Ohlins DFV Coilover Kit Installed!!

[tangible1]

This afternoon I decided to adjust my front damper settings. I set them at 28 on installation. Loved the ride but was getting that squishy sound. So I went full firm just to see the difference. Going in and out of the driveway, where the sound was most pronounced, that squishy noise seems to have gone away. Same at 16. I’ll give it a few hundred miles at 16 to see if it returns, and see if I’m as happy with the ride. Although it seems the ride comfort has more to do with the springs than the dampers.
Haven’t changed the rears yet, but will if this is successful.

tires, springs, and dampers are a system. they all work together to create the ride qualities.
it's likely you've got the dampers dialed down to the point you're feeling more of the springs than before.

it's good to play around with the damper settings and learn how it all behaves, to calibrate your 'assometer'. nothing replaces 'seat time' to learn that.

 

[Occhis]

tires, springs, and dampers are a system. they all work together to create the ride qualities.
it's likely you've got the dampers dialed down to the point you're feeling more of the springs than before.

Agreed. However, the damper modulates the spring bounce, so the amount of bounce the spring gives should affect the ride more than damper settings on the same spring. Hope I’m making myself clear.

 

[tangible1]

Agreed. However, the damper modulates the spring bounce, so the amount of bounce the spring gives should affect the ride more than damper settings on the same spring. Hope I’m making myself clear.

The spring is the spring; it doesn't change it's characteristics.
Essentially, the springs just carry the car's weight and make for it's ride height. They provide a baseline for the car's behavior. yes, but....
The damper modulates the spring compression/rebound (as you call it, bounce). That modulation is what provides the ride you feel.
The damper has a primary effect on the ride you feel, and the more of it you engage, the more the ride feel changes.

Reducing the damper compression/rebound (ie making it softer) allows, and you subsequently feel, MORE of the spring's characteristic bounce - less damper influence.
Usually the idea is to take out the bounce - get a smooth response to most (never can be all) surface imperfections.

The Ohlins adjustments do not affect the ratio of compression/rebound, which remains fixed. This is not a bad thing for a street vehicle.
All you have to do is adjust the amount of stiffness or softness, and judge how the car rides. Note that front and rear can be different. If to your liking, all good.
If not, try different settings - go both ways, stiffer and softer. Typically a stiffer spring needs more damping force to make a smooth response.

I don't know if the Redwood spring set is stiffer or softer than Tesla OEM.
But I do expect that Redwood has engineered the pairing of spring and damper to be correct.

 

[indigo6]

This afternoon I decided to adjust my front damper settings. I set them at 28 on installation. Loved the ride but was getting that squishy sound. So I went full firm just to see the difference. Going in and out of the driveway, where the sound was most pronounced, that squishy noise seems to have gone away. Same at 16. I’ll give it a few hundred miles at 16 to see if it returns, and see if I’m as happy with the ride. Although it seems the ride comfort has more to do with the springs than the dampers.
Haven’t changed the rears yet, but will if this is successful.

I settled on 16 clicks in the front and 20 in the rear. The sound in the front was diminished the firmer I went but never quite went away, no performance issues though. It’s worth mentioning that Redwood said that rear coilover noise is normal.

 

[Jimmyparky]

I can't stand any abnormal noise from the car. Is it not bothering you? Would you say it's still worth getting it replaced?

 

[goin2drt]

This reported noise is the main reason we are not doing any coil overs. That would just not fly with the wife however nothing looks better than these Y’s lowered a bit. Why can’t they get coil overs to be quiet. I had KWs on my mini a few years ago and there was no noise at all. This isn’t the only brand on the Model Y that has reported noise.

 

[EdEV]

Is there a consensus (from those with installed kit) if there is noise coming from the Ohlins DFV coilover - above noise level than the OEM? And can someone describe the "noise"? Is it a thud, grinding, creaking,...on compression, rebound, both? Thanks. Still waiting for my order to arrive but I may cancel my order if the noise is noticeable. I cannot stand suspension noise.

 

[tangible1]

I settled on 16 clicks in the front and 20 in the rear. The sound in the front was diminished the firmer I went but never quite went away, no performance issues though. It’s worth mentioning that Redwood said that rear coilover noise is normal.

