Eibach GT performance springs on a 4xer

[azerik]

So far a 1 inch drop, but I’ve only managed to drive it about 4 miles. The minor imperfections in the road are now a minor thing. It’s no longer riding like a tractor. More to come.

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[Panzer948]

Nice, I got Eibach for my M4 (F82) with a similar drop whe it was still new. Makes a big difference in looks but of course a bigger pain to deal with, including my own driveway. I haven't really considered it for the Mach E but glad there are options out there for it.

 

[azerik]

On my car I thought I would get about a 2 inch drop, which would have caused issues with my front lip and my driveway. I ended up only and inch lower all around which is actually great.
I can honestly say I have never been able to take a speed bump at anything over than crawling over it in this car. I’d seriously grind my teeth on just how overly hard the car was over every thing. Now I drive over parts of roads I have fully avoided for the last year. I still need to get an alignment done before too much mileage but it’s a very marked improvement.

currently my tires warmed up show up at 41psi. I’ll play with pressure a bit after the alignment, but I fully expect to be able to lower them.

The front end pogo’ness is gone as well as far as I can tell.

 

[markboris]

O my car I thought I would get about a 2 inch drop, which would have caused issues with my front lip and my driveway. I ended up only and inch lower all around which is actually great.
I can honestly say I have never been able to take a speed bump at anything over than crawling over it in this car. I’d seriously grind my teeth on just how overly hard the car was over every thing. Now I drive over parts of roads I have fully avoided for the last year. I still need to get an alignment done before too much mileage but it’s a very marked improvement.

currently my tires warmed up show up at 41psi. I’ll play with pressure a bit after the alignment, but I fully expect to be able to lower them.

The front end pogo’ness is gone as well as far as I can tell.

Erik, I knew I wasn't imagining the ride was smoother AND very happy to see you now confirmed it. That makes two of us (my thread on these is here: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/eibach-gt-pro-kit-lowering-springs-on-a-gtpe.33310/).

If anyone is considering the Eibach GT lowering springs and can deal with about a 1" drop without issues in their daily driving, I highly recommend them.

 

[azerik]

The 1 inch drop still gets the front lip over the majority of parking curbs I’ve met in the last few days. Also that drop changes my parking spot in my garage that I use the front 360 cam to target the lip of my garage cabinets a smidge. (A long with the back hatch now has just enough to clear the garage door if it opens on its own.) So far, and it could be my mind, BC seems to ping pong a little less, but still hugs that right lane marker (BC1.0).
Getting it on the alignment rack today.

 

[mkhuffman]

Erik, can you describe anything unusual you had to do with the Koni rear shocks to get them to work with the springs? I think you posted something about that on another thread, but I want to be sure I understand correctly.

I have the Koni's on the rear (thanks to @markboris's awesome work) and if I get the springs, I will need to let the shop know about anything unusual with the shocks. Hopefully they won't have a problem with it.

 

[azerik]

The Koni’s aren’t a problem with these springs. I had to jack the hub up about 2 inches in order to get the Koni’s mounted. When put it back together the arm is further away from the upper mount, just because it’s been taken apart. I did dial down to 1.75 turns. I’m just treating different settings and tire pressures as well.

 

[azerik]

"Longer term report"
After about 2 weeks, a 'eh pretty close' alignment and 650 miles (Man I drive a bunch now days) I'm even happier with them. I have a bunch of physics recordings that if I ever get the time I'll make an overlay graph of them but as it stands nothing I've run into does that easy enough for me yet.

Realize I am:
.Running the stock 245/45/20 Conti RX's
.Eibach front and rear sway bars (front set on 'lightest' setting)
.I target 40 to 41psi tire pressure when warm (this is currently showing up in the TPMS in the dash, it used to be the dash read 2 psi higher than reality but now it's within a .5 psi)

