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

bruceski88

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I definitely feel some bouncing when the road surface is a bit wavy, but it's not anything too bad for us. Depends a lot on the road though.

My bigger disappointment is the roughness
of the ride at times than the bouncing, although lowering PSI did help that some.
And that would be incorrect. A heavier car should not be bouncier than a lighter car. Suspensions are designed to take into account the weight of the car. Heavier cars have suspensions to ride smoothly with the higher weight.

An empty pickup can be bouncy but it's not because it's heavy - it's bouncy when unladen because it weighs far less than it's maximum weight. There is a large difference between the unladen weight and laden weight of a pickup so the unladen ride can be rough. But an EV doesn't have that problem because it always has the battery pack and a charged pack weighs the same as a depleted pack (unlike a gas car).

The battery weight of an EV causes the laden weight and the unladen weight to differ by a smaller percentage so it's even easier to design the suspension to be as comfortable unladen as it is at it's full GVWR. Of course larger dampers are used to achieve this but there is less compromise required due to the smaller percentage difference in weight from just a driver (unladen) to maximum capacity.

If anything, the higher weight of an EV should give it a smoother ride.
Every mid to high end mountain bike comes with adjustable shocks. This is because the rider is 4 to 10 times the weight of the bike and it is impossible to make the suspension work on the knarly terrain each rider has to navigate. Usually there are both adjustable compression and rebound damping plus spring rate to customize for rider and terrain. So it is certainly possible to fix
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The ICTVillain

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Certain roads that are seemingly normal can be jarring in my Premium SR RWD (it is as if the suspension is bottoming out). If every road was like one near my work I would have traded mine in.
 

The ICTVillain

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It's kinda strange that none of the expert reviews I watched on youtube pointed out any bouncy ride quality. And, I would expect it more with a shorter wheelbase than MMEs.
actually one negative review pointed this out.
 

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So here is a thought, not sure if it has been mentioned in the 8 pages of this thread so far:

There is a significant weight difference between the top of the line AWD ER and the "bottom" of the line RWD SR. Perhaps he got RWD SR shocks on his AWD ER model--that is if Ford is building them that way and the shocks are different (different dampening settings), or perhaps different springs. (Given that they are priding themselves on the ride of the car--it is a Mustang--perhaps they do have very specific shocks/springs for each model).

Given all the stop ships and the one recall (really didn't tighten the bolts enough??) is it really that far of a stretch to think the wrong parts got installed.

Of course driving another one of similar configuration would quickly put this hypothesis to bed, however.
 

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So here is a thought, not sure if it has been mentioned in the 8 pages of this thread so far:

There is a significant weight difference between the top of the line AWD ER and the "bottom" of the line RWD SR. Perhaps he got RWD SR shocks on his AWD ER model--that is if Ford is building them that way and the shocks are different (different dampening settings), or perhaps different springs. (Given that they are priding themselves on the ride of the car--it is a Mustang--perhaps they do have very specific shocks/springs for each model).

Given all the stop ships and the one recall (really didn't tighten the bolts enough??) is it really that far of a stretch to think the wrong parts got installed.

Of course driving another one of similar configuration would quickly put this hypothesis to bed, however.
That's an interesting hypothesis...

I don't mind the ride in my AWD ER at all. But having said that, I have never owned a "car" built in the last 20 years, only SUVs and pickup trucks, so maybe my expectations are different?
 


Njia

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That's an interesting hypothesis...

I don't mind the ride in my AWD ER at all. But having said that, I have never owned a "car" built in the last 20 years, only SUVs and pickup trucks, so maybe my expectations are different?
I am starting to wonder how much of the ride quality problems are due to expectations. I've noticed them, too, but not nearly to the degree that my wife has when she rides in my MME. She is far more susceptible to motion sickness than I am, and every bounce or wobble in the car causes her inner ear to take note.

This is a Mustang, which (I would assume) translates into a certain suspension setup and tuning to keep with the brand's image and customer expectations. How many of us have owned recent Mustangs (or, for that matter, Camaros, Porsches, etc.)? The question to ask is how the MME compares in ride quality to those cars. I don't have the answer, but I'm curious to find out.
 
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I am starting to wonder how much of the ride quality problems are due to expectations. I've noticed them, too, but not nearly to the degree that my wife has when she rides in my MME. She is far more susceptible to motion sickness than I am, and every bounce or wobble in the car causes her inner ear to take note.

This is a Mustang, which (I would assume) translates into a certain suspension setup and tuning to keep with the brand's image and customer expectations. How many of us have owned recent Mustangs (or, for that matter, Camaros, Porsches, etc.)? The question to ask is how the MME compares in ride quality to those cars. I don't have the answer, but I'm curious to find out.
I would almost be willing to accept that as a somewhat close to plausible explanation, except for the fact that while driving at night, you can visibly see the light from the headlights bouncing up and down against surfaces ahead. I have never seen anything like that in my old Mustang or any other car or SUV I have owned. A rough ride I can make sense of, but the bouncing feeling and the visible effect from it make no sense.

Either way, I have reached out to my dealer and hope to get the car inspected tomorrow and maybe test drive another, but they only appear to have a RWD on the lot at the moment.
 

Dmcerm

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I certainly wouldn't say much as to your personal experience seeing that I don't have a M-E yet, but I am just wondering and am in amazement as to how different the experiences have been.
Keeping in mind that forums are a microcosm and generally really small sample size, I guess I am just wondering, if there really is that much variance between M-Es and why very few of the early tester people on the YouTubes didn't mention the ride as being so bad.
I mean, I know it's a first model year of production (which some say should be avoided), and those early review videos were 'mostly production' ready cars, maybe not software-wise, but the the mechanics of the car were set for the most part.
I am not sure what to think. I ride in my 2012 GT coupe which I have modestly lowered, and either run on the stock 18s in winter, or the 20s in the summer (and I certainly can notice a difference in ride going from the 'big' sidewalls of the 18s, to the rubber bands of the 20s... but nothing that I think it too bad to not thoroughly enjoy the car), so maybe I am just used to a harsher ride and can't imagine the M-E being any worse than some might think my GT is... but for me, it's all acceptable and just can't imagine how there are such drastic differences between people's cars.
 

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Not sure if this helps or not: Here is 10 minutes of dashcam footage of my California Route 1 (RWD ER) going down I-94 near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not sure how much this is an indictment of the car being bumpy as it is about Michigan's crappy roads (this was back in Feb a few days after we picked it up). I'll be taking that route again this afternoon; going to pay a little more attention to how it rides. I really didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
 

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This is what I'm afraid of.

My car has gotten better over time, so it's also possible it's wearing in as you described earlier. I'll try to keep an eye on it... For me the issue was mainly noticeable during highway driving, where the shocks may not have had a chance to recover if they were indeed packing.
Mine too is definitely less bouncy with time. I thought it was that my driving is improving :)

(It was on the sporty side from day one, but never as bad as some have reported.)
 
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dbsb3233

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There’s been entirely too little speculation on this thread.
As opposed to every other thread here for the last 17 months, you mean?

Kinda par for the course. It's what we do here. :cool:
 

dbsb3233

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Not sure if this helps or not: Here is 10 minutes of dashcam footage of my California Route 1 (RWD ER) going down I-94 near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not sure how much this is an indictment of the car being bumpy as it is about Michigan's crappy roads (this was back in Feb a few days after we picked it up). I'll be taking that route again this afternoon; going to pay a little more attention to how it rides. I really didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
I generally find the ride much better at highway speeds than I do low/medium.
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