Tein EnduraPro Plus - Review

[Heckraiser]

Hi Folks, I haven't read anything on the forum about these shocks, so I'll post up a review for posterity.

Background: my early 2019 M3 SR+ rides like crap. The roads in my area are pretty bad and it just crashes and bounces over road imperfections. It feels like I'm driving a shifter cart on the street, lol. My goal in replacing the shocks was to smooth out and tame the harsh ride. My SR+ is basically just a commuting appliance, so something that rides like a stock honda or lexus would be my ideal situation. I've been thinking for a couple years about getting MPP Comfort coilovers, but could never quite bring myself to spend the money and after reading through the whole MPP thread, I wasn't sure if it would be the solution I was looking for. They have similar spring rate to stock and I did not want to lower the car at all.

Enter Tein. Tein EnduraPro are replacement shocks, while the EnduraPro Plus are adjustable versions. They are designed to work with your stock springs, but also should work with lowering springs. I come from a Japanese import background, so Tein is a familiar brand. Not top shelf suspension, but a decent reputation and products that focus more on street than track. What really drew me to the Teins was their use of an internal hydraulic bump stop. These allow much more uptravel than the stock shock/bumpstop combo and also greatly reduce the upset to the ride when you do engage the bumpstops. As we all know, the M3 basically rides on the bumpstops and uses them as a secondary spring, lol. I got the adjustable Pros for about $600 for all 4 shocks from a seller on Ebay. Here is some literature from Tein: TEIN.com: EnduraPro / EnduraPro PLUS - PRODUCTS

The shocks themselves are advertised as being "overbuilt" compared to stock and that appears to be true. The tube diameter is larger, the spring perch metal is thicker, the piston is thicker. All this should result in greater fluid capacity and maybe more durability than stock if you decide to take up rallycross. In the real world, thicker flanges aren't going to make any difference, but greater fluid capacity will. The front shocks also have about 1/8" longer piston stroke than stock.

Front:

 

[Heckraiser]

Front Continued:

These come packaged with some fun Japanese literature. The only instructions included are generic instructions written in cartoon style, so you're basically on your own when it comes to install decisions.

 

[Heckraiser]

The first install decision is what to do about bumpstops. These shocks don't come with any. And with the internal hydraulic bumpstops, they shouldn't necessarily need any. But I thought it a bit risky to run nothing at all. If the internal mechanism wears out or fails, bottoming out the shock will make for a pretty ugly experience. But the stock bumpstops are going to be way overkill with the added uptravel the Tein's should be capable of.

So I decided to cut up my stock bumpstops. The Tesla bumpstops have 3 "zones" of incrementally stiffer material, the top of the cone squishes pretty easily so that engaging the bumpstop is a smoother experience, the middle part is hard to compress by hand, and the bottom part is pretty hard. I decide to chop out the middle section and install the hard part and the soft part stacked together. In my mind, this should still give me some level of forgiveness if I engage the bumps, but stop the shock from over-compressing. If you look at the top hat, the hard part of the bumpstop only protrudes about 1/2" out of the collar on the tophat. All in All, I cut about .80" out of the front bumpstop and about 1.5" out of the rear.

You can see here just how much "use" the front bump has had. These things really ride the bump stops.

Cut out the middle:

Soft top and bottom part stacked together:

Same deal in the rear:

Before

After:

 

[Heckraiser]

The Teins do not have any provision for retaining the rear dust boot. There is no collar to hold it up at the bottom, and the shape of the rear shock top-hat doesn't allow you to slip in a washer to hold it up from the top. To me this seems like an oversight, as the stock tesla shock has a built-in collar to hold it up from the bottom. I pounded that collar off the tesla shock to try to mount it onto the Tein shock, but because of the increased diameter of the Tein shock, it wouldn't fit. So I ended up mounting the dust boots on upside down. It's a little ghetto and will still probably let some dust in from above, but it's better than nothing, IMO. I'll check on these in a few months and see how much crap has accumulated in there and re-evaluate if needed.

So that's pretty much all the gotchas from an installation standpoint.