?I have a super annoying street and neighborhood (which is probably why Mark B wants to come visit my hood, for a good laugh).
?I have horrible surface streets with lots and lots of imperfections. And I drive this horrible 8 mile route 2 to 6 times a day. ?1/2 mile of neighborhood warped roads (throws the car side to side because the tire pressure is about 36 psi when I back out of the garage) ?1/2 mile of continuous cracks and warped road to the 101 interchange where it's a 2 inch high lip of melted blacktop to concrete (This is REALLY fun in my FFE as I almost ALWAYS have to break fairly hard from 45mph, because the light likes to change and people jump the light all the time. In my FFE the front end of the car skips over this lip the proceeds to kick the ABS in and out like crazy, pretty much doubling my stopping distance and sounding like a 50's Chevy truck locked up). ?about 1.5 miles of on ramp, freeway, off ramp (all whoopie concrete). This usually gets the tires just to 40psi. Then a ??right turn over my 'yeehaw' super whoopie concrete which proceeds to attempt to buck anyone in the back seat out of the back seat, on to a ?2 inch lip of melted blacktop again, ?across many a half ass patched manhole cover. Through 2 intersections where the crosswalks are ?brick and the blacktop, well it's a big melted lip again but about 1 inch. Then into the school with ?2 off angle drainage ditches, ?2 massive speed humps, ?4 giant 'tile concrete' crosswalks through the school. Then pretty much the same thing on the way home except just before the freeway interchange theres ?6 giant cracks and yet an even ?bigger lip of blacktop to concrete, then ?whoopie concrete on ramp, ?freeway, ?offramp, ?right turn blacktop lip, ?bunch of cracks in the street, ?terrible off camber drainage 'thing' (I really have no idea what this is for, it's over flowing if there's 1/4 inch of rain, which we don't get. We get a couple drops, or a reason to build an another Arc. ?Then my wobbly street and ?driveway with big ole curb. Times 4 to 6 times a day. Now that the visual is out of the way you might understand what I've been dealing with and just why I've been under this car almost as much as Mark Boris.

Shortly after I got the car delivered (10 days after I had paid for it from the local dealer who dropped the ball) I took my new found fun out for a run around the neighborhood. Instantly I was stuck with 'what in the world just went wrong'. This was not like then when I drove it in Gilbert. So I drove to Gilbert and drove it where I had test drove it and it drove like I remembered. Then I headed home and was struck with disappointment again. THANKFULLY there was many a complaint on this board and I got to reading. I adjusted the tires as previously talked about and it helped. Didn't solve it but helped. So on to the mods (all of which except for these springs covered in other threads) and thankfully I'm able to turn a wrench, or at least smash my knuckles and cut the crap out of myself if needed (Those rear brake shields can put a knife to shame).

Fast forward about 10 months after I've had the car and read about the Eibach springs that came out. I wasn't sold on them based on there not being specs on the site. I know it's several hours of work and had kinda lost my interest to crawl under this car again. THANKFULLY I can count on Mark Boris to lol. And he did. AND he got specs. And the specs were good. There's however a slightly odd config. The non-gt springs. What this car has always needed was less initial spring rate. I'd throw around many a way to try to do this using coilovers (which easiest is the KW) but every 'kit' I looked at was a single spring rate. I tried to design my own dual spring (thus dual rate) for the rear, simply not enough room and you need the softest spring to collapse fully before the second spring takes the load. This means many many hours of being under the car. Which I wasn't going to do, not to mention throwing out ~$1k just to start on the rear with the front not even being an option. Thanks Eibach for not taking the easy route and just giving us drop springs, tip of the hat there. Thanks again for actually designing them to work with the stock rear shocks, which are kind of one off oddities currently. Funny enough I didn't see the Eibach springs as progressive when I look on the site when they were released so I ignored them until Mark posted up his experience. At which I dug into the specs and made the decision to get the GT springs rather than the non-gt. Reason? progressive vs not.

Why is the non-gt not progressive in the rear? I think it's because they (Eibach) were banking on the fact that non-gt people won't tinker as much with the car. Thus most of them would be running the factory sway bars. If so the linear springs would actually act a little as a stiffer swaybar without actually replacing the sway bar.

Why havn't I gone and got a GTPE and been done with it?
Wife won't budge (for some reason, but we'll put $35k+ into the pool we used 3 hours a year)
I'm not fully sold on the GTPE due to numerous reasons

That said. I firmly believe these springs and a rear swaybar is the golden ticket for those looking for an SUV type ride out of a 5000 lb EV on low profile tires.

When I ordered the springs I had grandious dreams of it riding on air. No noises, like on a fluffy cloud. Well it's not. But it's leaps and bounds better than stock. I believe prior to the Eibach springs I had the equivalent ride of a GT, maybe a little harsher. Now I'd say it's as nice or better than the GTPE's I've previously driven. I'm still playing with tire pressures etc and continuing to tinker. It's just a bit harder now because I need to jack it up to get my arm in to adjust the Koni's.