Noise should not be 'normal'.
Note: only the front is a coilover, the rear has separate shock and spring locations.

Noise from the suspension is usually a wandering spring that moves when it becomes unloaded, ie after a compression event (big bump) where rebound is too strong.
In the rear, that would be a spring that's wandering on it's perch mount.
If the damper itself is making the noise, that's usually cavitation - the oil is bubbling inside the shock body. Not good, but it may be because it's setting is too soft.

Neither condition making noises is proper, and should be checked out.

 

[tangible1]

Noise should not be 'normal'.
Note: only the front is a coilover, the rear has separate shock and spring locations.

Noise from the suspension is usually a wandering spring that moves when it becomes unloaded, ie after a compression event (big bump) where rebound is too strong.
In the rear, that would be a spring that's wandering on it's perch mount.
If the damper itself is making the noise, that's usually cavitation - the oil is bubbling inside the shock body. Not good, but it may be because it's setting is too soft.

Neither condition making noises is proper, and should be checked out.

I should add that for the MYLR I own, I have ZERO noise related to the stock suspension.

If the replacement components have brought noise to the party, that's not expected nor good.

 

[thesmokingman]

If there is any movement there is a problem. The dampers should have preload no matter what. Unloaded spring/perch/etc should not a be term here. Coils fundamentally do not make any more or less noise, ie. you shouldn't hear them. If there is noise (clunking) something could be a miss. Imo it comes down to your installer.

 

[indigo6]

Noise should not be 'normal'.
Note: only the front is a coilover, the rear has separate shock and spring locations.

Noise from the suspension is usually a wandering spring that moves when it becomes unloaded, ie after a compression event (big bump) where rebound is too strong.
In the rear, that would be a spring that's wandering on it's perch mount.
If the damper itself is making the noise, that's usually cavitation - the oil is bubbling inside the shock body. Not good, but it may be because it's setting is too soft.

Neither condition making noises is proper, and should be checked out.

Correct, the rear is a divorced spring and damper. This noise is really only at very low speeds or even when I physically push the car down when parked. We’ll see what Redwood says.

 

[tom @ eas]

BTW - I have a used Model Y Ohlins setup for sale in our thread here - no waiting!

Vendor - eas | Southern California Tesla tuning source and daily showroom

Too bad they werent in before my MPP install there on Friday morning, might consider going these instead of the MPP i bought

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[tm1v2]

Installed my front Redwood Öhlins DFV on my 2021 M3P this weekend, along with MPP FLCA bearings and compression rod inserts. Got late start that day, will get to the rear suspension next weekend hopefully, not going to give much driving impressions yet while I have a mix of Öhlins up front and stock in the rear.

However I did want to chime in on my noises experience so far since that's been a big discussion point here.

I have Performance Sport with Redwood's optional pillowball top hats. I've initially set the dampers to 11 clicks from full stiff. I'm running 245/45R18 Bridgestone Potenza Sport tires on 18x8.5" Titan7 T-S5 forged wheels.

So far I have exactly zero squeaks, creaks, clunks, pops, or anything like that. None at all. Now I'm not driving it hard until I get the rears on (and dial in height better + alignment), but in normal driving with steep driveway approaches, old railroad crossings, and the usual smorgasbord of potholes, bumps, and nasty moon surface pavement the car sounds just like stock, no new noises of any kind.

As for ride quality and handling, that'll have to wait until I've swapped out the rear suspension too, but I will say the car for sure doesn't ride any worse. I think the front rides better now but it's a little difficult to tell precisely with the stock rear suspension still doing its busy ride thing. (Remember this is with Performance Sport and the pillowballs, adjusted in the recommended sporty driving range...I'm not focused on comfort. )

I can't wait to take this thing on some twisty roads as soon as I get the rear suspension on. Stock suspension is pretty disappointing for such driving given that this is a "performance" car.

 

[gadgetfreaky]

Darn. I was there in Manhattan Beach this past weekend to visit my nephew. Manhattan Beach is a beautiful place, by the way. Thanks for the offer.

By the way I’ve been working with a wheel fabricator in China, had them build me a Volk Racing replica, 20x9.5, +35mm offset, forged. My son has a genuine Volk 37 wheels and laughed when I told him what I was doing.

thanks for the recommendation! I used them and got my rims

 

[tangible1]

thanks for the recommendation! I used them and got my rims View attachment 817093

Muuuuchhhh better....

