same stretches of road between 35 MPH and 80 MPH. There seem to be no speeds at which the harmonic bounce does not happen. I almost feel like the root of the issue is due to the length of the wheelbase more than anything. That being said, as a city driver 95% of the time, I would love to feel the bumps and potholes much less because those are almost constant issues. I can deal with the occasional harmonic bounce situation if I can get the city bumps and road imperfections dealt with and, based on what you laid out there, it sounds like new shocks/struts could be the answer.

 

[DrSteveBrule]

I would gladly shell out as much as $3,000 to make this ride more comfortable. Maybe $1,000 or less is what is would really cost in parts, but I don't really care if I get to keep this gorgeous vehicle and manage to not have people getting car sick constantly. I don't necessarily want to trade in for a GT PE, but I guess I'm not totally opposed if I am able to test drive first over all the spots I know to be major issues. I have so been hoping someone would bring out a product to address this, but have come up dry thus far. The luxury suspension for the Tesla Model Y by this Unplugged Performance company seems to come the closest to what we would be looking for.

Here's an idea. Some folks have had luck switching to 18" wheels with more sidewall in the corresponding tires. You're in Chicago. You (like me) could likely benefit from snow tires or all-weather tires. One set of wheels and tires could be had for something like $1600. If you could find a Select to test drive, you might be able to validate this before making the switch.

 

[miata]

...There seem to be no speeds at which the harmonic bounce does not happen. I almost feel like the root of the issue is due to the length of the wheelbase...

VERY perceptive Bellyer! I was considering this like a single spring problem. You're absolutely right this could be the front coupling with the rear. This is what the "educated perspective" would call parametric oscillators. And here, the fixed separation (vehicle length) sets the resonant frequency more than just the vehicle speed over regular spaced road disturbances which controls how often a little impulse is fed into this system.

Ford is no stranger to heavy vehicles...they sell a few F-350 pickups. And if they dig back into their old 1970's Lincoln files, they should know how to suspend a heavy vehicle with a comfortable ride...over any road surface. It's doing all this with handling befitting the Mustang name that may take a little doing. Hopefully they're following this blog.

Ya' know, I had a couple of those 3-ton 1970's Lincolns. And come to think of it, there were some bridges with regular spaced seams where the thing would take on a big of that bouncy character you're describing. It wasn't part of my regular commute and I found it more entertaining than off-putting, but I was a lot younger then too.

 

[DrSteveBrule]

VERY perceptive Bellyer! I was considering this like a single spring problem. You're absolutely right this could be the front coupling with the rear. This is what the "educated perspective" would call parametric oscillators. And here, the fixed separation (vehicle length) sets the resonant frequency more than just the vehicle speed over regular spaced road disturbances which controls how often a little impulse is fed into this system.

This is interesting. My Model 3 had ride issues that sound quite similar to what some are experiencing in the MME. Model 3 wheelbase is 113.2" to MME's 117.5". Both long for their respective class.

 

[dml105]

Can the struts be adjusted on the Mach-e?

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