When I put on the springs I had set the Koni's to 1.75 turns on the rebound (from fully off, turned all the way - ). On the initial ride I was much impressed with the way it road and how much less the the road I was feeling. Previously I felt I was one with the road, and the cracks and every rock, dip and bump. But realized I'm, now, nearly 250 lbs 5 foot 10. So I'm a pretty good amount of weight in the seat. So I bounce. The car bounces I bounce once or twice. The bouncing twice drove me to start dialing back the rebound. I turned it down to 1.25 turns. I bounced less, but noticed I heard more tire noise. My kid almost instantly chimed in at the amount of road noise. Thinking about how Eibach states the springs are designed for the stock shocks I dialed down to .75 turns. Even better ride, and oddly a bit less road noise. So I turned it down to .25. And it floats over a lot of stuff that used to make me grind my teeth. Each time I turned the Koni's down there was a little give and get. It would give me a bit lighter ride. Not feeling everything in the world. And I'd get a little road noise in return. As a kept dialing down it'd let the back end float more, but in return I get a little more side to side wobble. It's not bad by any means and it still a vast improvement over what I bought 14 months ago. I'd venture to say that on the freeway it feels very much like my RX450h (the back is softer on it than my 08 400h was after 100,000 miles).

 

[azerik]

Mark Boris was in town and we took a ride over my hell loop and honestly I had a hard time explaining what the car used to feel like over these roads. It soaks up so much of the stuff I've been bothered by for the last year. Thankfully he came over in his previous Premium and had taken a self tour of the neighborhood lol. Each step along the way of mods on this car has made a difference. This one takes the cake. You are aware of things you are hitting mostly from the sound of hitting it. Previously you were aware because the car pogo'd all over when you hit something. Both of us agree the progressive springs are where it's at for the MME.

Pros:
Massive amounts of road pogoing is gone.
People in the back seat are not thrown all over.
Minor imperfections are pretty much not noticeable
Even large transitions like train tracks and our amazingly melted roads are much more composed and transition in the spring from soft to firm isn't like a light switch. They work together. Even with the Koni's dialed way down I get 1 cycle of the backend bounce when hitting large things like train tracks.
The front end popping up is 90% gone. Some things will still make it pop up once but it's not the bouncing all over the place (headlights bouncing all over) that it was.


Cons:
They'll be a little expensive to get installed as you have to find a shop to do it (or do it yourself) and get an alignment afterwards to maximum effect, plus keeping your tires from eating themselves. (suggested -1.5 to -1.0 degrees camber on all 4 corners, might require cam bolts for the front)
Our measurements on the GTPE and Premium ground to wheel well is 29 inches (+/- 3/8ths of an inch) Math wise any MME running the GT Pro kit should sit at 29 inches.
The front lip is a bit low. So far I have cleared every curb and driveway (1 finger), but there are higher curbs out there. Not a dealbreaker but GT's do have a slightly thicker/lower lip by about 1/2 a finger
This also means the bottom of the door is a bit lower too, meaning watch the curb you park next to. So far I have cleared all these by 1.5 inches (2 fingers)

Mentionables:
The rear hatch button will be 1.5 inches lower. I have to bend down ever slightly to hit it now when opening.
The rear hatch when open will be 1.5 inches lower as well. If your garage is like mine you'll enjoy the added clearance when taking out the Costco stuff.
It'll also be that much closer to your head if you're 6 ft+
There is a bit of float while on the road now. Because of the lighter 1st stage that's soaking up all these bumps you'll be a little disconnected from the road. I equate this as the difference between my Porsche Boxster (Firm flat connected) to my RX 450h (Connected but floaty feeling in the rear a bit). With the Koni's on about 1.5 turns it felt very similar to my Boxster, you don't have the floaty feeling, but you feel much more of the road imperfections. Turned down to .25 turns the back rides like my Lexus, floaty with a hint of road chatter.
So far with my stock GT tires I still need to be at about 41 psi for the suspension to really do the job. If it's less than that the tires can still act like suspension ballons and bounce over little stuff. (I'm a big guy and the premium seats would do what I called a double kidney punch, often. When my tires are below 40psi I get the double punch on a bunch of little tiny things in the road So I target 40 to 41psi when warmed. That means in summer I might back out of my driveway and my tires be at 37psi. I have to just deal with it for about 4 minutes until they warm up)


I think this Really helps sum up what a difference this makes with this car. It's gone from the inability to sing a song (because of bouncing around in the seat from bumps) to really enjoying the drive. It really is how the car should have been delivered.

tl;chatgpt:
The author outlines the challenges posed by their neighborhood's rough roads and continuous imperfections, detailing various sections of their daily route. They experimented with tire pressures and undertook modifications, particularly installing Eibach springs and adjusting Koni shocks. The discussion underscores the springs' progressive nature and their impact on ride quality, addressing both pros and cons. They emphasize reduced road pogoing and improved comfort over various terrains, albeit noting installation complexities and potential clearance issues. Ultimately, the modifications significantly enhance the driving experience, offering smoother rides and mitigating previous discomforts associated with the vehicle's handling and road conditions.

