Tein EnduraPro Plus adjustable shock absorbers fitted

[ajmorr.is]

I thought it was worth adding a thread here in the Model Y Driving Dynamics section to talk about the above suspension upgrade. There is a good thread in the Model 3 area here Tein EnduraPro Plus - Review and I’m sure a lot of it is transferable and relevant to both models, but there are obviously going to be subtle differences.

I‘ve just received a set, and today have fitted the rears with my initial thoughts below (also posted this in the Model 3 forum).

I fitted the rear shock absorbers this afternoon, it was incredibly easy and if I hadn’t done some stupid things like leave the dust cover and bump stops off and only notice after I’d refitted and torqued everything up on the first side, then I’d say it would have taken me in total about 45 minutes.

Some points of note;

• The shocks I received have 26/27 ‘clicks’ of adjustment instead of the 16 which has been widely mentioned here and elsewhere. I have currently set mine at 6 clicks from the softest setting.
• I was expecting to have to remove far more bolts than I actually needed to. The procedure is basically;
  • Jack the car up, remove the wheel
  • Unclip the wheel arch liner with three pull out fasteners
  • Remove the lower control arm plastic cover with a single bolt
  • Loosen but not quite remove the two upper top hat bolts
  • Remove the single lower bolt which holds the bottom of the shock into the control arm
  • Carefully remove the two upper bolts and the whole shock will drop down (be prepared to catch it )
  • Remove shock, it might need compressing by hand a tiny bit to get it out
• Once the OEM shock is out, the top hat, dust cover and bump stop need to be transferred over to the Tein. @Heckraiser makes the right decision IMHO by cutting and only using the top part of the bump stop, and putting the dust cover on upside down.
  • The bolt keeping the top hat on will spin the piston rod so you’ll need to find a way to stop this happening, I used a locking mole grip and a piece of rubber to prevent damage to the rod and add a bit more grip. The same is true for putting the Tein bolt back on.
• I actually think that it will be possible the get at the adjuster on top without taking the shock absorber out. The top hat sits proud of the bodywork by at least a couple of inches because of some box sections. I should be able to get to the adjuster with fingers by just taking the wheel off and unclipping the arch liner and a rubber dust cap which sits over the top of the mount. If not, then just unbolting the two top bolts and angling the shock absorber towards you a bit will definitely allow it.

I found two great videos which helped;
1. Rear -

2. Front -

(I’ll follow this when I get around to doing the fronts.


How does it drive with just the rears swapped? Well, I’ve only done a brief 10 minute test over a route I’m very familiar with and it does seem that a good amount of the low speed ‘bounciness’ that I didn’t like has gone away. I can definitely feel that the front is stiffer so hoping that changing the front shock absorbers will fix this and get rid of the rest. The car always felt unsettled and bouncy to me at lower speeds as if it had been badly lowered, but actually over 40-50mph depending on the road it was OK. I have a longer drive coming up tomorrow which will involve motorways so I’ll also report back after that. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to fit the fronts at some point next week as I’ve ordered a spring compressor which I understand is needed for the fronts in order to get the top hat off.

 

[zag300zx]

Super interested to hear how the car behaves once you get the front done. I have a set of these on backorder, and need to hear from someone that the improvement in bouncyness over small bumps is improved.

 

[ajmorr.is]

Well it’s already improved with just the rears, so I’ll definitely report back after the fronts are fitted.

 

[ajmorr.is]

After a 100 mile drive today over a varied route including motorways, 50mph trunk roads and city roads including some awful roadworks I can say for sure that the ‘bounce’ has almost been eliminated, along with the harsh and unforgiving nature of the standard suspension.

