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

[RMoore]

About the drill bits, I have always had DeWalt and sometimes Milwaukee. I normally am only drilling through wood. I ate up quite a few drill bits on this project and never thought there would be a huge difference between good bits and really good bits. These DeWalt 30 piece sets were around $35 at Lowes. After going through a few bits, I bought a CLE-Line 12 piece $65 drill set and it drills those holes in the upper mount like butter. They never seem to be getting dull either. I guess you get what you pay for.

When I drill through steel I use dedicated bits designed for that. They are actually a bit different from bits designed to drill through wood. Of course you can use the ones for wood on steel but you may go threw them more quickly.

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[mkhuffman]

Pat, that's great to hear. I think you are the first GT to test, so that's encouraging news!

@azerik isn't your car a GT? You have GT wheels in the video.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

@azerik isn't your car a GT? You have GT wheels in the video.

(But not everyone's profile's are up to date)

 

[mkhuffman]

(But not everyone's profile's are up to date)

Dueling images.

 

[azerik]

FauxT !

 

[azerik]

Erik, two words: Bench vise. ??

That’s on the floor, next to the bench lol

 

[i8iridium]

Pat, this is good news and you are the first member to run them that weren't the testers. Besides the less bounce, do you notice the rear stays more flat (handles better)? They shouldn't induce any noise at all. Not any more than OEM shocks. The lower rubber mount is the same as in the OEM shocks and we are using the upper mount of the OEM shocks.

Your car is a GT and the GT has stiffer shocks than non-GT MME's so you already have a bit less bounce than the other cars. The difference won't be as much but there is still a difference.

The only reason that I mentioned noise because it was discussed above about some highway imperfections creating different tire noise. I might've gotten it mixed up with a different configuration that was being discussed at the time.

I do notice the rear staying more flat and firm. There's two particular things that stand out on my morning commute... First, there's a nice sweeping on-ramp that you can get some speed on, but there's a spot that the road has sort of a heave in it, like it didn't settle properly. That will cause the back end to get a little light at speed in my opinion. The new setup keeps the back end tighter with the road. The second is a set of railroad tracks. No matter what speed you take them at, it seems the back will continue to bounce more than necessary. Now it just tackles it like a sports car. Nice and firm. Finally, this is just bonus...there's a nice round-a-bout close to work that I took fairly fast today and it cornered like a champ. Can't compare to before, cause I never really took it fast until this morning. It was empty and I couldn't resist. lol

I know that being a GT, it was already more firm that my premium before, but this really helps it out a lot. I can almost compare this to my '20 GT Stang with Magnaride. It's just firm and sporty. I haven't made any adjustments to tire pressure yet. More to follow.

 

[i8iridium]

FauxT !

Faker!! ? The calipers were the tip off.

 

[markboris]

The only reason that I mentioned noise because it was discussed above about some highway imperfections creating different tire noise. I might've gotten it mixed up with a different configuration that was being discussed at the time.

I do notice the rear staying more flat and firm. There's two particular things that stand out on my morning commute... First, there's a nice sweeping on-ramp that you can get some speed on, but there's a spot that the road has sort of a heave in it, like it didn't settle properly. That will cause the back end to get a little light at speed in my opinion. The new setup keeps the back end tighter with the road. The second is a set of railroad tracks. No matter what speed you take them at, it seems the back will continue to bounce more than necessary. Now it just tackles it like a sports car. Nice and firm. Finally, this is just bonus...there's a nice round-a-bout close to work that I took fairly fast today and it cornered like a champ. Can't compare to before, cause I never really took it fast until this morning. It was empty and I couldn't resist. lol

I know that being a GT, it was already more firm that my premium before, but this really helps it out a lot. I can almost compare this to my '20 GT Stang with Magnaride. It's just firm and sporty. I haven't made any adjustments to tire pressure yet. More to follow.

Hey Pat, this is great news. You being the first to build/install the rear Koni's and give them a positive review. The first thing I noticed on Anton's car before we got on the bouncy freeway was how the rear stayed more flat in the curves and I wasn't even driving. That's why I asked if you had noticed the improved handling. Can you imagine if we were to build up front set of Koni's for this car. If I keep seeing positive reviews on these rears, I may just start looking into the fronts. That will certainly be more of a challenge though.