 

[markboris]

Erik, you weren’t kidding yesterday when you said you were going to write up a detailed review!!

It was really good to be able to ride in another Mach-E with these springs (I think you are the second one here) and confirm what I originally experienced as soon as I installed mine. Having the mag ride shocks makes mine ride a bit different but still much better than stock. Every time I come to AZ which is at least every 60 days, I’m reminded how bouncy and harsh the ride is in my previous premium. Taking a ride in your car yesterday after driving 50 min in my previous premium to get to your house felt like I was in a different car.

While these GT Pro-kit lowering springs do soften the ride and take a lot of the harshness away they only lessen the bounce a little. I think adding the Koni shocks is a good idea if you have roads that cause the galloping bounce. They don’t need to be adjusted as firm as they do with the OEM springs and can be adjusted depending on the particular roads the car is being driven on. I have no roads at all anywhere around where I live that are anything like the ones I drive on in AZ. I don’t think I could live with the stock Mach-E if I lived here (I’m still in AZ).

Later this week another member is coming up to my place to install these springs plus the Koni’s so we’ll have another review hopefully this coming weekend.

 

[azerik]

Sometime a week or two ago I turned the Koni’s all the way off (the rebound down as low as it would go) and drove around for many a day. The back end was wavy and didn’t feel very planted, but the road chatter wasn’t felt as much, and wasn’t so loud in the cab. Today I turned them back up to 1/3rd of a turn from off and man the back is so much more level and planted.
My thought in turning them off was to attempt to get close to what the stock rear shocks would be like with these springs. It’s ok, not really bothersome but there is a lot of little movement. If I was to try to equate the tried I’d say it’s very similar to a GTPE in whisper.
At 1/3rd of a turn up it’s a touch more firm than a GTPE in Unbridled. The tire noise ai get is loudest at lower psi, about 41 or slight above on the RX’s the cabin db drops nicely. I’ll try to remember to get a db reading.
The temp swings are all over as it’s 84 today and 65 tomorrow, so I’m still pretty in tune with my tire pressure based on the ride quality. Still a pleasure to drive and with the bars it’s flat when pushed hard in the corners. Gigidy gigidy.

 

[Rickless]

Today I turned them back up to 1/3rd of a turn from off and man the back is so much more level and planted.

I've been noticing the same sensation in my Mach E, but was preparing to bump the Koni's all the way up to experience the opposite end of the rebound spectrum. As I am still a Koni newbie, do you have a good way of making these adjustments? I'll probably have to jack up the car now that it is lowered, but I'm not sure how accurate I can be twisting the adjustment knob.

 

[Rickless]

Also, for all lurkers out there following this thread that are considering the GT Lowering Kit (E10-35-054-04-22) and/or the sway bars (E40-35-054-01-11), Eibach is having a Spring Sale 4/1-4/12/24.

 

[azerik]

I've been noticing the same sensation in my Mach E, but was preparing to bump the Koni's all the way up to experience the opposite end of the rebound spectrum. As I am still a Koni newbie, do you have a good way of making these adjustments? I'll probably have to jack up the car now that it is lowered, but I'm not sure how accurate I can be twisting the adjustment knob.

Sadly the only way I've found was to jack it up a bit. I don't even have a knob so I made my own blade type 'wrench' and to say that's bad is an understatement haha. I leaft my half dome caps off to make it easier to get at the Koni 'blade'. Depending on your roads all the way up might be amazing. One thing to keep note of is how it acts at warmed up tire pressures. I stupidly spent a LOT of time adjusting only to realize the tires were still 2 psi lower than it took to actually start using all of the suspension.

Mines coming off the rack now. We could only get the rear camber to -1.9 and -2.0. I'm not going to mess with it now but maybe again down the road when I need tires. In the mean time it means I'll actually start rotating these tires (hopefully, I think so far I only kept replacing them).

 

[markboris]

I've been noticing the same sensation in my Mach E, but was preparing to bump the Koni's all the way up to experience the opposite end of the rebound spectrum. As I am still a Koni newbie, do you have a good way of making these adjustments? I'll probably have to jack up the car now that it is lowered, but I'm not sure how accurate I can be twisting the adjustment knob.

Eric, I took the knob and ground it down to make it much smaller to fit on the adjustment post easier then marked the sides so as I was turning it, knew how much I adjusted the setting. However, that was on other members cars that I installed the shocks and left them with those adjustment knobs. I don't have any here to modify. Don't forget, if you want to go full firm which I would recommend so that you can see how it is at the opposite end, turn the adjustment post fully to the left (counterclockwise) then back off 1/2 turn. You cannot leave it fully counterclockwise as it will damage the shock.

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