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      04-16-2018, 10:31 AM   #111
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ///Machiavelli View Post
Thanks for the info and thanks jackkk for the review!

I'm getting a quote from these folks and they are also inquiring with Tractive to see what the spring rates are for the plug and play kit. Will report back once I have more information.
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      04-17-2018, 02:32 PM   #112
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So this kit runs around $4800 for the plug and play version that uses the OEM top mounts. The spring rates are quoted at similar to stock at static to 10% stiffer than stock at full compression which must mean progressive springs. At those rates this should be very comfortable for a daily. I was also told that the car suspension algorithms remain intact but that the shocks react faster and have a larger spread of the damping range in each mode.

I'd really love to try this out before committing to it, perhaps I can get a demo from someone that has it on another car, tbd.
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      04-24-2018, 11:21 AM   #113
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Just sent email to tractive to get ball rolling on a set

Dampening has been my biggest gripe with this car, we have very poor quality b and c roads where I like to use my cars most, and the oe sachs shocks are just horrible and crashy even in comfort, it's really preventing me getting the car out and enjoying it

Since bilstein are delaying their damptronic shocks like Brexit, I've decided to go this route
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      04-24-2018, 12:59 PM   #114
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
Just sent email to tractive to get ball rolling on a set

Dampening has been my biggest gripe with this car, we have very poor quality b and c roads where I like to use my cars most, and the oe sachs shocks are just horrible and crashy even in comfort, it's really preventing me getting the car out and enjoying it

Since bilstein are delaying their damptronic shocks like Brexit, I've decided to go this route
Congrats, looking forward to another review!
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      04-24-2018, 05:29 PM   #115
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
Just sent email to tractive to get ball rolling on a set

Dampening has been my biggest gripe with this car, we have very poor quality b and c roads where I like to use my cars most, and the oe sachs shocks are just horrible and crashy even in comfort, it's really preventing me getting the car out and enjoying it

Since bilstein are delaying their damptronic shocks like Brexit, I've decided to go this route
Good luck with getting a reply. I’ve been down this road and didn’t get anywhere with them.

Have you done a software update yet? Massive improvement, worth trying if you haven’t.
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      04-24-2018, 05:36 PM   #116
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
Just sent email to tractive to get ball rolling on a set

Dampening has been my biggest gripe with this car, we have very poor quality b and c roads where I like to use my cars most, and the oe sachs shocks are just horrible and crashy even in comfort, it's really preventing me getting the car out and enjoying it

Since bilstein are delaying their damptronic shocks like Brexit, I've decided to go this route
Not to derail the thread, but the crashiness is caused by not enough damping to absorb the energy from the impact. If you're having that problem over sharp impacts or large swells, you're better off in sport or sport +. Comfort is more like a "cruising mode" to reduce body jerk on a mostly smooth or uneven road. BMW even indicates this in the manual, and it's one of the challenging trade-offs with any adaptive system (Some deal with it better than others). Try the other modes on those B and C roads and see how it works. I have been to the Melbourne area, and some of the B roads around there would be difficult for any sports car to deal with well. Good luck.
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      04-24-2018, 08:58 PM   #117
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mechanic75 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
Just sent email to tractive to get ball rolling on a set

Dampening has been my biggest gripe with this car, we have very poor quality b and c roads where I like to use my cars most, and the oe sachs shocks are just horrible and crashy even in comfort, it's really preventing me getting the car out and enjoying it

Since bilstein are delaying their damptronic shocks like Brexit, I've decided to go this route
Good luck with getting a reply. I've been down this road and didn't get anywhere with them.

Have you done a software update yet? Massive improvement, worth trying if you haven't.
To be fair I've gotten a reply from traction themselves and both inertia and my local importer within hours
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      04-24-2018, 09:02 PM   #118
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Racer20 View Post

Not to derail the thread, but the crashiness is caused by not enough damping to absorb the energy from the impact. If you're having that problem over sharp impacts or large swells, you're better off in sport or sport +. Comfort is more like a "cruising mode" to reduce body jerk on a mostly smooth or uneven road. BMW even indicates this in the manual, and it's one of the challenging trade-offs with any adaptive system (Some deal with it better than others). Try the other modes on those B and C roads and see how it works. I have been to the Melbourne area, and some of the B roads around there would be difficult for any sports car to deal with well. Good luck.
I have tried this as I thought that might be the case too

But this isn't my first rodeo into the poor dampening world of sachs shocks on an M product

The problem imo is the initial dampening which is too firm, at speed they do get better to a point, but they exhibit none of the dampening quality of a well sorted oe bilstein offering

I wish bilstein would release the b6 edc dampeners, that would be the easiest and cheapest way to solve the problem imo, but I'll have sold the car by time they/if release the matching rears (fronts are available)
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      04-25-2018, 10:35 PM   #119
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all sorted, should have them on in a couple weeks

will post a pretty detailed thread on weights and feedback given the sparse info on these
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      04-26-2018, 04:32 AM   #120
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
all sorted, should have them on in a couple weeks

will post a pretty detailed thread on weights and feedback given the sparse info on these
Great stuff. Look forward to the review.
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      04-26-2018, 06:54 AM   #121
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jackkk View Post
-25mm front and -5mm rear.
jackkk is that the max low setting or the fixed drop?

