Harsh ride issue fix: exercise (calibrate) suspension -- raise to Off-Road Mode + lower to Performance Mode

[riivian]

In both the R1T and R1S models, I’ve encountered issues with the suspension feeling excessively hard when hitting cracks, bumps, small potholes, and manhole covers. Both vehicles had undergone service for the clicking, ticking, and squeaking suspension issues. The common fixes included replacing washers, hub bolts, half shafts, and in some cases, subframes (for the R1T).

Despite undergoing service, the hard ride quality persisted. It seems that a recent update in the past couple of months might be the culprit, but I’m not entirely certain.

Determined to find a solution, I decided to “exercise” and “stretch” the suspension by putting it in Off Road Mode and raising it to the Highest level. I drove the vehicle for a few minutes at the 20 mph maximum speed, then switched to Performance Mode and set the settings to the Lowest with Firm setting. I continued driving in this manner for a few minutes before reverting to Auto Ride Height and Soft settings.

To my astonishment, this simple adjustment completely resolved the issue. The suspension now effortlessly glides over those mentioned scenarios like it used to in the old days. I’m sharing this experience to see if anyone else has encountered similar problems and has tried this method. I hope this information is helpful and serves as a significant game-changer for others. Surprisingly, simply switching from High to Lowest settings did the trick!!

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[COdogman]

This also works for my old, beat up Rugby body.

 

[Mathme]

Love this forum for simple to try ideas like this....

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Great idea. I'll have to remember this

 

[SASSquatch]

 

[riivian]

Yes, this was a significant solution to a persistent issue that had been bothering me. I suppose what occurred was that it re-trained it to the extremes of high and low to calibrate it. That was my hypothesis, and it worked!

 

[NoGoingBack]

I’ve done something similar to refresh my suspension as well. I’ll give your method a try next time.
I have air ride on my motorcycle and I need to refresh the suspension like this every so often too.

 

[jmtreetop]

The question will be how long does it last. I find a lot of variability between days. Some days I don’t hear any noises and other days it’s incredible noisy without any rhyme or reason.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

I have noticed that cycling the suspension through even part of its range can sometimes reduce the deadband in throttle response as well. I wasn’t paying attention to suspension response but I will now.

 

[Zoidz]

Interesting observation, thanks for posting.

I had minor suspension noise when I first took delivery but it went away after a month. I use Sand mode for off-roading 2 - 3 times a month so the suspension is getting that range of motion every few weeks. Perhaps that's why my suspension noise went away....

 

[Revin]

Great idea! I also do this with the throttle to recalibrate my happiness driving the trunk.

 

[kong]

@Riiivian very impressive detective work, thank you. Horns, fusetaps, eliminating wind noise and now a suspension workaround thanks to this forum. Part and parcel of being a Gen1 owner of any vehicle.

 

[WorldComposting]

Great to hear this worked. I noticed something similar after showing people how high the vehicle can go. I never drove around but I might try that next time.

Did you need to do this each time you drive or just once then it got much better?

 

[kanundrum]

This also works for my old, beat up Rugby body.

Did this, got a Christmas tree of CELs, gonna have to tell my mom I'm filing a lemon law claim.

 

[Bradyb23]

Thanks very much for posting this. I've experienced what I think is abnormally harsh suspension in the soft mode and have been dreading getting a service appointment (100 miles away) to have it looked at. I will try this first. Mine is a Gen2 with 800 miles, picked up on August 29.

Out of curiosity, can anyone point me to the best threads on other common issues for which folks have found self-help solutions? I think someone mentioned wind noise, the horn, and something else. It just occurred to me that I haven't even tried honking the horn yet...

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