UPDATED: Replacing Rear Shocks: Reducing the rear end bounce.

[markboris]

This is great guys. The after market tires made a difference in my Premium AWD. Changing the shocks will diffidently help on these crappy California roads and freeways. I can't wait to learn more once you done testing.

Anton had changed his OEM premium tires to Pirelli Scorpion Zero All Season Plus that I recommended as they were designed for the American market to have a quiet, smooth ride for a performance all season SUV tire. However, in our testing, we are using the OEM tires so that it is a more fare comparison. He cannot wait to put his Pirelli's on once we determine which shocks are the best which will only make the ride even better.

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[21st Century Pony]

Yeah we'll get the rear all sorted and still have the pogo stick of a front. That's next on the menu. I have spoken to QA1 about building a front but they want a complete strut in order to get the measurements. I didn't want to spend the $100'ish in extra parts in order to put in another factory strut while they mock and build a custom strut. But a Koni front might be just enough to keep sanity.

@markboris did you pick up a full set of bump stops for these as well?

I have spare front struts if you need / want. Northern Virginia though...

 

[markboris]

It's too bad there isn't a remote adjuster/extension option for the Konis, so you could have the knob in a pass-through to the trunk area. I love my coilover extensions in my wag

Koni does offer a flat steel knob for hard to reach areas.

If the yellows are running best at the top of the rebound spectrum, that suggests the adjustment window is not tuned for the application; not a bad thing, but gives hope that Koni can make a vehicle-specific application for the Mach-E (or set of applications, as I'm intrigued on how a Special Active shock would perform on a Mach-E)

Since the Koni's only really shine on this car once they are at the firmest setting, there is really no need to adjust them. They give a poor ride at any other setting. I agree with you it would be nice to have a specific shock designed for the Mach-E. About the metal adjustment knob, I don't know the dimensions of it but it needs to be very small to fit so it cannot be more than about 3/4" wide at the top.

 

[intoMME]

I contacted Koni and Bilstein months ago and neither made shocks for our cars. Are these specific to our vehicles or just close enough from what they offer? Do you have part numbers? Would it be a good idea to get matching dampers for the front?

 

[intoMME]

by the way, thanks for doing this and posting!

 

[markboris]

I contacted Koni and Bilstein months ago and neither made shocks for our cars. Are these specific to our vehicles or just close enough from what they offer? Do you have part numbers? Would it be a good idea to get matching dampers for the front?

I think I have answered these questions in my posts. #1,325 , #1,341

If you haven't read this, it is my main post in the bounce thread #1,322

These are only some of the shocks I am testing. I have a few more that are designed for the Ford Ranger and Toyota 4-runner that also might fit. Again, I have a lot of testing going on here that I don't really don't have the time to explain every little detail as I would just be sitting at this computer instead of trying to get shocks that fit. ?

I have contacted Koni and Bilstein two years ago, last year and last month. Nothing yet that is why I am going ahead with this project. No front dampers are anything exactly like the Mach-E so we have to wait on those.

 

[azerik]

It's mostly the weight of the car and spring that's the problem. Anything we're going to find that works is going to be designed for something heavier than a Mustang. But the stroke of the shock on something heavier is usually longer or shorter than what we're dealing with. We're also only dealing with 2 to possibly 3 inches of this stroke being used. As opposed to something that has 5 or 6 inches a stroke to slow down and stop the weight of the car/truck. QA1 does have the ability to change deflection disks and oil weight. More tuning options down the road.

 

[ricojm]

I think I have answered these questions in my posts. #1,325 , #1,341

I have contacted Koni and Bilstein two years ago, last year and last month. Nothing yet that is why I am going ahead with this project. No front dampers are anything exactly like the Mach-E so we have to wait on those.