Can you maintain stock ride height with this setup?

edit! spoke to tractive, they recommend not lowering more than 10mm as it starts to affect ride quality negatively

Last edited by domino_z; 04-26-2018 at 09:47 PM..
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      05-20-2018, 10:41 AM   #122
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
all sorted, should have them on in a couple weeks

will post a pretty detailed thread on weights and feedback given the sparse info on these
domino_z Any updates for us??
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      05-20-2018, 04:37 PM   #123
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They arrived, along with a bunch of oe parts from ecs so I can build complete shock assemblies without having to tear down my oe shocks

Just waiting on my ceramic retrofit kit so I can install both at same time - need to remove all that bracing along firewall to get to the brake booster
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      05-20-2018, 07:30 PM   #124
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
They arrived, along with a bunch of oe parts from ecs so I can build complete shock assemblies without having to tear down my oe shocks

Just waiting on my ceramic retrofit kit so I can install both at same time - need to remove all that bracing along firewall to get to the brake booster
Excellent, looking forward to hearing more!
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      07-11-2018, 01:53 AM   #125
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as per my other thread...

here you go pics with usual dirty car disclaimer (with 7.5mm turner spacers + ps4s)

ride height is min lowering point, you can go lower, how much more i can't tell ya, i'm in my 30's and too old for slammed daily drivers so i didn't bother looking into it

i've been meaning to do a proper review thread, but essentially in comfort mode it's about as soft as an x1 lol, way softer than the M lite cars even. It's actually quite unnerving, you see some broken tarmac, instinctively clench, and nothing happens. they do firm up at speed on hwy and in corners, so it's not too soft. edit - rear springs have seated now and don't make any noise on extreme angle driveways

the best option is sport, it's just firm enough, prob M lite firm, still being softer than oe comfort, and compliance is spot on, no crash, just a solid thud over the worst broker tarmac

you can even use sport+ on street with no issue, oe comfort is somewhere bw tractive sport and sport+ in terms of harshness on rough roads

you really feel the difference going over speed bumps, where the oe shock felt like it was hitting its bump stop as soon as the front wheel hits the edge lip, the tractive shock feels like its actually going through its whole stroke

Edit! Did a notoriously bumpy c road I'm very familiar with. The inside of a lot of the hairpin corners are all corrugated due to trucks using the road over many years. Where the oe shocks would crash and cause the front end to skip across the ruts, the tractive shocks just soaked it up. You could definitely hear the thud inside the car but you just didn't feel it, nor did the front wheels lose contact with the road - now I know why the Porsche track guys love riding the kerbs with these shocks
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      07-12-2018, 12:46 PM   #126
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Thanks for the quick rundown. How have the pitch/dive and roll been affected?
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      07-12-2018, 07:00 PM   #127
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Celestion View Post
Thanks for the quick rundown. How have the pitch/dive and roll been affected?
Nothing at all while driving, even in comfort the body stays completely flat in corners and when braking

The only time you feel them overly soft compared to stock in terms of pitch is when driving at car park speeds over speed bumps or drainage dips, you do feel the car rock more than stock but not disturbingly so

The best way to sum it up for me is the ride feels like an M lite car on street in sport, but a proper M car in corners/driven spiritedly. I like the fact I can keep the car in sport by default and have option of going softer or harder depending on road/mood, whereas stock I was always in comfort even in hills with nowhere to go but slow down and/or clench my teeth when road turns bumpy - and our b/c roads here are very bumpy with broken shoulders in a lot of areas, very similar to UK

The front end, even steering, just feels a level up in terms of turn in, the change of direction I was really impressed with stock is just that little bit better and you can definitely notice it - this may also be due to taking a chunk of unsprung weight off brakes too though as I installed ceramics at same time.

The best thing for me when cornering now is when I hit a bump with outside loaded wheel the tractive shock just absorbs it, whereas the stock shock would crash into the cabin and unsettle the front end
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      04-10-2019, 01:11 AM   #128
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Quote:
Originally Posted by domino_z View Post
Nothing at all while driving, even in comfort the body stays completely flat in corners and when braking

The only time you feel them overly soft compared to stock in terms of pitch is when driving at car park speeds over speed bumps or drainage dips, you do feel the car rock more than stock but not disturbingly so

The best way to sum it up for me is the ride feels like an M lite car on street in sport, but a proper M car in corners/driven spiritedly. I like the fact I can keep the car in sport by default and have option of going softer or harder depending on road/mood, whereas stock I was always in comfort even in hills with nowhere to go but slow down and/or clench my teeth when road turns bumpy - and our b/c roads here are very bumpy with broken shoulders in a lot of areas, very similar to UK

The front end, even steering, just feels a level up in terms of turn in, the change of direction I was really impressed with stock is just that little bit better and you can definitely notice it - this may also be due to taking a chunk of unsprung weight off brakes too though as I installed ceramics at same time.

The best thing for me when cornering now is when I hit a bump with outside loaded wheel the tractive shock just absorbs it, whereas the stock shock would crash into the cabin and unsettle the front end
Thanks again for the above.

Any new updates and feedback you can offer us?
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      04-10-2019, 09:44 AM   #129
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      04-10-2019, 10:18 AM   #130
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Have done quite a lot of road trips since

No issues to report, the shocks have remained silent and performing as new

I've owned M cars in past where I've used bilstein pss10's, ohlins dfv, but the tractive are on another level in terms of combining both compliance and handling - they really take advantage of the oe electronic dampening algorithm

Hands down best mod you can do to this chassis imo. I can fly through a bumpy broken b/c road without much intrusion into cabin or unsettling of the body

These shocks aren't going to reduce the nvh we get from a solid mounted subframe, 30 series zcp tyres or the stiffness of all that bracing. What they do is add compliance to the dampening that just isn't there in the oe sachs
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      12-01-2019, 12:14 PM   #131
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How much?
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      02-29-2020, 07:40 PM   #132
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Have removed my tractive shocks and took some pics so anyone following thread can see what they look like
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