On the motorway there was a bit of a floaty feeling when the road undulated, but it wasn’t extreme or unpleasant and actually felt more like a car with far more suspension travel than a Model Y has (I came from a Land Rover Discovery which had the same kind of feeling). Around town I can definitely feel the benefits of reduced bounce & side to side wobble over uneven roads and as mentioned in a previous post I can feel that the front is firmer than the rear (which of course it still is until I fit the Teins to the front as well). Oddly, I never really thiught the side to side wobble was coming from the front, it always appeared to come from the rear and was worse when at lower speeds up to 40mph or so.

Overall so far, I am very happy with the changes that I’ve made and I’m really looking forward to doing the fronts and making some tweaks to the settings. I might firm things up a bit at the rear and see if the float reduces slightly, but at no point today did the car feel unsettled or unstable.

 

[Arima]

Great post. What year model Y do you have? I recently got a 2023 MYP, I'm happy with the suspension as is but always looking at upgrades.

 

[ajmorr.is]

Great post. What year model Y do you have? I recently got a 2023 MYP, I'm happy with the suspension as is but always looking at upgrades.

2023 MY. I got it new in March 2023, and I believe from asking Tesla that it was built in November 2022.

 

[Elektrick]

Great post. What year model Y do you have? I recently got a 2023 MYP, I'm happy with the suspension as is but always looking at upgrades.

The 2023 MYP suspension is definitely far better than the 2022 MYP. In the 2022 it was very harsh and jarring. Never did I feel so apologetic to my organs. Just terrible stock suspension and whoever tuned that, along with the person who wrote off on it at HQ should get fired. They clearly don't understand suspension geometry over there.

However, whether they hired someone knew in that department or maybe they came to their senses in learning from other brands, I was quite pleased with the change in the 2023 suspension as they definitely softened it up a bit, while maintaining some posture. This ratio isn't always easy to achieve. It's nowhere near BMW level, but shares a minuscule spec of similarities to a very fine degree; which at the end of the day is headed in the right direction.

I still feel that the 2023 is a bit jarring at times over certain bumps, but it's manageable. Maybe after I finish up with the projects on the M3P I'll order some TEIN's for the MYP. If you're on the fence and am wanting a fun weekend project, I'd say go for it as the TEIN's will be a meaningful upgrade to your ride quality.

 

[Jhom]

I thought it was worth adding a thread here in the Model Y Driving Dynamics section to talk about the above suspension upgrade. There is a good thread in the Model 3 area here Tein EnduraPro Plus - Review and I’m sure a lot of it is transferable and relevant to both models, but there are obviously going to be subtle differences.

I‘ve just received a set, and today have fitted the rears with my initial thoughts below (also posted this in the Model 3 forum).

I fitted the rear shock absorbers this afternoon, it was incredibly easy and if I hadn’t done some stupid things like leave the dust cover and bump stops off and only notice after I’d refitted and torqued everything up on the first side, then I’d say it would have taken me in total about 45 minutes.

Some points of note;

• The shocks I received have 26/27 ‘clicks’ of adjustment instead of the 16 which has been widely mentioned here and elsewhere. I have currently set mine at 6 clicks from the softest setting.
• I was expecting to have to remove far more bolts than I actually needed to. The procedure is basically;
  • Jack the car up, remove the wheel
  • Unclip the wheel arch liner with three pull out fasteners
  • Remove the lower control arm plastic cover with a single bolt
  • Loosen but not quite remove the two upper top hat bolts
  • Remove the single lower bolt which holds the bottom of the shock into the control arm
  • Carefully remove the two upper bolts and the whole shock will drop down (be prepared to catch it )
  • Remove shock, it might need compressing by hand a tiny bit to get it out
• Once the OEM shock is out, the top hat, dust cover and bump stop need to be transferred over to the Tein. @Heckraiser makes the right decision IMHO by cutting and only using the top part of the bump stop, and putting the dust cover on upside down.
  • The bolt keeping the top hat on will spin the piston rod so you’ll need to find a way to stop this happening, I used a locking mole grip and a piece of rubber to prevent damage to the rod and add a bit more grip. The same is true for putting the Tein bolt back on.
• I actually think that it will be possible the get at the adjuster on top without taking the shock absorber out. The top hat sits proud of the bodywork by at least a couple of inches because of some box sections. I should be able to get to the adjuster with fingers by just taking the wheel off and unclipping the arch liner and a rubber dust cap which sits over the top of the mount. If not, then just unbolting the two top bolts and angling the shock absorber towards you a bit will definitely allow it.

