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

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bellyer

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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.
3.5 minutes in and I was able to recognize similar bouncing as I am experiencing, especially between the 1:20 mark and the 2:00 minute mark and also again in the 3:00-4:00 mark. I think it is a bit hard to notice the bouncing because the dashcam is in a fixed position mounted to the vehicle, but if you keep an eye on the yellow line on the left of the road, you can absolutely see the bounce that I have come to know all too well. I was hoping I could get my wife to come out for a ride to film the bouncing while I drive, but haven't been able to yet. I feel like, in order to really get the sensation of what this bouncing physically puts the bobble-headed occupants through, it might be better even to get footage of someone just holding their phone/camera filming.
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Cnote

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I have not. My dealer appears to have a RWD model, but I don't know if that would be an apples-to-apples comparison, but it might help to figure out if it is my car
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 have a 2014 Corvette and just got rid of my Toyota Highlander so I have an idea of harsher vs cushier ride. The Mach e is not as harsh over bumps as the Corvette but accentuates the bumps significantly more with a more bouncy response. For me I prefer the harsher ride of the Vette because it's not as bouncy/wavy over the bumps and doesn't exaggerate bumps as much. While the highlander was no Lexus it was cushy. I expected the Mach e to be between the two but leaning more towards the Vette because I know they were trying to make it Mustang-like. The service manager at my dealership even commented that the suspension seemed stiffer than a mustang and didn't seem to compress much.

I happen to be very prone to motion sickness, but luckily for me it has not been an issue with this car, so that's why it's not a deal breaker for me. Others that have ridden with me are not prone to motion sickness but have noticed the bounciness.
 

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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.
Getting a loaner RWD MMe would still be great if you can get it. Test it out with your wife too. See if its the same ride or not. Please report back to us if you experience the same bounciness. It will help a lot of us who have not taken delivery or who are on the fence.
 

Cnote

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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.)
That is what I'm hoping and what the service manager said may occur. If things loosen up a bit after driving more I think I will be good to go. You've given me some hope that I may not need to hit up the aftermarket although I am wondering if the weight difference between our models plays a larger role (I have an SR RWD).

I will say though that I absolutely love the car, I've been fortunate in that I haven't had any issues as mentioned by others in this forum (knock on wood) and that this is the one complaint I have. Since it's something that can be addressed eventually, I'm happy.
 
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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.)
I am curious if maybe I will find the bounciness start to subside. Living in the city, especially during the pandemic, we are not doing a ton of driving. In the past 2 weeks or so since having the MME, I have put about 300 miles on it. Seeing that you are stating that you think the bounciness is subsiding, I am curious how long you have had yours and how many miles you have put on it at this point.
 


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Mine does it steady state with cruise control on.
SteelMach: I'd love to see you test another MMe and see if the ride is the same or not. If you ever do test another one out, please let us know what you find.
 

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I am curious if maybe I will find the bounciness start to subside. Living in the city, especially during the pandemic, we are not doing a ton of driving. In the past 2 weeks or so since having the MME, I have put about 300 miles on it. Seeing that you are stating that you think the bounciness is subsiding, I am curious how long you have had yours and how many miles you have put on it at this point.
Just looked, I am only at 630 miles. I do drive with gusto, enjoying the fast starts. According to "my journeys" in the app, which I finally got working, I might want to consider less rapid acceleration!

While washing Louiebluey yesterday, I noticed my brake rotors are getting pretty rusty, so it looks like I need to add some aggressive braking to may mania :). I generally don't speed, but I do enjoy the rapid acceleration without tire spin!
 
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I am curious if maybe I will find the bounciness start to subside. Living in the city, especially during the pandemic, we are not doing a ton of driving. In the past 2 weeks or so since having the MME, I have put about 300 miles on it. Seeing that you are stating that you think the bounciness is subsiding, I am curious how long you have had yours and how many miles you have put on it at this point.
I'm at 588 on my RWD SR and not noticing it as much as I did at 25 miles.
 
