MPP AWD/Performance Coilover Impression and Installation

[beastmode13]

Update with torque that I used for your reference. Tesla has not released any torque specs, use these at your discretion.

Both front and rear top damper mount to car body - 15ft/lb
Front upper control arm pinch joint - 41ft/lb
Front fork collar to damper - 33ft/lb
Sway bar link to damper - 73ft/lb
Lower damper to control arm - 84ft/lb

 

[wokuku]

Thanks. Looks like I might or might not run into issues. My wheels are 19 X 9 +30 offset with P3 Red caliper..

 

[beastmode13]

Thanks. Looks like I might or might not run into issues. My wheels are 19 X 9 +30 offset with P3 Red caliper..

You will not have interference with the control arms, but you will have some pokiness of the tire/wheel sticking out beyond the bodywork, in particular for the front.

 

[dfwatt]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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That is almost 50% compression, lots of potential energy stored in that spring.

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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.

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For the rear, I found it was easier to install the spring first then install the adjuster on top of the spring.

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The front installed.

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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.

That's a super helpful write up. One question - with those settings of 38 mm front and 30 mm rear how much lower would you estimate the car sits relative to its stock ride height? I've got the same kit coming sometime soon. I definitely don't want the car to look slammed and have it frequently bottoming out on driveways Etc. Great to hear that you can get maybe equal or even slightly better than stock comfort with significantly better than stock handling and dynamic control / composure. Also it looks like the central front control arm has some abrasion on it? Is that from rubbing on the track with your 9.5 by 19 inch wheel and re71 setup pre or post rotor swap out? I assume that with the rotors and the thicker rotor hats you've Lost that hub mounting lip such that effectively your wheel offset has decreased by something like 4 to 5 mm. With 35 mm front offset and the revised rotor hat thickness you should have plenty of room in the front I would think so I'm assuming that this rubbing was before the rotor hat swap out? Looks like it could be the inside of the tire rubbing but I can't tell.

Thanks again for a very helpful and informative write-up!

 

[beastmode13]

That's a super helpful write up. One question - with those settings of 38 mm front and 30 mm rear how much lower would you estimate the car sits relative to its stock ride height? I've got the same kit coming sometime soon. I definitely don't want the car to look slammed and have it frequently bottoming out on driveways Etc. Great to hear that you can get maybe equal or even slightly better than stock comfort with significantly better than stock handling and dynamic control / composure. Also it looks like the central front control arm has some abrasion on it? Is that from rubbing on the track with your 9.5 by 19 inch wheel and re71 setup pre or post rotor swap out? I assume that with the rotors and the thicker rotor hats you've Lost that hub mounting lip such that effectively your wheel offset has decreased by something like 4 to 5 mm. With 35 mm front offset and the revised rotor hat thickness you should have plenty of room in the front I would think so I'm assuming that this rubbing was before the rotor hat swap out? Looks like it could be the inside of the tire rubbing but I can't tell.

Thanks again for a very helpful and informative write-up!

Approximate 20mm drop from stock with 38mm front and 30mm rear preload spacing on coilover.

The rub was documented by me on some other thread and resolved in February before the MPP install. To sum it up, it was caused by the taller profile of my 255/40/19 PS4S on stock P3 rotor, which could be remedied with 3mm wheel spacer or complete brake upgrade. Only posted the photos here to answer @wokuku question.

 

[beastmode13]

@MountainPass Any recommendation on compression and rebound for track? Specifically, Laguna Seca.

 

[FlyNavy01]

@MountainPass Any recommendation on compression and rebound for track? Specifically, Laguna Seca.

Given the speed, elevation changes, and the famous corkscrew at Laguna Seca, I'd recommend starting with their "High Speed/High Compression Track" settings listed on their website and adjust from there.

Scroll to the bottom of this page:
The Future – Tesla Model 3

Although I'd imagine some slight changes needed with the extra ~250lbs up front in your car, it would likely be a good baseline setting until you put in a few hot laps.

 

[MountainPass]

@MountainPass Any recommendation on compression and rebound for track? Specifically, Laguna Seca.

We will be running a P3D at Laguna at the end of the month, pop by our pit and we will share what we learn from our Motec data!

 

[jyalpert]

We will be running a P3D at Laguna at the end of the month, pop by our pit and we will share what we learn from our Motec data!

It's all about the dip at the apex of 6!

 

[MountainPass]

It's all about the dip at the apex of 6!

This is how you approach the corkscrew right?

 

[jyalpert]

This is how you approach the corkscrew right?

Yeah that's the FAST inside line. He's set up well for the entry into 9 once the rubber side is facing down again.

 

[Lucky13]

This is how you approach the corkscrew right?

No that's how I approach my life..

 

[Orwell]

Approximate 20mm drop from stock with 38mm front and 30mm rear preload spacing on coilover.

