KW V3 Coilover Suspension Released for Mach-E

[kltye]

This is pretty much what this shop did it in. About 3.5 hrs.


I looked up @taikajim’s old posts and in May he quoted about an hour per corner for fitting…that matches my experience.

I went to Evolve Automotive, www.evolveautomotive.com and they specialise in suspensions and have done loads of KWs. They said it was a straightforward affair.

p.s. folks pls make your own judgments. I am wary of raising expectations too high. taikajim said the problem was improved not fixed and that’s exactly my assesment too.

I don’t think this is a problem that can be 100% fixed.

I understand that it's not 100% fixed, but in your opinion, is it... 60%? 70% fixed? And, the ride is not harsher under normal conditions, right?

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[andreww_emm]

Given these are the first try at coilovers, I suspect there will be some trial and error to get the valving and spring rates just right.

If you go back to the shop, they can work with KW to spec out different springs or valving. Of course that's not free as there will be additional parts and labor involved.

I actually disagree, as somebody who has spent about 15 years in the aftermarket world, there are many platforms, which KW has pioneered and not had issues with springs or valving. Having personally built coilover kits for my own track cars, they definitely take into consideration all variables before launching a product. It’s not just a shot from the hip, it is a well throughout product that has extensive time on the road and on the dyno. Having owned a dozen sets across a wide variety of platforms, I have only ones that needed to purchase new springs. This setup should be bang on and with both compression and rebound adjustment you can truly dial in the feel you want.

 

[Anton]

Is the 3k price tag justified for what you get in return?

 

[coolshades]

I understand that it's not 100% fixed, but in your opinion, is it... 60%? 70% fixed? And, the ride is not harsher under normal conditions, right?

warning - long post!

i am going to disappoint you with my answer unfortunately.

for two reasons. the app i used AccelView, is unreliable. i have a Jaguar XF and took it for a spin yesterday with the app running and got crap results.

hence the measurements i took are crap as well.

despite that, i am confident the ride quality is improved. the car still bounces on unevenness and potholes and imperfections but it is a very controlled one and not the juddery one as before.

roads where the surface is uneven but with no imperfection, the car glides.

however, and this is the second reason for disappointing you, this is all subjective.

AND, very importantly, i don't want to feed into confirmation bias.

what is for sure, to me, are two things:

a) the ride has not worsened.
b) the ride has improved.

ideally anyone interested in these KWs should ride a Mach E that's already been fitted with them, but i think only mine and Taikajim's cars have those right now. He seems to have left the forum, however.

he made one observation though which is very relevant. he suffers from motion sickness and after fitment, he didn't.

@zoidbb said he has got these but he too seems to be a very infrequent poster.

so, in short, getting a ride seems to be unworkable.

i bought these knowing that but to me the equation was simple.

i had some spare cash luckily. i was very confident the ride wouldn't be worse and lastly i am also confident i can sell these back in the aftermarket if i have to, for some money. i might be out of pocket but that is a risk i am prepared to take.

a couple more points.

my installer says the KWs needs about 500 miles to settle. they are very much a KW shop so i have no reason to disbelieve them. which means, the ride will likely improve over time.

secondly, they have left the coilovers at factory settings. i haven't fine tuned them and that can also help the ride.

lastly, i am being cautious in all my posts because i don't want folks to go buy on the basis of an anonymous poster and then get disappointed. these are expensive.

ride comfort is subjective. we have seen that. not every Mach E buyer is complaining about ride quality!

what is comfortable/bouncy to me, may not be to others.

 

[coolshades]

I actually disagree, as somebody who has spent about 15 years in the aftermarket world, there are many platforms, which KW has pioneered and not had issues with springs or valving. Having personally built coilover kits for my own track cars, they definitely take into consideration all variables before launching a product. It’s not just a shot from the hip, it is a well throughout product that has extensive time on the road and on the dyno. Having owned a dozen sets across a wide variety of platforms, I have only ones that needed to purchase new springs. This setup should be bang on and with both compression and rebound adjustment you can truly dial in the feel you want.

what i haven't done with my set up, is the tuning. my installer has left them at factory setting but also said there is scope for tuning to my needs.

they don't do that and hence i am looking for a shot that can help with this.

whether KW has done extensive testing on a Mach E before releasing these ... i have no way of knowing.

