General 2015 500S Suspension Ride Quality Improvements

[Cinqster355]

Hi all, I am 1 month into owning a 2015 500 1.2S. Its a fun car but now I have drove it plenty the harsh ride is starting to bother me (I have a huge amount of speed bumps to negotiate on my commute for example). I'm looking into options to improve it, I want comfort and ride quality not performance (I appreciate its a 500 and not a limo). I have done extensive reading here and have narrowed it down to 2 potential improvements.

Change the front shocks to Bilstein B4s and or change the stock 15" alloys to 14" steel wheels. Both options are cheaper than trading the car in.

My question is if anyone has done either of these things (with a view to improve ride quality) how much did it really make a difference? Am I wasting my time/money/effort (I can fit the shocks myself no problem) and have to accept this is the 500 characteristics or is it worth doing 1 or both of these or more if you have suggestions?

Any feedback will be welcome.

 

[jrkitching]

Hi all, I am 1 month into owning a 2015 500 1.2S. Its a fun car but now I have drove it plenty the harsh ride is starting to bother me (I have a huge amount of speed bumps to negotiate on my commute for example). I'm looking into options to improve it, I want comfort and ride quality not performance (I appreciate its a 500 and not a limo). I have done extensive reading here and have narrowed it down to 2 potential improvements.

Change the front shocks to Bilstein B4s and or change the stock 15" alloys to 14" steel wheels. Both options are cheaper than trading the car in.

My question is if anyone has done either of these things (with a view to improve ride quality) how much did it really make a difference? Am I wasting my time/money/effort (I can fit the shocks myself no problem) and have to accept this is the 500 characteristics or is it worth doing 1 or both of these or more if you have suggestions?

Any feedback will be welcome.

Your research is sound and you are thinking along the right lines. Personally I'd start with the wheels, and then the shocks if I still couldn't live with it.

I've done the swap to 14" steel wheels myself, and can confirm that it does improve the ride quality somewhat; you'll likely also see a small gain in fuel economy. Generally cheap enough to buy secondhand and IMO well worth doing, especially if you'd be looking to replace the tyres soon.

On a 1.2, you might even be able to go down to 13" wheels & 80 profile tyres; I keep meaning to test this but somehow never quite get around to it. (I have tried it the other way round on the 169 Panda; 14" 500 wheels fit perfectly & I couldn't detect any difference in either economy or ride quality over about 400 miles or so).

@306maxi has made positive comments in the past about Bilstein's and may be along later. The general consensus is that you'll get more out of replacing the shocks than replacing the springs; the 500 is not so much badly sprung as badly damped. I'd have thought it might be worth swapping all 4; the OEM rear shocks generally don't last well and are simple enough to change.

In some ways the car is limited by the inherent disadvantages of a twist beam setup, but there are other similarly sprung small cars which do much better (the Mk1 Ka for example). Be glad you don't have one of the early 500's without the added beam stiffener; these are truly dreadful by modern standards (and probably have more to gain from fitting aftermarket suspension).

Digressing, but I'm surprised more folks with early cars haven't swapped to the newer type of rear beam, given that they can be readily obtained from breakers for around £100-£150 or so. Worth considering if you have a 2008/2009 car and there are some detailed threads in the Panda forum on how to go about it (it's straightforward, as you might expect).

 

[Cinqster355]

Thanks for the reply. After just over another month of ownership I have really got to know the 500 and my initial feelings towards it have now changed for the better. I have now got used to how the ride is and can say its totally fine, I just ride the speed bumps slower than before which is not a bad thing. This car certainly has character!

If and when the shocks fail I will replace with the better quality ones as noted earlier but other than that I will keep my stock 15" alloys (the tyres are as new).

I am really enjoying owning it and look forward to driving it each and every day. :slayer:

 

[John202020]

May sound obvious but make sure the tyres are at the correct pressure all the time?