The rub was documented by me on some other thread and resolved in February before the MPP install. To sum it up, it was caused by the taller profile of my 255/40/19 PS4S on stock P3 rotor, which could be remedied with 3mm wheel spacer or complete brake upgrade. Only posted the photos here to answer @wokuku question.

I'm glad to hear that it can be lowered less than 1". Thank you for all the shared information. I'm anxiously waiting for my set to arrive.

How does the ride feel with your height setting? I know that MPP recommends at least 1" drop so that the suspension is properly loaded with enough droop to prevent the car from dropping into bumps rather than the wheel itself.

 

[MountainPass]

I'm glad to hear that it can be lowered less than 1". Thank you for all the shared information. I'm anxiously waiting for my set to arrive.

How does the ride feel with your height setting? I know that MPP recommends at least 1" drop so that the suspension is properly loaded with enough droop to prevent the car from dropping into bumps rather than the wheel itself.

You can lower it .5" from stock height (non-P) without affecting ride quality. For P cars you can stay at stock height or go lower.

 

[Orwell]

Awesome! I'm guessing this is updated information as you have now received and are distributing the coilovers.

I plan on lowering only 10-15mm with my MPP Sports coilovers.

 

[beastmode13]

I'm glad to hear that it can be lowered less than 1". Thank you for all the shared information. I'm anxiously waiting for my set to arrive.

How does the ride feel with your height setting? I know that MPP recommends at least 1" drop so that the suspension is properly loaded with enough droop to prevent the car from dropping into bumps rather than the wheel itself.

IMHO the ride is perfect with much better control over stock. Stock suspension is way too soft, I get dizzy from the pitch and roll of the car during any spirited driving. I might lower the car a bit more before track day to get more negative camber.

 

[dfwatt]

You can lower it .5" from stock height (non-P) without affecting ride quality. For P cars you can stay at stock height or go lower.

So it sounds like the easiest way to adjust ride height is simply to consider the highest possible setting for the spring on the spring perch as essentially representing the stock height for performance cars, correct? So simply take it down from there the amount that you want the car to be dropped? Seems pretty straightforward obviously if the kid is designed for stock ride height at its highest- and I assume that's again both front and rear? Also there is one rebound damping knob that I assume goes in the front struts just during adjustment but does not stay in there? Since there's only one I'm assuming that this does not stay in but you take it out after you made an adjustment?

The first thing that you're impressed with when you open the box is how high quality the kit is. Everything looks better than OEM quality with really high grade stainless steel everywhere. Very nice!

 

[dfwatt]

IMHO the ride is perfect with much better control over stock. Stock suspension is way too soft, I get dizzy from the pitch and roll of the car during any spirited driving. I might lower the car a bit more before track day to get more negative camber.

So I'm curious beastmode where you set the compression and rebound for a good ride on the street with some improved handling? It looks as though there's only one control dial for both the top front struts? So that obviously does not sit in the strut Tower permanently, you just take it out when you need to make an adjustment, and then like store it in the glove box or someplace like that, correct?

The other interesting thing is that it's very easy to discern a click stop on the bottom adjustment but the top adjustment on the front shock is kind of a lot mushier and hard to read. If I go 10 clicks from the hardest on the adjustment dial on top of the front struts (or at least 10 clicks as well as I can determine them to be) that's smack in the middle of the adjustment range? Is that where you set it?

 

[Bigtuna00]

This is how you approach the corkscrew right?

You laugh, but that *is* the fast inside line!

 

[beastmode13]

So I'm curious beastmode where you set the compression and rebound for a good ride on the street with some improved handling? It looks as though there's only one control dial for both the top front struts? So that obviously does not sit in the strut Tower permanently, you just take it out when you need to make an adjustment, and then like store it in the glove box or someplace like that, correct?

The other interesting thing is that it's very easy to discern a click stop on the bottom adjustment but the top adjustment on the front shock is kind of a lot mushier and hard to read. If I go 10 clicks from the hardest on the adjustment dial on top of the front struts (or at least 10 clicks as well as I can determine them to be) that's smack in the middle of the adjustment range? Is that where you set it?

@dfwatt
Yep, there is only one knob per kit. KW sells extender in pair that could be fitted to the top with set screws. Then you just drill couple hole on the frunk cover for the knob to come through. I think MPP is have this setup on their car, if they do I will get the length of extender they use, it comes in many different length. Without the extender, it is a bit of hassle.

The front rebound adjuster knob feel is pretty vague, but it has the same amount of rotation travel per click as the compression (I recall 360/6 = 60 degrees). The way to count click is to count the first click away from full hard as “0”. The vagueness is universal on all brands of damper when the adjuster is a small knob directly linked to the internal of the damper. I recall the range is 0 to 16.

For street, I am using MPP recommended street setting 12C/10R. I’m used to drive cars/SUV with stiff suspensions. 12C/10R rides better than my wife’s BMW X5. My first track day with P3 will be at end of this month at Laguna Seca, which MPP will attend as well, so I will get the track setting recommendation from them when I’m there.