I found two great videos which helped;
1. Rear -

2. Front -

(I’ll follow this when I get around to doing the fronts.


How does it drive with just the rears swapped? Well, I’ve only done a brief 10 minute test over a route I’m very familiar with and it does seem that a good amount of the low speed ‘bounciness’ that I didn’t like has gone away. I can definitely feel that the front is stiffer so hoping that changing the front shock absorbers will fix this and get rid of the rest. The car always felt unsettled and bouncy to me at lower speeds as if it had been badly lowered, but actually over 40-50mph depending on the road it was OK. I have a longer drive coming up tomorrow which will involve motorways so I’ll also report back after that. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to fit the fronts at some point next week as I’ve ordered a spring compressor which I understand is needed for the fronts in order to get the top hat off.

Thank you for starting this thread and letting us know your experience. I'm seriously considering the Tein replacements for my 2022 MYP and would like to hear about other peoples elxperiences with these replacements before pulling the trigger.

 

[Jhom]

The 2023 MYP suspension is definitely far better than the 2022 MYP. In the 2022 it was very harsh and jarring. Never did I feel so apologetic to my organs. Just terrible stock suspension and whoever tuned that, along with the person who wrote off on it at HQ should get fired. They clearly don't understand suspension geometry over there.

However, whether they hired someone knew in that department or maybe they came to their senses in learning from other brands, I was quite pleased with the change in the 2023 suspension as they definitely softened it up a bit, while maintaining some posture. This ratio isn't always easy to achieve. It's nowhere near BMW level, but shares a minuscule spec of similarities to a very fine degree; which at the end of the day is headed in the right direction.

I still feel that the 2023 is a bit jarring at times over certain bumps, but it's manageable. Maybe after I finish up with the projects on the M3P I'll order some TEIN's for the MYP. If you're on the fence and am wanting a fun weekend project, I'd say go for it as the TEIN's will be a meaningful upgrade to your ride quality.

I agree 100% with your comment about firing the Tesla suspension guys. The MYP suspension should be better than it is currently. In my younger days I would have replaced the shocks myself almost immediately after getting the car. I also agree with you it would be fun to install the Teins. However now that I'm old and inflexible, I need to find a capable mechanic in the Dallas area to do the job.

 

[ajmorr.is]

I did the usual school drop off run this morning; a journey which I've done in this car for the past 5 months, and one which I've been doing for the past three years in previous vehicles. It is all 30mph roads and they have all over the course of time been repaired and had trenches filled to varying degrees of quality & smoothness. Because of this and probably my tiredness, at certain points on this route I usually end up cursing the bounciness of the standard MYLR suspension. Today I did not have a single complaint. I would still describe the ride as sporty, which I think this is mainly down to the springs but the bounciness and side to side wobble was gone.

I'm going to play with the stiffness a little bit and see where the bounce comes back in (if at all) and then go from there to try and remove as much of the floaty motorway feeling as possible. In the interim I might get a chance to fit the fronts as well.

 

[Welbach1]

if you go more than 16 clicks counted from full hard setting, you will probably ruin your dampers.

 

[ajmorr.is]

if you go more than 16 clicks counted from full hard setting, you will probably ruin your dampers.

Coincidentally I read the FAQ from Tein today that sometimes the adjusters will go further than 16 clicks (which mine do as I mentioned) and that anything further than 16 has no effect on the damping - it also mentions as you say that running them behind this may damage them. I had already adjusted to 15 clicks from hard following my initial test run so will be basing my tweaks from there.