 

[andreww_emm]

what i haven't done with my set up, is the tuning. my installer has left them at factory setting but also said there is scope for tuning to my needs.

they don't do that and hence i am looking for a shot that can help with this.

whether KW has done extensive testing on a Mach E before releasing these ... i have no way of knowing.

When it comes to dialing in a suspension, it is an iterative process. If the guys at Evolve left them at the recommended KW setting, I would suggest driving it like this for about a month until the suspension has fully settled and you are ready to make an adjustment. Also take note of how the car feels, over small bumps versus big bumps. I've always turned up the compression adjustment on every set I've owned, but I like a firmer ride.

 

[bellyer]

@coolshades and @taikajim - I am curious if you had experienced the harmonic bounce issue, as well, before the KW installation and, if so, do you find that the KWs are having a positive effect on reducing the harmonic bounce situation?

 

[coolshades]

@coolshades and @taikajim - I am curious if you had experienced the harmonic bounce issue, as well, before the KW installation and, if so, do you find that the KWs are having a positive effect on reducing the harmonic bounce situation?

@bellyer that's hard for me to answer since i don't know what it means on a Mach E!!!

 

[kltye]

warning - long post!

i am going to disappoint you with my answer unfortunately.

for two reasons. the app i used AccelView, is unreliable. i have a Jaguar XF and took it for a spin yesterday with the app running and got crap results.

hence the measurements i took are crap as well.

despite that, i am confident the ride quality is improved. the car still bounces on unevenness and potholes and imperfections but it is a very controlled one and not the juddery one as before.

roads where the surface is uneven but with no imperfection, the car glides.

however, and this is the second reason for disappointing you, this is all subjective.

AND, very importantly, i don't want to feed into confirmation bias.

what is for sure, to me, are two things:

a) the ride has not worsened.
b) the ride has improved.

ideally anyone interested in these KWs should ride a Mach E that's already been fitted with them, but i think only mine and Taikajim's cars have those right now. He seems to have left the forum, however.

he made one observation though which is very relevant. he suffers from motion sickness and after fitment, he didn't.

@zoidbb said he has got these but he too seems to be a very infrequent poster.

so, in short, getting a ride seems to be unworkable.

i bought these knowing that but to me the equation was simple.

i had some spare cash luckily. i was very confident the ride wouldn't be worse and lastly i am also confident i can sell these back in the aftermarket if i have to, for some money. i might be out of pocket but that is a risk i am prepared to take.

a couple more points.

my installer says the KWs needs about 500 miles to settle. they are very much a KW shop so i have no reason to disbelieve them. which means, the ride will likely improve over time.

secondly, they have left the coilovers at factory settings. i haven't fine tuned them and that can also help the ride.

lastly, i am being cautious in all my posts because i don't want folks to go buy on the basis of an anonymous poster and then get disappointed. these are expensive.

ride comfort is subjective. we have seen that. not every Mach E buyer is complaining about ride quality!

what is comfortable/bouncy to me, may not be to others.

Not a disappointing post at all. Totally get that everything with this is subjective - from the ride of OEM springs to KW's offering. Having said that, I was worried the ride would be worse over certain types of surfaces. A harsh ride is not the same as a firm one; also, being able to recover more quickly from imperfect surfaces improves handling - important for certain types of roads here! Thanks for your detailed comments!