 

[EdEV]

thanks for the recommendation! I used them and got my rims View attachment 817093

thanks for the recommendation! I used them and got my rims View attachment 817093

Looks great and I'm glad you're happy with it. And here's mine below. Also installed Ohlins and currently playing with damper settings and height.

 

[gadgetfreaky]

I got the GT kit. They are way better than the UPP kit. There's a local road that has two massive bumps. In the right lane there an asphalt repair that was obviously done with a shovel without first leveling the concrete underneath the repair. It had two large broken section of concrete. So the repair is as rough or rougher than the original bump. I used to slow down to 45 or so before going over that bump. I can now take those bumps at the speed limit of 55. The Model Y now takes those bumps as good as my wife's LS430. Now on very small bumps the LS430 still gets the nod easily. But never the less, I now go out and spent a day running about doing various errands and not once all day do I have very negative thoughts about my car's suspension. I'm very, very pleased with the Ohlin's. This car now rides and handles like it should have from the factory (IMHO). Oh, and I did try the full range of adjustments all the way from full soft up to full stiff. At full soft it handle minor bumps really well, but the bad bumps were not fun. I basically tried everything in between and ended up back at 8 clicks as my favorite.

AND I love that I can adjust the rear shocks without having to jack the car up. The adjuster is on the bottom of shock.

You still 8 clicks from soft? What size tire and psi do you run?
On the rear I can't remember if turning it clockwise or counter clockwise if looking down on the shock like the front makes it softer?

 

[tm1v2]

On the rear I can't remember if turning it clockwise or counter clockwise if looking down on the shock like the front makes it softer?

@gadgetfreaky Ignore up vs down. Think about the adjuster as a screw head at the end of the damper (top or bottom whichever). Tighten clockwise for stiffer, loosen for softer.

Also the adjustment range is very wide, at least on my Model 3 AWD Performance Sport kit. If you compare, say, 10 clicks from full stiff vs 10 from the other end, or especially 5 clicks from each end it'll be super obvious which is which.

Lastly I've read somewhere that when tightening to make them stiffer, it's always best to fully tighten and then count clicks/indents from fully closed. Whereas when going looser, if you remember you're on e.g. 11 clicks from stiff and you want 16 clicks from stiff, it's okay to just loosen 5 clicks without resetting to full stiff. (That's just my understanding, not an expert, if someone here knows better feel free to speak up!)

 

[gadgetfreaky]

Looks great and I'm glad you're happy with it. And here's mine below. Also installed Ohlins and currently playing with damper settings and height.

Make sure you lower it from the free length I did 610mm in front and 630mm in rear. Redwood city said it's a 70% visual change of that distance. So 20mm is about 3/4” which then translates to about 1/2". This lowers my battery pack 1/2” which they put in the instructions for liability reasons not to do it this way. But doing it this way you don't lose any compression or ride quality.
On the rear I have 29 clicks instead of 31. At least that's what I can feel. I'm 10 back from softest on rear end same with front. I'm running the 20" at 29psi

 

[Kwame]

Installed RW GTs on M3 last month and am getting a noise that sounds like what you describe. Has your noise gone away, or did you figure out what the cause was?

I also installed a set of RW Ohlins DFW Performance Sport Coilovers with their Tophats, Endlinks, Swaybars, Rear Camber and Toe arms about two weeks and 500 miles ago and I’m also getting noises.

I have the front dampers set 20 clicks from stiff and I get that dreaded spring noise entering and leaving driveways as well as when slowly accelerating when the steering wheel is full lock in either direction. I spoke to Heath from RW/Sakebomb who has been very responsive and he informed me that the coil springs need time to settle into the spring perchs.

I also just removed the rear dampers yesterday and sent them back to be checked due to how noisy they were. I was getting a rattling/jarring noise in the interior over any road imperfections. I threw the stock dampers back in and the car is silent in the rear.

With that said, this is more of fact finding post to see if anyone else has encountered anything similar and not a bash of the product or product support from RW that I’ve received. So far they’ve been great with helping me out even though we are on opposite coasts.