Active Dampers too stiff on FL5. Disabled with Damping Cancellation Kit

[CTR]

It doesn't hurt to order it as it will probably take 2-3 months to get it. These are in high demand still and will probably continue to be hard to get as more FL5's get released.

I want to be clear - the car is totally fine in stock form. You can drive in FL5 Comfort mode and be pretty close to the ITS in Sport mode. +R isn't terrible on smooth roads in warm temps.

For reference I was driving in Sport mode almost exclusively before the swap and never used +R suspension setting. Now I occasionally use it. You get accustomed to whatever mode you decide to stick with pretty quickly.

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[VLJ]

I think it's mainly the visuals. Every Type R video I see, and I've probably watched over a hundred by now, the people in the car are bouncing around like crazy, and most of them mention it at some point in the review. They nearly always say that +R is unusable except for the smoothest of tracks, and quite a number of them add that while Comfort mode is perfectly acceptable for such a driver-focused car, it's still surprisingly bouncy.

Topher in particular went in hard on the stock ride quality, and he's usually the nicest, most generous guy out there, never seriously criticizing anything. That's why I wanted to get his take on this, now that he's out of the honeymoon phase of his ITS experience.

 

[CTR]

You watched his latest video, right?



I don't think it gets more clear that he loves this mod. It's my impression that he won't be swapping the stock one back in unless he goes to a perfectly smooth track with 200TW or R compound tires.

 

[VLJ]

Yep, I watched that one, which was where I learned about ditching the factory Navigation function in order to fix the Apple Car Play response.

My thing with his videos is that I wouldn't be surprised to see a new video or comment a month or two from now in which he's decided that he's falling out of love with his latest mod. Remember, his initial reviews of the FL5 featured nothing but praise for the handling. When he shared the Sonoma intro with Tedward, they both loved everything about the car. Couldn't praise it enough. With each successive video, however, his views change, and he becomes less enthusiastic, which leads to new mods.

Of course, this could all simply be for content, since that's his job, but he definitely doesn't strike me as insincere or disingenuous. I'm sure he means everything he says, at the time he's saying it.

But, again, things change.

That's why his opinion matters to me. I've followed his journey, not only with this car, but with many cars. I kind of have a feel now for what he likes, what he doesn't like, and why. So, if he still wants to stick with the ITS, having been through stock, the deletion module, and now the ITS, having done track, autocross, street, Michigan winters, California wine country, etc., that would tell me something.

Confirmation bias, to be sure. I'm as susceptible to it as anyone, when all is said and done.

 

[Bonito]

I swapped in the ITS ADS and changed to 18 265/35 wheels and really prefer the way the car rides as a daily driver. Much more comfortable, much less worry about blowing a tire on Atlanta's terrible roads.

That said, I'm not tracking the car or pushing as hard as many people on this forum so if those changes made the FL5 lose some sharpness, I can't tell.

 

[modern_sports_car]

I think it's mainly the visuals. Every Type R video I see, and I've probably watched over a hundred by now, the people in the car are bouncing around like crazy, and most of them mention it at some point in the review. They nearly always say that R+ is unusable except for the smoothest of tracks, and quite a number of them add that while Comfort mode is perfectly acceptable for such a driver-focused car, it's still surprisingly bouncy.

Topher in particular went in hard on the stock ride quality, and he's usually the nicest, most generous guy out there, never seriously criticizing anything. That's why I wanted to get his take on this, now that he's out of the honeymoon phase of his ITS experience.

For me, the ‘harsh’ ride is fine. Feels incredibly responsive. On edge in a good way. I love it.

The issue is the bouncing under hard cornering. I don’t understand how other people don’t have an issue with this. It makes the car ridiculous to drive in those circumstances, IMHO. It’s terrible.

 

[VLJ]

The bouncing under hard cornering is my concern. I'm fine with the basic ride quality. It's the bouncing that bothers me. On this one favorite road there's a specific bumpy corner that always made my ND2 skip sideways in the back. With this new FL5 it sort of hops before abruptly skipping sideways in the front. It's unnerving.

