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

[MrRossKeys]

I have an appointment to have it looked at by my dealership on Wednesday. Also, I have had a rep from Ford corporate follow up with me after seeing my posts on this site and he assures me that a group of folks from Ford's corporate team will be working with my dealer on their investigation of the issue in some capacity, which is pretty cool, I think. I will definitely report back after having the car inspected.

I received a call a couple days ago from a worker at the plant in Mexico. He says he received my information from a rep tracking responses about the vehicle. He asked me extensively about the bouncy ride and then he mentioned the wind noise as well.

Nothing specific came of the call, but it sounds like Ford is collecting as much data as they can. It sounded (by the line of questions) that they believe the cause is coming from the amount of air in the tires. He spent a lot of time asking me about the tires and if I had taken any air out of them (which I haven't).

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[bellyer]

I received a call a couple days ago from a worker at the plant in Mexico. He says he received my information from a rep tracking responses about the vehicle. He asked me extensively about the bouncy ride and then he mentioned the wind noise as well.

Nothing specific came of the call, but it sounds like Ford is collecting as much data as they can. It sounded (by the line of questions) that they believe the cause is coming from the amount of air in the tires. He spent a lot of time asking me about the tires and if I had taken any air out of them (which I haven't).

Glad to hear that others are being contacted, too! Sure, none of this is an immediate fix to the problem, but I do appreciate that Ford is taking this all seriously. The comments about the tire air pressure were ones that I discussed with the rep who contacted me, but we didn't dig in on that a lot. He was glad to hear that I had tried the vehicle at multiple tire pressures, even if it did not help alleviate the bounciness.

 

[Cnote]

Glad to hear that others are being contacted, too! Sure, none of this is an immediate fix to the problem, but I do appreciate that Ford is taking this all seriously. The comments about the tire air pressure were ones that I discussed with the rep who contacted me, but we didn't dig in on that a lot. He was glad to hear that I had tried the vehicle at multiple tire pressures, even if it did not help alleviate the bounciness.

Yeah, the tire pressure is something most of us tried on first instinct. The suspension acts kind of like it's bottomed out over bumps and I know it's supposed to be stiff to handle the extra weight and still be "sporty" but they went too stiff for me (and I drive a Corvette as my other car lol). When I took it to the dealer the service guy said the suspension was so stiff it almost looked like the tires absorbed more than the actual suspension itself. I'm looking forward to seeing further discussions (especially if we can leverage the European tuning or the suspension will loosen up over time) before I take it to a suspension shop for aftermarket tweaking.

 

[Cnote]

I received a call a couple days ago from a worker at the plant in Mexico. He says he received my information from a rep tracking responses about the vehicle. He asked me extensively about the bouncy ride and then he mentioned the wind noise as well.

Nothing specific came of the call, but it sounds like Ford is collecting as much data as they can. It sounded (by the line of questions) that they believe the cause is coming from the amount of air in the tires. He spent a lot of time asking me about the tires and if I had taken any air out of them (which I haven't).

It's not the pressure, I think a lot of us tried that initially.

 

[bellyer]

Yeah, the tire pressure is something most of us tried on first instinct. The suspension acts kind of like it's bottomed out over bumps and I know it's supposed to be stiff to handle the extra weight and still be "sporty" but they went too stiff for me (and I drive a Corvette as my other car lol). When I took it to the dealer the service guy said the suspension was so stiff it almost looked like the tires absorbed more than the actual suspension itself. I'm looking forward to seeing further discussions (especially if we can leverage the European tuning or the suspension will loosen up over time) before I take it to a suspension shop for aftermarket tweaking.

Yup, that is exactly it. My Mach-E rides as though there is no shock absorption whatsoever. You feel every single bump like a "thud" and when you are on a stretch of road with constant seams in it, the car just seems to rock/bounce over each of them. What you are describing is the exact thing that I have noticed. Can't wait to see what comes of my service appointment tomorrow.

 

[Crilly]

Drive the piss out of it. It well fix it self by 2000 miles.

 

[Cnote]

Drive the piss out of it. It well fix it self by 2000 miles.

I definitely have some serious driving to do then!

 

[bellyer]

Drive the piss out of it. It well fix it self by 2000 miles.

I'm at 1,694 miles right this moment and it certainly has not fixed itself. If anything, I feel like I am bothered even more by it at this point in time.

 

[krafty81]

I received a call a couple days ago from a worker at the plant in Mexico. He says he received my information from a rep tracking responses about the vehicle. He asked me extensively about the bouncy ride and then he mentioned the wind noise as well.

Nothing specific came of the call, but it sounds like Ford is collecting as much data as they can. It sounded (by the line of questions) that they believe the cause is coming from the amount of air in the tires. He spent a lot of time asking me about the tires and if I had taken any air out of them (which I haven't).