About the noise, it was the Vikings and QA1's because of the poly bushings they use. The Koni's don't add any additional noise over what the OEM shocks have.

Looking forward to more of your comments and others that will be installing them in the next few days.

 

[Dadams]

The only reason that I mentioned noise because it was discussed above about some highway imperfections creating different tire noise. I might've gotten it mixed up with a different configuration that was being discussed at the time.

I do notice the rear staying more flat and firm. There's two particular things that stand out on my morning commute... First, there's a nice sweeping on-ramp that you can get some speed on, but there's a spot that the road has sort of a heave in it, like it didn't settle properly. That will cause the back end to get a little light at speed in my opinion. The new setup keeps the back end tighter with the road. The second is a set of railroad tracks. No matter what speed you take them at, it seems the back will continue to bounce more than necessary. Now it just tackles it like a sports car. Nice and firm. Finally, this is just bonus...there's a nice round-a-bout close to work that I took fairly fast today and it cornered like a champ. Can't compare to before, cause I never really took it fast until this morning. It was empty and I couldn't resist. lol

I know that being a GT, it was already more firm that my premium before, but this really helps it out a lot. I can almost compare this to my '20 GT Stang with Magnaride. It's just firm and sporty. I haven't made any adjustments to tire pressure yet. More to follow.

Do you have the Steeda sway bars or stock?

I'm going to attack mine this weekend, a little nervous to put it up on the lift. Got to try it sometime though...lol

 

[i8iridium]

Do you have the Steeda sway bars or stock?

I'm going to attack mine this weekend, a little nervous to put it up on the lift. Got to try it sometime though...lol

Stock bars.

Lift is easy. I've had mine on my 2-post and and a BenkPak QuickJack. I did this project on the QuickJack, and using the rubber blocks that it comes with, fit perfectly at the jack points.

 

[mkhuffman]

Faker!! ? The calipers were the tip off.

Yeah, I noticed that after I asked the question.

 

[azerik]

Yes the tire noise is different with these shocks. They seem to keep the tire to the road better than the stockers which changes the ‘gonging’ if you will of the tire smacking the road over those joints.
I’ve been running a higher pressure in the rear, which brings the tone up higher. Lower pressure seemed to make the lower tone louder in the cab. With the pressure up the stock Conti’s sound like my RX’s Pilots, not PS4’s but some other pilot.

 

[voerman]

WOW - thank you to everyone who participated in all the testing and instructions for making this mod a success. I literally have a new car that is much more competent in handling bumps. My wife complained about the ride since the first day we picked up the car. I told her about you guys working on a suspension fix that might cost about $500. She said it may be worth it. It was.

I collected all the parts so that I did not have to reuse anything from the original shocks (a pet peeve of mine) and did the install today. It went as expected with a few comments:

1) I used a scissor jack rated at 2 tons to raise the car with a jack stand on each side of it (safety and spreading the load if the jack failed). This worked well with no drama.

2) The driver's side was easier than the passenger's side because I am right handed and on the driver's side I was using my right hand to place the washers for the lower shock mount vs my left hand for the passenger's side.

3) I did need to raise the control arm on both sides because the Koni shock mounts were a good 1/2 inch short of the top holes. I used a second jack for this so I did not need to drop the car onto the jack stands and reuse the scissors jack.

4) A six inch extension on my torque wrench provided enough clearance to torque the lower mounting bolt without raising the car up farther.

All that being said, I am more than impressed with the results. We drove the car on a frequently traveled stretch of ill constructed and ill maintained NC road. Before the mod the car subjected us to uncontrolled bouncing especially when bumps occurred close to each other. Now you still feel the bumps but the bouncing is minimal and predictable.

As you can tell, I am having trouble finding the words to describe the results but once again, I want to thank everyone involved.

Lou

 

[azerik]

Awesome. The composure is so much better. Glad you're happy!

I'm thinking because your car is a 2023 the suspension is a bit higher than mine ('21 with almost 30k on it now) It might settle and be a touch lower in a few years.

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