Comments on the adjusters: The adjusters are on the top of the shaft. In the front this means you need to remove the plastic frunk cowl thingy (or drill holes in it) to adjust. In the rear this means you must unbolt the shock (top bolts only) to reach the adjuster. This is not a huge deal, but bear in mind this is a 30 minutes in the garage adjustment, not a 5 minutes on the side of the road adjustment. For me, and probably for most people, you'll probably want to find a setting that works for you in most situations and just leave it alone. The adjusters are a little finnicky. There are 16 "clicks." You're supposed to turn it all the way clockwise until it stops turning (full firm) and then click counter-clockwise while counting your clicks. In reality, it's a little sticky at the full stiff position and it's kind of hard to determine if you're just loosening it up or if that movement counted as your first click. All of this was learned through the wacky cartoon instructions.


Driving Impressions:

I set the shocks to 8 clicks (right in the middle) and drove through a local construction site that was particularly awful on the stock suspension. All the jarring slams and whoops were tamed, the crashing noises were more muted, it was a very noticeable difference on that type of road. Wanting to dial in the Camry feel, I softened them up to 10 clicks front, 12 clicks rear and it felt a little more supple, but not hugely different. Each click makes a tiny difference--I think it would be more effective to have, say, 8 settings instead of 16, with each click providing a little more difference in damping.

After that I cranked them to full soft and this might be where I'll leave them. The suspension feels compliant and ride is much improved. There is a little bit of float on certain types of road imperfections, but nothing I can't live with. I also noticed a little bit of clunking noise at low speeds (under 25) from the front at full soft that is not present at other settings.

I have not been able to bottom them out or engage the bumpstops yet. There is a railroad crossing on a downhill road that would easily engage the bumpstops in the stock suspension, and even taking it faster than normal, nothing. Either I'm not engaging the bumps (hydraulic or foam rubber), or they're engaging so smoothly I can't feel it. Either way, that's a win.

In terms of handling, I did lose a little bit of turn-in steering precision, but once the corner is initiated, it holds the road as good (or better in the case of a cracked or bumpy curve) than stock. I don't notice any increased sway except at that initial turn-in. I'm on squishy Nokian tires, so if you're on a performance tire, the slower turn-in will probably be amplified.

Overall, it's an improvement, but not an amazing revelation. I wouldn't call the difference night and day, but maybe night and dusk, lol. I think these shocks combined with a nice dual-rate or progressive rate spring would be the ticket, but I'm not going to hold my breath for an aftermarket stock-height spring. At $600, I think the value is there for someone looking to take the edge off the stock ride. If they last 50k miles, I'll call it a win.

 

[canasion35]

Looking forward to what you think about the rears.

 

[Heckraiser]

The rears actually had the same shaft diameter as stock, but the shock body is larger.

 

[Heckraiser]

Also, just a note because I may not have been clear: the loss of turn-in feel I described above was in full soft adjustment (16 clicks) at middle adjustment (8 clicks) turn in felt about equivalent to stock. I haven't tried dialing these up to a firmer setting and I probably wont unless someone really wants me to.

 

[tm1v2]

@Heckraiser Thank you for the highly detailed writeup and all the photos. This seems incredibly helpful for anyone in the market for this sort of upgrade.

I'm also appreciative that you are in-tune with the car's handling, even though ride quality was your focus.

 

[XPsionic]

Thanks for the write up. Seems like they might be worth the trouble. I also hate how jiggly my car rides. The only downside I see with these Teins is how difficult it is to adjust the rear.

I've had great success with Koni yellow adjustables over the years in other cars, disappointed they don't make them for the Model 3. These Tein might just have to do.

 

[Heckraiser]

I used to run Koni Yellows on my autocross car, great shock and definitely a more high performance shock than these Teins, at least as far as I can tell from my first few days on them. Adjusting the Konis to full stiff made a HUGE difference.

I've got a pretty good garage setup and power tools, so adjusting the rears is not too bad, but you still have to jack the car up and remove a tire to free the top of the shock mount. Both sides is about 25-30 minutes. I've done it twice so far and I'll probably do it at least once more before I settle on a final adjustment.

 

[Heckraiser]

Just updating for posterity that the fronts have developed a clunking noise (not loud, but very annoying to me) over low speed road imperfections (i.e. under 35mph). Might just be that the road noise drowns it out at higher speeds. It's possible this is an installation issue (i.e. the top hat pad not perfectly lined up with the spring or something along those lines), but I was very careful when I installed them, so I doubt it. Not eager to tear apart he front end just to check.

I have also changed the setting back to a stiffer front (8) and kept the rears at 14. This seems to have eliminated pretty much all the unsettled float-ness and body roll (not that it was bad, but it was definitely worse than stock at 14f/14r). At this setting I would say there is no handling detriment at all compared to stock, with a noticeable (but not drastic) improvement in ride comfort by the seat of my arse.