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Well, sadly, my dealer can't get me into their service department until next week at the soonest, but I will be out of state for a couple of weeks with the car starting Friday. I guess the mystery of the bouncy ride will have to wait for any updates until mid-April unfortunately and I will get to enjoy the bounciness on a 5-hour ride up into Wisconsin and on a bunch of winding roads through rural areas. Might need to stock up on some dramamine before the trip... ?
 

All Hat No Cattle

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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:
Ummm, it has been, LOL. Post # 75. :)

Wow! So some people experience a "bouncy" ride, and some don't. Why?

When the Gen 13 (2015-2020) F-150 first came out, there were similar complaints about a "bouncy" or "unsettled" ride on the forums.

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/bouncy-rear-end-322182/

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/light-bouncy-rear-end-highway-340057/

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/shocking-353647/

The vast majority of posters did not have this problem, those that did got aftermarket shocks and they were satisfied with the results.

And the problem went away in later years.

So here is my question. Since there were 8 different part numbers for F-150 shocks, due to the different weights of the different models, can anyone see how many different part numbers there are for MME shocks?

Because shouldn't the shocks for a AWD Extended Range MME be different than RWD Standard Range?

If so, what is the possibility of mixing those shocks up in production? Or is that impossible? :)

On my 2016 F-150, my shocks had a white part # label on them. Do the MME's have something similar?

This is just a WAG, but you never know.
 
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pooter03

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I've had my RW drive Mach E for a week and haven't noticed any bouncing at all.
 

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I truly love almost everything about my Mach-E First Edition AWD ER, but my wife, son and I literally get car sick when we take it out for anything more than a ride through the neighborhood because it is so incredibly bouncy. ... I have lowered the PSI in my tires to 37 hoping to address the comfort of the ride, but that has not helped.
huh.... Mine is not 'bouncy' at all... which is an accomplishment on generally crappy New Mexico roads. ;)

You've checked tire pressure, that would have been my first suggestion. I don't know if there is any active suspension settings or anything that would affect shock/strut/dampening to help with an up-and-down 'bounce'.

If you are having a forward-back rocking, you might try turning off 1-pedal driving to see if that makes a difference.

The only other thing I can think of is that I turned OFF all the active driver assistance stuff. I can't stand the steering wheel 'feedback' warnings when you get too close to side or centerlines
 

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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.
3.5 minutes in and I was able to recognize similar bouncing as I am experiencing, especially between the 1:20 mark and the 2:00 minute mark and also again in the 3:00-4:00 mark. I think it is a bit hard to notice the bouncing because the dashcam is in a fixed position mounted to the vehicle, but if you keep an eye on the yellow line on the left of the road, you can absolutely see the bounce that I have come to know all too well. I was hoping I could get my wife to come out for a ride to film the bouncing while I drive, but haven't been able to yet. I feel like, in order to really get the sensation of what this bouncing physically puts the bobble-headed occupants through, it might be better even to get footage of someone just holding their phone/camera filming.
Just got back from that same stretch of highway. I tried to make note of where in the video, and thus where on the highway, that you noticed the bounciness.

I can say with some certainty that every point in the video where you notice the car move vertically is in response to some imperfection in the road. Even something as simple as a stripe of asphalt sealant is enough to move the car a little. On the, relatively rare, smooth sections of the road the car didn't move.

After the trip I asked the wife (as she was riding with me) if she noticed any unplesant bouncing and her opinion matched mine: Everything the car did was in response to something in the road (my wife tends to be prone to car sickness as well and she has never reported that the Mach-E has had any negative affect on her).

I do think the car feels a little bit like an unloaded pickup at times: where it feels like its sitting at the bottom end of the suspension and small bumps do move it but it really isn't as bad as, say, an unloaded F-350.
 

marcuscanby

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I have a Premiunm RWD mustang and with 200 miles on it I too notice that it is very bouncy especially on a smooth road is there a correction for this yet? I have owned 4 mustangs and never had this problem but love the car the new mustang is very nice but lets get rid of the bouncy ride
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