 

[kennethjk]

@coolshades , are You able to adjust the shocks? I know they have adjustments top and bottom and curious if you can reach those adjustments or car has to be lifted or other work is needed.

thanks

 

[coolshades]

@coolshades , are You able to adjust the shocks? I know they have adjustments top and bottom and curious if you can reach those adjustments or car has to be lifted or other work is needed.

thanks

they can be adjusted but unfortunately car has to be lifted ... so right now have left it af factory setting. car has run only about 60 miles since install. I will give it a few hundred miles more before I take it to a shop for tuning.

for anyone else interested, ride is still good

 

[Redundant]

1. I downloaded an app called "Accelerometer" from the Apple App store...has a picture of the letter G on it.
2. When you go into the app you can play around with it to start it you click "Start Measuring" and will see it starts measuring your X / Y/ Z movement. I have my refresh rate set at 20Hz and I didn't play around with different settings.
3. Once you click start measuring it will start plotting the movement and then you click "Stop Measuring" to end the session.
4. To send the data you click "Export" and then I did CSV and then emailed it to myself.
5. Once I verified I received the email of data you can then go back to the app and "Clear" to start fresh.
6. In my email I took the CSV and Copied the data and pasted it into excel
7. When you do that it puts it all as one cell so I used the "Text to Column" feature in Excel (it is under the Data Ribbon
8. Then with Delimited selected I clicked "Next"
9. and for the Delimited I picked semi colon which is what breaks out the data for X / Y / Z plotting.
10. Once I had three rows of Data I highlighted the Z row (not sure if that is the best row or not) and created a chart. I believe I did a "line chart " but will have to double check.

For the placement of the phone I just put it flat on the wireless charger spot. I dont think it matters that it is perfectly level as we are measuring movement so I think having it stabilized is more important than level.

Let me know if any of that doesn't make sense.
[/QUOTE

I ordered my coilovers Friday. I have the accelerometer downloaded and have been playing with it trying to figure out which direction the x, y & z measure. I get different results if the phone is held flat versus vertical. Do you know which is the preferred position? Also, do you know what axis the x, y & z measure. Thanks for your help.

 

[Z-one]

]

I kept my phone flat in the charging tray. I measured the Z axis as I believe that would measure bounce.

Honestly I think you can compare all three to really see overall difference.

If you wanted to measure one number in theory you can add all points up per interval. As long as you are consistent on your comparison you can tell any change.

 

[RP_GT]

]

I kept my phone flat in the charging tray. I measured the Z axis as I believe that would measure bounce.

Honestly I think you can compare all three to really see overall difference.

If you wanted to measure one number in theory you can add all points up per interval. As long as you are consistent on your comparison you can tell any change.

I don't know that I would add them all up. Might muddy the data. I download the app just now, and tested it out flat on a table. X is left to right (long side to long side) which would be more like cornering g-forces. Y is bottom to top (charge port to camera) so flat this would be like acceleration/braking. Z is back to screen so flat this would be like bounce which is what I think you want given that you will drive the same route and don't want to take into consideration things like acceleration as much. Obviously, you want to want to roughly try and drive the same speed, route and such. Charging mat seem like a good place, but also maybe on trunk floor or back seat floor with something holding it down. Maybe if the car is doing the boat front to back oscillation, then Y might come into play, but I would think Z is mostly what you want. Just some thoughts...

 

[Redundant]

I don't know that I would add them all up. Might muddy the data. I download the app just now, and tested it out flat on a table. X is left to right (long side to long side) which would be more like cornering g-forces. Y is bottom to top (charge port to camera) so flat this would be like acceleration/braking. Z is back to screen so flat this would be like bounce which is what I think you want given that you will drive the same route and don't want to take into consideration things like acceleration as much. Obviously, you want to want to roughly try and drive the same speed, route and such. Charging mat seem like a good place, but also maybe on trunk floor or back seat floor with something holding it down. Maybe if the car is doing the boat front to back oscillation, then Y might come into play, but I would think Z is mostly what you want. Just some thoughts...

I have been charting them, with all three dimensions a different color. Will be interesting to compare once the coilovers are installed.

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