 

[Elektrick]

if you go more than 16 clicks counted from full hard setting, you will probably ruin your dampers.

Coincidentally I read the FAQ from Tein today that sometimes the adjusters will go further than 16 clicks (which mine do as I mentioned) and that anything further than 16 has no effect on the damping - it also mentions as you say that running them behind this may damage them. I had already adjusted to 15 clicks from hard following my initial test run so will be basing my tweaks from there.

Also to note that "technically" going past 16 voids the warranty. It'd be very hard to enforce this, but like what @Welbach1 mentioned perhaps they could pin it on any dampener damage if they were to find a reason, otherwise it'd be very hard to enforce.

Traditionally, even dating back to the old racing scene days, TEIN has always been one of those companies that's not so easy to deal with. At times their CS is non-existent. There are anomalies where one gets lucky, but it's rare to get quality CS from TEIN.

 

[Jhom]

Also to note that "technically" going past 16 voids the warranty. It'd be very hard to enforce this, but like what @Welbach1 mentioned perhaps they could pin it on any dampener damage if they were to find a reason, otherwise it'd be very hard to enforce.

Traditionally, even dating back to the old racing scene days, TEIN has always been one of those companies that's not so easy to deal with. At times their CS is non-existent. There are anomalies where one gets lucky, but it's rare to get quality CS from TEIN.

I hope the non-existent CS is not reflected in the quality of the Endurapro Plus. My recent interaction with CS is a bit troubling. When I contacted them about the part number of the Plus shocks for a 2022 MYP, they responded that the Plus shocks would be incompatible with the MYP. They asked if the MYP was AWD. When I informed them that all Performance models are AWD, they then responded that the Plus shocks were indeed compatible. It makes me wonder whether the Plus shocks were ever tested on Performance models.

 

[Elektrick]

I hope the non-existent CS is not reflected in the quality of the Endurapro Plus. My recent interaction with CS is a bit troubling. When I contacted them about the part number of the Plus shocks for a 2022 MYP, they responded that the Plus shocks would be incompatible with the MYP. They asked if the MYP was AWD. When I informed them that all Performance models are AWD, they then responded that the Plus shocks were indeed compatible. It makes me wonder whether the Plus shocks were ever tested on Performance models.

Their catalog on their website is a hot mess and it has always been that way. It doesn't even list the Performance model and just has AWD listed under standard range. It is indeed a bit troubling that they wouldn't even know that a Performance is AWD. We do know for sure that the AWD shocks (YL1YT) are compatible with Performance models though so no worries there.

 

[ajmorr.is]

I've now fitted the front shock absorbers, and while it is a more involved job it is again not too difficult - as long as you have the right tools.

The process (one side at a time obviously);

• Remove the plastic cowling behind the frunk, it just pulls off, so take care not to damage the push clips. You don't need to remove the whole frunk tub.
• Remove the big cabin air filter box, there are just two bolts holding it in - and remove the top part of the washer fluid filler neck which pulls apart easily
• Jack up and chock the car, remove the wheel of the side you're working on
• Unclip the ABS cable from the suspension arms, if you don't want to risk destroying the clips as they're pushed in quite tightly especially at the top then you can cut the cable tie and use a new one when refitting
• Loosen but not fully remove the three upper nuts from the top, they're slightly recessed (the RHS is blocked a bit by the brake fluid reservoir so hand tools only on that side)
• Undo the bolt connecting the sway bar link arm to the strut and push to one side
• Undo the upper wishbone which has a pinch bolt fixing and remove the bolt
• Undo and remove the lower control arm bolt
• While supporting the hub assembly with another jack (or I used a strategically positioned pry bar) carefully remove those three loosened upper nuts from the top. The complete strut will now be able to drop down - again make sure you can catch it. Give it and the upper wishbone a push up and angle the strut to remove

Once the strut is off, the fun part begins. You need a set of spring compressors - and that OEM spring is TIGHT. My impact gun (admittedly not the beefiest Makita) really struggled at the top end, and you do need to compress the spring quite a bit to loosen it up enough to get the top hat off safely. I'd make a wager that anyone trying with hand tools would give up to go and buy an impact gun pretty quickly.

