OK so here's an update on my car, but first, a background:
2021 Model S Plaid. Suspension left in "Medium" since day 1. Vibration appeared around 1200 miles, and was damn annoying.
That car has not been in my ownership since around 3k miles, for numerous reasons.
Now, conventional wisdom suggests that setting the car to "Low" reduces the vibration. After all, the aftermarket links set to a lower setting that "Low" seem to reduce the vibration to a great degree, and after having driven
@jebinc Plaid, I agree.
Anyway, as soon as I got my new 2022 S Plaid, I set the suspension straight to Low, in the hopes this might mitigate the vibration to some degree.
Nope. Within 50 miles, vibrating on my
June 2022 Plaid is even worse than my 2021 S Plaid, what the heck?
Anyway, today, - nearly 700 miles later, I'm on a drive and the vibration between 35-50mph is annoying the heck out of me. Yes, I can still make it go away
completely by using Track Mode and full rear bias. But today, as I was driving, I flicked the suspension to "
Medium" and the vibration was reduced by I'd say... ~80-85%. I can live with this! Now, to make sure I wasn't imagining it I found a long inclined road and drove up at 41mph (the worst vibration speed for me under very slight load to maintain this speed) at "Low" suspension setting, vibrating, and then switched to "Medium" suspension while doing so, and goodness me, - the vibration really is near gone. What on earth? I repeated this test over a 40-minute drive, and each time it was easy to confirm, since there's nothing you change other than tapping a button on the screen while cruising at ~40mph or gently accelerating from 35mph-50mph (my most noticeable vibration zones). Medium->Low->Medium->Low over and over. Really noticeable vibration at Low, and huuuugely minimized at Medium.
What does this mean? Well, given
lowering the suspension is meant to reduce the occurrence of vibration, why in my case is
raising it having this effect?
Speculation #1: Tesla is aware of the problem, and while they can't
solve it without significant redesign, with the newer 2022s has adjusted the geometry in the suspension/shafts/motors (some/all of these?) to "move" vibration at the "Low" setting, but but to
reduce it at the "Medium" setting - the setting the car comes to as default, and I suspect the setting that most owners would prefer to drive their car in. Absolutely this is 100% speculation, but if I had a choice of vibration at "Low" or "Medium," I'd take "Low" vibration, since "Medium" is my preferred ride height.
Speculation #2: This was a software update, somehow... - effecting all Plaids, 2021 and 2022.
Can anyone here, especially with a recent 2022 Model S Plaid - test to see if they notice any vibration difference in Medium and Low suspension settings? This would be
really useful information! For reference, I'm on 2022.20.7. I'm going out again later today, and I'll make sure that my findings are still consistent from one drive to the next.
@Muzzman1
chargerzilla.com
Most likely not, as it sounds like the vibration is only in the newer cars? I'm still learning how the Model S suspension has changed over the years.