I did find one road that allows the use of +R, and it was a glorious thing to be sure, but I'd like to be able to use +R more often. As it stands, I nearly always switch back fairly quickly to Sport or Comfort suspension and steering whenever I try +R.

 

[rui]

VLJ, let me try to help. Swapping to the ITS module takes each mode down a notch, like so:

Stiffness level:   1        2        3        4
FL5 module:              Comfort   Sport     +R
DE5 module:     Comfort   Sport     +R

So all you have to ask yourself is: "do I need a setting softer than the current Comfort one?", and "do I care about losing the stiffest setting, for my use case?"

If you're unsure you can always try it out. If you don't like it there is enough demand that you won't have too much trouble reselling it.

 

[menikmati]

Stiffness level:   1        2        3        4
FL5 module:              Comfort   Sport     +R
DE5 module:     Comfort   Sport     +R

Appreciate you putting this in a table format, very easy to read.

 

[VLJ]

I could be wrong, but I've read/heard that there are more differences between the ITS and CTR modules than simple stiffness levels. Topher mentioned that the adaptive behaviors change, as well, which aids in reducing the bounciness. For example, Comfort with the CTR module is bouncier than the supposed equivalent stiffness Sport is with the ITS, and Sport with the CTR is bouncier than the equivalent stiffness Sport + is with the ITS.

I don't know whether this is true, but if it is, that's the one aspect of swapping modules that most appeals to me. I don't necessarily want any of the CTR's modes to be softer. I like the firm ride. I simply want less bouncing, and if the ITS module accomplishes this, then I'm definitely interested.

 

[modern_sports_car]

I could be wrong, but I've read/heard that there are more differences between the ITS and CTR modules than simple stiffness levels. Topher mentioned that the adaptive behaviors change, as well, which aids in reducing the bounciness. For example, Comfort with the CTR module is bouncier than the supposed equivalent stiffness Sport is with the ITS, and Sport with the CTR is bouncier than the equivalent stiffness Sport + is with the ITS.

I don't know whether this is true, but if it is, that's the one aspect of swapping modules that most appeals to me. I don't necessarily want any of the CTR's modes to be softer. I like the firm ride. I simply want less bouncing, and if the ITS module accomplishes this, then I'm definitely interested.

I could be wrong, but I've read/heard that there are more differences between the ITS and CTR modules than simple stiffness levels. Topher mentioned that the adaptive behaviors change, as well, which aids in reducing the bounciness. For example, Comfort with the CTR module is bouncier than the supposed equivalent stiffness Sport is with the ITS, and Sport with the CTR is bouncier than the equivalent stiffness Sport + is with the ITS.

I don't know whether this is true, but if it is, that's the one aspect of swapping modules that most appeals to me. I don't necessarily want any of the CTR's modes to be softer. I like the firm ride. I simply want less bouncing, and if the ITS module accomplishes this, then I'm definitely interested.

This.

 

[M!!!]

I -- and more importantly my wife! -- find Comfort mode to be acceptably compliant on our absolutely terrible local roads, especially compared to our GR Yaris and Jimny which are noticeably firmer over bumps. However, to my surprise, at least two persons who have ridden in the back seat complained that it is too bouncy and uncomfortable back there even in Comfort mode.

Really interested to tryout a DE5 Integra Type S ADS module and maybe downsize the wheels to 18 inches.

 

[JDM_DOHC_SiR]

Stiffness level:   1        2        3        4
FL5 module:              Comfort   Sport     +R
DE5 module:      Comfort      Sport      +R

Updated your list ... With about 4000miles on this module so far and I find the modes to be kind of in between on the ITS ADS.. so this is where I have the stiffness compared to the CTR ADS module.

 

[VLJ]

Updated your list ... With about 4000miles on this module so far and I find the modes to be kind of in between on the ITS ADS.. so this is where I have the stiffness compared to the CTR ADS module.

How would you compare the bounciness with the ITS module?

 

[JDM_DOHC_SiR]

How would you compare the bounciness with the ITS module?

I would say less by a noticeable margin it's almost like they adjusted the compression and rebound stroke with the ITS ADS module... more so I'd say on the compression stroke of the dampers if that make sense

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