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

[azerik]

Yeah even having the back nice and the front not is better than having both still crappy. ?

The 903's I'm working with come with a 1 inch extension, which I've removed for a couple reasons i'll cover when I document installing them.

Specs as they sit 14.5 inch fully compressed, 23 inches fully extended 18.75 inch at ride height. Should give me 2.5 to 3 inches in either direction in the body before bottoming out.
With the spacer removed these spec out to the 902's. I just went with the 903's incase that spacer was needed.

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.

Part if that is the fact there is a battery/motor are right where a longer lower control arm would mount. So they made these stubbier to fit. Tesla did it, so why bother trying to do it right, right? lol
Now the front... has no excuse really.

What really needs to be done is multi stage valving. As it gets closer to fully compressed it needs to adjust the valving to slow it down even more. Deflection disks kind of do this but depending on the design it might take 1/2 inch a stroke to compress the disks to slow the piston in the oil. Sadly my experience with Monroe (somekindavariablesomethingorotherstruts) on my FFE worked well for a month, maybe two, then they quit. They're such a PITA to get in and out I'll replace the car first.

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[21st Century Pony]

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.

^^ THIS! ^^

 

[CAL465]

What after market tires did you get

I bought the Hankook iON evo AS SUV 255/55R19 103V XL a/s tires

 

[intoMME]

I also have the Hankook iON evo AS SUV tires. They are a major improvement over the Michelins the car came with. Much more responsive steering and less bounce. Quieter, too!

 

[kennethjk]

I bought the Hankook iON evo AS SUV 255/55R19 103V XL a/s tires

Any impact on mileage?

 

[OldEVGuy]

Everyone needs to contact Koni and Bilstein to ask them to make these dampers specifically for our cars.

I contacted Bilstein, and received a quick reply from
Steve von Seggern, Head of Marketing & Powersports,
[email protected]. He asked if the GT was any better, and said they’ve received a few requests, and forwarded my concern to the product team. Hopefully if enough people contact them, a solution will happen.

 

[azerik]

While the phone was not bouncing, we had it in the front of the car on the charge pad and when I go back this weekend, we will test with the phone in the rear (I will be in the back seat taking the measurements). We will test the Koni's on their max firm setting, the Blstein's and then the OEM shocks.

If I can get my kid to help me out... I think slipping the phone into the handle pull of the rear arm rest will give it a firm enough grip that we do't have to worry about how much the phone might bounce. I'm shooting for the floor in the rear, right behind the center console in front of the rear seat. I'm doing this solo so it's harder. I also can't seem to figure out how I can save the chart in someway it matters. Plottly will require some reading.

 

[markboris]

I contacted Bilstein, and received a quick reply from
Steve von Seggern, Head of Marketing & Powersports,
[email protected]. He asked if the GT was any better, and said they’ve received a few requests, and forwarded my concern to the product team. Hopefully if enough people contact them, a solution will happen.

I know several of us here have been contacting them for almost 2 years from time to time. I am sure they will eventually get around to making them, it is just when?

 

[kennethjk]

I know several of us here have been contacting them for almost 2 years from time to time. I am sure they will eventually get around to making them, it is just when?

I just sent in a request. The more we do the earlier they may design it

 

[markboris]

Yeah even having the back nice and the front not is better than having both still crappy. ?

What really needs to be done is multi stage valving. As it gets closer to fully compressed it needs to adjust the valving to slow it down even more. Deflection disks kind of do this but depending on the design it might take 1/2 inch a stroke to compress the disks to slow the piston in the oil.

The second and third set of Bilstein's I am testing have a digressive piston and separate deflection disks for compression and rebound so the firmness will change depending on road conditions. The Koni's are linear so the firmness stays the same no matter the road conditions.

 

[CAL465]

Rear Shock Absorber Instructions.

 

[markboris]

Rear Shock Absorber Instructions. You'll need Adobe Acrobat reader to view the files. I can also convert them to word if that's better.

While those are Ford's instructions to remove the rear shocks, I do it a bit different. I don't have to remove the lower arm deflector because I jack up the car at the rear jack point under the frame (where many of us have installed pucks). That way the shock is extended and much easier to remove and replace. But hey, either way works.

 

[Anton]

And as a follow-up, here's a comparison of the Mach-E to my old Fusion, which has a great suspension. Same exact scales.

This shows how underdamped the Mach-E is. The Fusion damps everything in only 1 cycle vs. 3 for the Mach-E. The spring constant is less (car is much lighter) so there's more acceleration from my body force, but the bump is over with much faster than the Mach-E. The Fusion is the kind of graph we want.

Here you go. Same test done with the Konis. Put the phone on the trunk, and tried to push down as hard as I could and let go. As expected, It's much more difficult to compress these Konis than the OEM shocks. (Source - tab: "body-slam-koni").

 

[Mach-Lee]

Here you go. Same test done with the Konis. Put the phone on the trunk, and tried to push down as hard as I could and let go. As expected, It's much more difficult to compress these Konis than the OEM shocks. (Source - tab: "body-slam-koni").

Cool, good job. That's an improvement, but interesting you can still see 2+ cycles afterwards even with them set on max. The magnitude of the second cycle has been reduced significantly, but it looks like it could use even more damping.

I wonder if some of the "long wiggle" afterwards is related to resilient bushing loading elsewhere in the suspension? If you have time during the next swap, I'd be curious to see if the graph changes if you disconnect the sway bar and repeat the body slam test?

 

[Anton]

So I messed up this time and took gyroscope readings (velocity) , and not G-Force (acceleration) when I had the OEM shocks. Not sure how useful it is but I'll share this data anyways. Blue is OEM, orange is Koni (max stiffness). This is showing wx, which I've determined to be most closely applicable to up-and-down motion.

Now comes a big bump

Big bump #2

and settle...

I'm sharing this data for transparency even though I don't believe it comes close to describing the improved feel of the car now (on that later). (Data source)

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