It's the tires. Mine came from dealer all at 47 PSI or greater for some reason. After I deflated all to 39 PSI, the ride has gotten much better. I don't notice issues anymore.

 

[GJG-Mach-E]

I remember seeing the vehicle weights of the various configurations posted here and if I remember correctly, they range from ~4300 pounds (RWD SR) to ~4800 pounds (AWD, ER). Does anyone know if Ford is tuning the suspension for each model based on its weight?

 

[bellyer]

It's the tires. Mine came from dealer all at 47 PSI or greater for some reason. After I deflated all to 39 PSI, the ride has gotten much better. I don't notice issues anymore.

Haha, nope, not the tires and this has been brought up many times throughout this thread. This is definitely a suspension issue. On delivery, my Mach-E was at 44 PSI. I have the cold pressure down to 35 PSI currently and the issue persists. The issue is definitely not the tires. There was a slight improvement in the ride with the reduction in PSI, but definitely not an improvement in the actual issue that I am talking about in this thread and that some others have noted, as well.

 

[dbsb3233]

I'm at 1,694 miles right this moment and it certainly has not fixed itself. If anything, I feel like I am bothered even more by it at this point in time.

1900 miles on mine. Lowered PSI to 37 cold and that helped a little. More miles on the suspension helped a little. And I'm probably just getting more used to it. But yeah, all that has done is helped some. It's still rather harsh over many road bumps at lower speeds.

But at higher speeds, it glides really well. It's a real mixed bag. Great most of the time, but when it's not, it's very noticeable and disappointing.

In essence, it's built for highways. It really cruises great at high speed on good highways. We're on a road trip to Vegas now and the drive was great, and the smooth NV roads are great. But soon we'll be back home on CO's crappy roads.

 

[krafty81]

Haha, nope, not the tires and this has been brought up many times throughout this thread. This is definitely a suspension issue. On delivery, my Mach-E was at 44 PSI. I have the cold pressure down to 35 PSI currently and the issue persists. The issue is definitely not the tires. There was a slight improvement in the ride with the reduction in PSI, but definitely not an improvement in the actual issue that I am talking about in this thread and that some others have noted, as well.

All I can say is that it worked for me. YMMV.

 

[markboris]

I am going to throw my two cents in here. I can see what everyone is talking about with the bouncy ride. Yes on certain road conditions it does seem a little bouncy. As of right now, I have a 2020 GT500 and a 2007 F-150. The Mach-E is more bouncy than either of those vehicles. With that said, the way the Mach-E rides doesn't bother me enough to want to get rid of the car.

I had a 2016 Focus RS and it was the first year. The car had the same kind of bouncy ride, but much worse. It was a complaint by many reviewers just like the Mach-E is. In 2017, Ford updated the shocks to make it ride better. I changed out those shocks with the updated ones and it was much much better. It rode more like a normal car. Still firm but the bounce was almost gone.

I am thinking this might be a similar thing. I had thought it might be the springs. In my effort to lower the car a bit (prior to Steeda coming out with their lowering springs), I replaced the Extended battery springs with the standard battery springs. The car only dropped 1/4" and the new springs obviously have more weight on them. I am not sure but maybe 400 lbs or so, whatever the extra extended battery weight is. In any case, the ride is exactly the same. The bounce is no different so I am still thinking it is the shocks and the way they are tuned.

About the tires, that is not what is causing the bounce. I had the original tires on the car for a very short time (less than 300 miles). I have since had much wider wheels (20x8.5 front, 20x10 rear) and tires (255/45/20 front, 295/40/20 rear) and with lower tire pressure 34 lbs and again the bounce has not changed. The only thing I have not changed out are the shocks. If Bilstien were to make shocks for this car, I would buy them in a heartbeat. They have always seem to make my vehicles ride much better. I am thinking maybe the GT with it's magneride shocks might be better. They sure do make the GT500 ride nice.

 

[bellyer]

Gotta say, I am glad to finally have my Mach-E in the shop being looked at for the suspension issues I have been facing. Ford definitely seems to be taking this seriously and they sent out a Field Service Engineer to help with the investigation and try to figure things out. Luckily, they also have a similarly spec'd Mach-E at the dealership that the Field Service Engineer will be testing out, too, to see if the issue is just my car or if it is also the same in another. I will say that the loaner, bare-bones Ford Escape I was given for the day is really a much more comfortable riding experience than my much more expensive Mach-E. I was sad to drive off in a fossil fuel burning Escape though. ? I am really hopeful that we will get some sort of clarity on this issue and find out if there is anything that can be done to improve the ride, even if it is a few months or a year down the line.

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