 

[TacoSteve]

Just updating for posterity that the fronts have developed a clunking noise (not loud, but very annoying to me) over low speed road imperfections (i.e. under 35mph). Might just be that the road noise drowns it out at higher speeds. It's possible this is an installation issue (i.e. the top hat pad not perfectly lined up with the spring or something along those lines), but I was very careful when I installed them, so I doubt it. Not eager to tear apart he front end just to check.

I have also changed the setting back to a stiffer front (8) and kept the rears at 14. This seems to have eliminated pretty much all the unsettled float-ness and body roll (not that it was bad, but it was definitely worse than stock at 14f/14r). At this setting I would say there is no handling detriment at all compared to stock, with a noticeable (but not drastic) improvement in ride comfort by the seat of my arse.

Check the shaft nut that fastens the damper to the upper mount. It is common that they come loose on these because they are not a nylok or jam nut.

 

[P3D-R]

Check out the video @TacoSteve and I made together on the EnduraPro Plus. This was comparing it between our 2 Y's. He spent a good amount of time messing with the damping to get his to a happy place. I hope the video somewhat demonstrates the difference in bobble head action. It's also a crude method but hopefully it provides something of value to you guys.

Tein actually commonizes a lot of part #'s between the 3 and the Y so I figured this would be helpful here.

@Heckraiser , it's good you softened the rear a good bit from the first time you installed them. As I mentioned much earlier the rear shocks are valved very stiff in comparison to the fronts. We're working on another video that shows the oem shocks versus the Teins right out of the box. It's a very crude way to compare them but we show the difference in rebound at various settings versus the factory ones.

Model Y oem P suspension vs oem P springs with endurapro plus'

 

[Heckraiser]

Cool, thanks for posting!

Couple questions for you guys:

1) I replaced my top nuts with nylock just as a temporary check and it didn't fix the clunking noise I've been having from the front shocks at low speed over crappy pavement. Did you have any clunking noises with your installation? If not, I think the next step is to pull them out and get the spring and top had re-seated and make sure everything is aligned properly. I'm pretty sure I didn't screw up that aspect of the installation, but running out of things to check.

2) What did you guys do for bumpstops? I just took a guess and cut mine down as referenced in my post above, but Tein didn't provide any direction on what to do with the bumpstops or if they're even necessary given the internal bump design of the shock. Did you re-install the factory dust boots, or just leave the shaft exposed?

 

[P3D-R]

Cool, thanks for posting!

Couple questions for you guys:

1) I replaced my top nuts with nylock just as a temporary check and it didn't fix the clunking noise I've been having from the front shocks at low speed over crappy pavement. Did you have any clunking noises with your installation? If not, I think the next step is to pull them out and get the spring and top had re-seated and make sure everything is aligned properly. I'm pretty sure I didn't screw up that aspect of the installation, but running out of things to check.

2) What did you guys do for bumpstops? I just took a guess and cut mine down as referenced in my post above, but Tein didn't provide any direction on what to do with the bumpstops or if they're even necessary given the internal bump design of the shock. Did you re-install the factory dust boots, or just leave the shaft exposed?

I would check your sway bar end links if you have clunking.

As for the bumpstops they are not needed due to the internal bumpstop but only there to retain the dustboots if you want them. We also cut our bumpstops down.

 

[Kvitravn]

Thanks for a great review. Has anyone tried to match these with Eibach springs?

 

[hamtonp]

My clunking noise ended up being end link sway bar being loose. Well it had to tighten up much more than I thought.

 

[tm1v2]

My clunking noise ended up being end link sway bar being loose. Well it had to tighten up much more than I thought.

Glad it was something simple! I had the same thing a few months ago, clunk from an end link getting knocked sightly loose. I know exactly which road and impact did it.

 

[hamtonp]

Glad it was something simple! I had the same thing a few months ago, clunk from an end link getting knocked sightly loose. I know exactly which road and impact did it.

Yeah. I wish I knew that from the start. First I replaced the FUCA. It was squeaking anyway. Then I replaced the end links. Then the front shocks with Tein. The noise disappeared then when it got cold the noise came back. I had my kid up and down on the side of the car with the door open while I looked and listened. That's when I saw the end link barely budged a little bit.

 

[maximus96]

Saw this thread, watched Rishie's video, decided to buy a set for my Y and they're due to arrive tomorrow.

Any issues so far with the cut bump stop and dust boot? Thanks