Hi Mark, thanks for the work you guys are doing to try and resolve this ongoing problem, I wanted to ask if this setup will be affected by the lowering springs I received and installed from Terrance.. I’m hoping not so I can change my rear shocks when you guys have figured out a sweet setup… thanks again Joe

 

[markboris]

It's mostly the weight of the car and spring that's the problem. Anything we're going to find that works is going to be designed for something heavier than a Mustang. But the stroke of the shock on something heavier is usually longer or shorter than what we're dealing with. We're also only dealing with 2 to possibly 3 inches of this stroke being used. As opposed to something that has 5 or 6 inches a stroke to slow down and stop the weight of the car/truck. QA1 does have the ability to change deflection disks and oil weight. More tuning options down the road.

Agree but I want this to be simple too. An easy and somewhat inexpensive way to soften the bounce for many to be able to do without a ton of adjustments.

All the shocks I am testing I made sure I not only have the same amount of travel than OEM but at least 1" more since we have such little travel to begin with. This also helps out with the GT owners as their travel is 1/2" less than the other models and people like me with a 1" lowered suspension. The shocks I am working with have a slightly shorter body which gives me a slimly longer rod for travel all while keeping the same overall length. I have really tried to work on all parameters so it has a good fit and works well for everyone.

 

[markboris]

Hi Mark, thanks for the work you guys are doing to try and resolve this ongoing problem, I wanted to ask if this setup will be affected by the lowering springs I received and installed from Terrance.. I’m hoping not so I can change my rear shocks when you guys have figured out a sweet setup… thanks again Joe

Hi Joe, just answered that in the post above. I am making sure we have about 1" more of travel in case the car is lowered.

 

[bellyer]

There are thousands of Mach-E owners that are very happy with the ride, then there are those that believe it is the worst riding car they have ever owned and then there are those in-between. One thing for sure, it has been a hot topic on this forum as evidence from one of the longest running threads we have ( #1 ).

There are so many variables with this issue and that's why I think we have a big discrepancy. Some owners with the magneride suspension love it and have no issues, others think it could definitely be improved, myself for starters. The non-magneride models are all different depending on standard battery, extended battery, RWD, AWD. Then we have the tires which really do make a difference on how the car rides as has been stated many times by owners, me included. Above all, there are the various types of roads everyone drives on. I have absolutely no roads anywhere within 2 hours of where I live that induce any bouncing and yet some owners have to drive over these types of roads every day. I can go on and on but these things have been beaten to death so I'm going to stop here.

I'm not any type of a suspension expert while many here are (Steve HuntingPudel for one) but wanted to set out to see what I could do to tame the bouncing of this car. I know if you put 6 or more cases of water in the cargo area, the bounce literally disappears. This tells me the car has very firm springs in the rear, as it should to handle the extra weight of a fully loaded car of passengers and cargo. However, when the car is not weighted down, over certain road conditions, it can bounce like the empty bed of a truck. I figured maybe what I could do is replace the springs with air bags and see how that goes. While I did have a great ride with a full air bag suspension, virtually no bounce, I had a lot of other issues that needed to be addressed in customizing brackets and spacers and after one month of doing this, I didn't feel like going at it any further ( #1 ). I could have gone the coil over route (KW make an excellent kit) but that is more on the expensive side for those who just want to try and soften their bucking pony driving to work.

Sticking with the OEM springs, the only other thing we can do to try and tame the ride is change out the shocks. Again, while I am not a suspension expert, I feel the shocks are not firm enough to settle the springs down fast enough. So, I set out to find shocks that would closely match our rear OEM's which I did and I'm testing them out with Anton (eidbanger) on his Premium with OEM wheels and tires. He does have aftermarket wheels and tires which actually make the ride a bit better but changed to the OEM's to keep it more fare since most people don't change their wheels and tires.

