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Suspension problems. OEM dampers are failing.

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No I'm not an engineer, a spelling bee champion, or an expert on suspension. I never said I was an expert on suspension even though many of you stated that.

The problem with my suspension is that the dampers are getting weaker and does a poor job controlling the rebound of the springs. I noticed the difference around 6000 miles and when driving a friend's model 3, the difference is obviously noticeable. Don't believe me? That's fine, but so far no one has taken my offer to go for a test ride in my car. I'm sure I'm not the only Model 3 performance owner in the bay area.

Here are some videos: Tesla Model 3 Performance with PUP. - YouTube
I have no reason to doubt your perceptions about the dampers doing less damping. People notice what is important to them. I suspect your dampers lost some performance but without failing. If you said your seat cushions were noticeably less firm after 6000 miles I would believe this too and it would be an injustice. But I am not optimistic Tesla will do anything for a wearable part that is not failing catastrophically.
 
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So went to tesla service and came back empty handed. It’s normal to their standards and “operating as designed.”

I removed out the damper tonight and noticed the compression feels a bit soft (could be normal) but when I do a pull test to test the rebound valves, I was able to easily extend the damper. Yea, that is not normal.

Anyways, I know most of you are doubting me and questioning my intelligence, so I did a search for a shock dyno shop and found a local shop who doesn’t charge $500+. Originally someone referred me to a shop and was quoted $500 plus shipping.

I also received my MPP coilovers but still waiting for the mounting forks to install them.

I hope to receive them in the next 2-3 weeks and give you the shock dyno results.
 
Not a fan of the suspension of my SR+ either. It does start to resonate on certain freeways with regular humps to them, like the 405 when you hit a specific speed. Kinda makes me and the kiddo in the backseat seasick. I don't know much about suspension, but I understand mechanics, and to me it feels like the damper is releasing too easily. In my mind, a good damper should compress more quickly than it expands. These seem to compress and expand equally fast, leading to a rolling motion from front to back that I don't like.

To the OP, I would ask that the service tech take a ride with you, where you can demonstrate certain roads that are exemplary of the problem. Maybe then they can offer you a test drive in a new model where you two can compare together.

What you’re explaining is exactly what I’m experience. The rebound or the releasing/expanding part is under powered.

I’ve already been on a test ride with the techs and all three said “that feels normal to me.” Unless the dampers were designed to be underpowered, it’s not normal. And a vehicle that has a label of Performance should not bounce around like it does.

Service center won’t even allow me to compare with another car on their lot because the cars on the lot are customer owned so I understand that. What I don’t understand is they’ll tell me comparing it with another car is useless because they’re all different. I test rode two of my friends model 3 non performance and yup, both of the cars were in fact different to mine. Suspension was much more firmer. Maybe tesla is telling me they’re all different so they don’t have to fix this problem.
 
You took the time to remove a damper from your car a few days before you'll have the coil over setup to install? The forks ship the same day but from Toronto. Did you do the front or rear? Did you put it back and have to do it all over again or leave it out? My oem are in a box in my garage, I'll give them a tug.
 
Yeah, saying that the guy's suspension is probably fine is really trolling a Tesla forum. "Oh, your car is built fine." "TROLL!"

I mean WTF?
I wasn't talking about that post. I was referencing all the other posts in which you make negative comments about Tesla, their poor build quality, reliability, Etc, while not being a Tesla owner. While of course anyone is welcome to make any kind of comment on any forum at least in theory anyway a preponderance of negative comments about Tesla from a non owner starts to raise questions about what someone's motivation might be, and what are they're trying to have a discussion on whether they're simply there to bash Tesla and score some kind of points.

I hope that makes my concern more intelligible to you as you may have somewhat misconstrued it on first pass.
 
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"You dont own a Tesla so your not allowed here". Nice thinking....

I happen to agree with the person you quoted. If I get in a car with warn suspension I can usually tell immediately. However if my cars suspension slowly wears out I cannot usually tell until it gets pretty bad.

Wrong conclusion unfortunately. That's not what I'm saying as I clarified in my response to this particular poster. Try not to jump to conclusions!
 
I wasn't talking about that post. I was referencing all the other posts in which you make negative comments about Tesla, their poor build quality, reliability, Etc, while not being a Tesla owner. While of course anyone is welcome to make any kind of comment on any forum at least in theory anyway a preponderance of negative comments about Tesla from a non owner starts to raise questions about what someone's motivation might be, and what are they're trying to have a discussion on whether they're simply there to bash Tesla and score some kind of points.

I hope that makes my concern more intelligible to you as you may have somewhat misconstrued it on first pass.

I own 4 power walls. That's 4 Teslas. I could go on for a bit about all the mistakes made and all my time wasted. All the software bugs. All the install mistakes. All the unforced errors. I also adore them because, well, they defeat power outages and seem to run themselves pretty well.

I'm eager to buy a Tesla vehicle if they can get their act together. Again, you're saying I'm too negative, but in this very thread, I posted about how his suspension is probably just fine. There are plenty of people with legit complaints, but you choose to point out my supposed bias here, in this thread. We're also on our third EV, but none of them have been Teslas.

We did not go for Tesla for our panel install, because their prices were just too high. Plus they wanted to give us string inverters deep in a canyon. It made no sense.
 
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You took the time to remove a damper from your car a few days before you'll have the coil over setup to install? The forks ship the same day but from Toronto. Did you do the front or rear? Did you put it back and have to do it all over again or leave it out? My oem are in a box in my garage, I'll give them a tug.

Rear dampers. It took about 5 minutes to remove and do a tug test. I’d like to borrow your damper if you’re not too far from where I am. Sending you a DM.
 
OK, I checked. Depends on velocity. Pull slowly, they move fairly easily. Try to move them quickly, they don't. Not going to determine anything pulling them slowly by hand. I'm in Socal. I recommend putting your coil overs on and getting your oem professionally tested.
 
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