Two of the weakest link of P3 are the brakes and suspension. Tesla walked a fine line between performance and comfort, for most of the customers, it might be perfect. However, I like my brake a lot more aggressive and suspension a lot more controlled and tight. When Mountain Pass Performance @MountainPass announced the Sports Coilovers for AWD/Performance Model 3 I jumped. I was number 11 on the queue. After seven months of the wait, the coilovers arrived. It was worth it, IMHO.
My P3 is a daily driver with the intention to do 3 to 6 track days. For daily driving, I have the rebound set at 10 and compression 12 per MPP recommendation. With this setting, it retains the comfort similar to stock, but with much better control in reduction of pitch during braking and acceleration, and great amount of reduction in body lean during cornering. The car feels planted over undulating bumps compares to wallowing of the stock suspension. There is no additional detectable noise or vibration to the MPP system.
I had upgraded my brakes to Racing Brake 380mm BBK before the MPP coilovers upgrade. During the bedding process of the new RB XT910 pads on the BBK, with the consecutive braking, I felt nauseous from the hard pitch of car. During the MPP installation, I swapped in RB XT970, which is more aggressive than the XT910. After the MPP installation, I ran the bedding process for the XT970. Even with the more aggressive pad, the pitch of car was significantly less, I was not nauseous at all. Here is the thread on the Racing Brake BBK installation and impression.
Now the installation instruction. MPP instruction is good, it covers all the basic, so my instructions will serve as a pictorial with insights to tricks I used to make this one-person installation as smooth as possible.
Prep:
1. Get a thin-wall 13mm socket, the OD should not be more than 16.75mm. This is necessary to remove the three nut that secures the damper to the suspension tower.
2. Old fashion hand file works the best to remove excess welding bead at the bottom and the side of the aligning pin. This is not a weight-bearing feature so removal of the weld bead at the bottom and side is okay.
3. I also used a Dremel tool to remove a bit of material around the alignment slot, in particular at the bottom portion.
Removal of the rear is pretty simple, use a jack to press up the low arm to reduce binding when removing the bolt holding the damper to the lower arm.
Remove the front upper arm pinch joint before removal of front damper. As you need to apply upward pressue to release the tension on the bolt.
Dissambling of stock damper/spring is the most challenge part of this installation. I used two sets of compression tools, one as safety, one does the actual work.
That is almost 50% compression, lots of potential energy stored in that spring.
This is how the front MPP should look. The helper spring is at the bottom. The seperation ring between the main spring and helper spring is packaged with the rear component, this caused some confusion.
For the rear, I found it was easier to install the spring first then install the adjuster on top of the spring.
The front installed.
I made these 3d printer cube for setting the preload on the spring. MPP recommended 28mm front, 15mm rear. Looking at multiple MPP photos of their car, it was way too low for me. My settings are 38mm front and 30mm rear. The cube allow for quick measurement/setting of height in 5mm increments.
My P3 is a daily driver with the intention to do 3 to 6 track days. For daily driving, I have the rebound set at 10 and compression 12 per MPP recommendation. With this setting, it retains the comfort similar to stock, but with much better control in reduction of pitch during braking and acceleration, and great amount of reduction in body lean during cornering. The car feels planted over undulating bumps compares to wallowing of the stock suspension. There is no additional detectable noise or vibration to the MPP system.
I had upgraded my brakes to Racing Brake 380mm BBK before the MPP coilovers upgrade. During the bedding process of the new RB XT910 pads on the BBK, with the consecutive braking, I felt nauseous from the hard pitch of car. During the MPP installation, I swapped in RB XT970, which is more aggressive than the XT910. After the MPP installation, I ran the bedding process for the XT970. Even with the more aggressive pad, the pitch of car was significantly less, I was not nauseous at all. Here is the thread on the Racing Brake BBK installation and impression.
Now the installation instruction. MPP instruction is good, it covers all the basic, so my instructions will serve as a pictorial with insights to tricks I used to make this one-person installation as smooth as possible.
Prep:
1. Get a thin-wall 13mm socket, the OD should not be more than 16.75mm. This is necessary to remove the three nut that secures the damper to the suspension tower.
2. Old fashion hand file works the best to remove excess welding bead at the bottom and the side of the aligning pin. This is not a weight-bearing feature so removal of the weld bead at the bottom and side is okay.
3. I also used a Dremel tool to remove a bit of material around the alignment slot, in particular at the bottom portion.
Removal of the rear is pretty simple, use a jack to press up the low arm to reduce binding when removing the bolt holding the damper to the lower arm.
Remove the front upper arm pinch joint before removal of front damper. As you need to apply upward pressue to release the tension on the bolt.
Dissambling of stock damper/spring is the most challenge part of this installation. I used two sets of compression tools, one as safety, one does the actual work.
That is almost 50% compression, lots of potential energy stored in that spring.
This is how the front MPP should look. The helper spring is at the bottom. The seperation ring between the main spring and helper spring is packaged with the rear component, this caused some confusion.
For the rear, I found it was easier to install the spring first then install the adjuster on top of the spring.
The front installed.
I made these 3d printer cube for setting the preload on the spring. MPP recommended 28mm front, 15mm rear. Looking at multiple MPP photos of their car, it was way too low for me. My settings are 38mm front and 30mm rear. The cube allow for quick measurement/setting of height in 5mm increments.
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