Last week, I posted on fitting and testing shocks in the bounce thread but thought maybe I should start a new thread on this subject ( #1,322 ) << Please read this post as it explains more about this project.
This post explains a little more about the particular shocks ( #1,325 )

Today, Anton had a bit of time so I went over to his place and installed the Koni's in his premium. Now, I am not use to Anton's car and he will be posting explaining in more detail how it rode and he will also have some data as he monitored each run with some type of motion app (not sure what it was). On the softest setting, they were worse than the OEM shocks. On the middle setting he said it was possiblely a bit better than OEM. Then went to the firmest setting and he had a huge smile on his face and said, my back end is barely bouncing. Again he will post here and explain in more detail with data but I know he would not let me take the shocks off the car. ? He wants to drive around with them for a week at which time I will go back down to his place and we will swap the Koni's for the Bilstein's.

On another note, we took my car out on the same stretch of bouncy road to see how the magneride did. With my car set to Unbridled, we both had a hard time finding a difference but decided if we had to pick, it would be the Koni's. Going over speed bumps at a slow speed, the Koni't definitely had the advantage as the rear went up, down and settled where as the magneride has a slight second bounce (which is why I think Ford needs to improve the tuning of the magneride VDM module).

Sorry for this long winded post. I wasn't sure even if changing out just the rear shocks would make a difference but it definitely does.

Both Anton and I will be adding to this thread as we do more testing. I think he may even post some charts off his motion app. He is backed up with work so don't expect him to post for at least a few days to a week.

I want to mention the Erik (azerik) is also working on some QA1 rear shocks and we are anxious to hear what his results are.

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@markboris - As the person who started the now 90-page "Can'tdeal with the bouncy ride anymore..." thread just 2 weeks shy of 2 years ago, I applaud your efforts here and cannot wait to hear how this turns out. I, admittedly, know zero about suspension and am really excited to hear how this all goes. My solution to the harsh, bouncy ride was to buy a F-150 Lightning Lariat with ER battery to drive when I want to have a comfortable ride. I still love many things about my Mach-E, but still cringe every time I drive it through the city of Chicago with our terrible roads with passengers in the car who have not experienced the truly awful ride before. I really look forward to seeing how this testing pans out! Thanks again for putting in the work here and sharing your findings!

 

[mkhuffman]

Once you have the best solution I am interested it testing it on my GT. I am worried it might exasperate the front-to-back pogo effect if the front is still rebounding quickly but the rear isn't.

 

[markboris]

@markboris - As the person who started the now 90-page "Can'tdeal with the bouncy ride anymore..." thread just 2 weeks shy of 2 years ago, I applaud your efforts here and cannot wait to hear how this turns out. I, admittedly, know zero about suspension and am really excited to hear how this all goes. My solution to the harsh, bouncy ride was to buy a F-150 Lightning Lariat with ER battery to drive when I want to have a comfortable ride. I still love many things about my Mach-E, but still cringe every time I drive it through the city of Chicago with our terrible roads with passengers in the car who have not experienced the truly awful ride before. I really look forward to seeing how this testing pans out! Thanks again for putting in the work here and sharing your findings!

Had I known you got a Lightning to the solution for fixing the bouncy Mach-E ride, I would have never started this project. I did this all for you! Just kidding.......

I am still not nearly as excited as Anton and others are because while it may reduce or eliminate the bounce on the expansion joints of freeways, I have no idea what it will be like on your Chicago roads with passengers in the car. Hopefully better but until someone tries that scenario out, we won't know.

 

[markboris]

Once you have the best solution I am interested it testing it on my GT. I am worried it might exasperate the front-to-back pogo effect if the front is still rebounding quickly but the rear isn't.

I personally don't think so Mike. I think if we can fix at leas one end, it would be better than nothing. Don't worry, you will be one of the first to try out a set. ?

 

[intoMME]

I have a friend who worked as a designer for Ford. He told me a long time ago that they rushed to make these cars and did not get the dampers right. He said that in the future, hopefully Ford will get together with Bilstein to create a specific set of dampers for our cars under the Ford Performance brand, which would lower costs. Ideally, they would just fix it and give everyone a better car. I really want to get the whole package. Everyone needs to contact Koni and Bilstein to ask them to make these dampers specifically for our cars. Thanks for doing the work to prove this is what we need.

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