• Once the spring is safely compressed, remove the top nut from the OEM shock absorber to get the top hat off and remove the shock from the spring, again cutting the softer 2/3 out of the bump stop and transferring over to the new shock along with the dust cover
• There is a rubber pad where the spring sits onto the shock absorber and to get this off you need to remove the collar which holds the dust cover onto the OEM shocks. I had to hold the shock in a vice and tap around this to get it off. The Tein shock has exactly the same locating holes to move this pad straight over
• Put the spring onto the Tein shock, and hopefully you'll also now be able to feed through the threaded part at the top of the piston rod and apply the nut. Do not tighten this nut up yet!
• You can now carefully remove the spring compressors, or depending on their design/access you might be able to keep them on - I'll tell you why in a couple of steps
• Put the strut back into the wheel well, and line up the top studs to go through the three holes at the top, using that strategically positioned pry bar again to push upwards as you hand thread the nuts on from the top - again, just loosely for now so that there's still some movement in the strut
• Line up the bottom of the strut with the mounting hole on the lower arm and push the bolt through
• It's here that you might find that the spring/strut aren't quite seated right, which will be putting the whole strut at the wrong angle to get the bolt through. If that's the case, then you will need to twist the strut round a bit (hence why the top nut on the piston rod needs to be left loose). To be able to do this, the spring will need to be compressed so if you're lucky and your spring compressors fit in the wheel well with all the stuff then happy days, if not then it's a bit of a tight struggle
• Once aligned and the lower bolt is through, the rest of the job is the same as removal in reverse, torquing everything back up as you go
• Don't forget to set the damping level before putting the cowling and washer fluid filler neck back on, although it's very east to get off again to adjust

So then, how does it ride now? Well - really nicely, as I kind of expected (or rather - hoped). I'm set at 16 from hard on the front (so the softest) and 14 on the rear, and it's a massive improvement and has eliminated the wobble and bounciness. You can still feel larger bumps and I haven't noticed any change in handling or turn in - perhaps a bit more of a squat at the rear when giving it the full beans on launch. I think the characteristics of the springs will always show larger bumps and harder cornering forces and to be honest I quite like it, as you do want a quick car to still feel a bit firm. The major issues (for me) of harshness over low speed smaller bumps is gone. I might even soften the rear up to 16 and see how that feels, but I'm conscious that when there is a load of stuff in the back that a softer setting there will result in more frequent bottoming out - but we'll see, as I mentioned earlier neither the front or the rears need to be removed to adjust; the rears need the car jacking up, a bit of the wheel arch liner unclipping and you can get your fingers on top at the adjuster. The fronts are right there under the plastic cowling behind the frunk tub.


Very happy. I'll keep reporting anything I notice after I've driven more.


I also dropped my tyre pressures to 37PSI before I did the front struts and went for a test drive and I couldn't feel any difference at all, so I'll probably put them back up to get rid of the nagging TPMS warning icon.

 

[ajmorr.is]

A gratuitous innards shot for all the sadists out there

 

[Pianewman]

Jhom: the guys at Texas Track Works, (817 926 8863, Trent, Forrest) in SW Fort Worth, did my coilovers. They have several Tesla customers, and as far as I can tell, they're good at what they do. Extremely nice guys, as well.

 

[Jhom]

Jhom: the guys at Texas Track Works, (817 926 8863, Trent, Forrest) in SW Fort Worth, did my coilovers. They have several Tesla customers, and as far as I can tell, they're good at what they do. Extremely nice guys, as well.

Thanks for the info. I'll give them a call.

 

[zag300zx]

This is awesome. Glad to hear it’s a big improvement. Any detriment to the ride or feel on the freeway?