I’ve been testing the module for a few weeks now and have made some observations...
I’ll preface this by saying that my complaints about the factory suspension were few, but specific, and (in my mind) major. My car is a 2019 USA Stinger GT2 RWD.
The stock suspension is far too bouncy. This is an issue both front and rear.
Additionally, absorbance of small bumps/road texture leaves a bit to be desired. There’s most always a stream of jitter/patter/ and road feel unless the road is almost glass smooth. On these smooth roads, the car glides along like a Mercedes. But add in cracks, blemishes, and broken surfaces and all are felt too clearly in the cabin.
The suspension actual rides nicely over potholes and actual bumps of medium to small size.
It just struggles to filter out the minute bumps and texture.
Another issue is the skittish rear end while cornering on bumpy surfaces. My car only exhibited this behavior on the worst pavements.
My last major complaint is that the body does not move as a whole. You can always sense one (or several) corners of the car dipping, rising, leaning, or slightly wobbling in response to road conditions or steering inputs.
Now, to the Mando...
The suspension behavior is improved all around.
Vertical body motions are reduced at both the front and rear of the car.
The suspension masks road texture a bit more thoroughly.
The skittish rear end is tamed to great effect.
The Mando is a definite improvement over stock.
That being said, it does not perfect the stock suspension.
There is still far too much vertical body motion, both front and rear, over bumpy/lumpy roads.
This applies to all of Mandos predefined modes (Comfort or Sport).
Neither of the settings provides the flat, solid, and mostly bounce free ride that I desire.
Seeking more, I moved on to the Customizable setting in the app...
I was hoping to be able to make the ride relatively bounce free and solid.
Well, if you stiffen the settings too much the car becomes bouncier. Go too high in stiffness and you remove the slow relaxed bounce of the stock suspension and get a high frequency go cart bounce instead.
Perhaps this is due to mismatching the compression/rebound settings in The Apps custom setting.
I’m still playing with the custom setting to see if I can get a flatter ride.
I’ll have to reverse engineer the app to see what ratio of compression/rebound damping they are using in the preset modes and work from there.
On this note, I noticed something. There are differences between the IOS and Android versions of the app.
The significant difference is that on the custom setting in the Android App, you have to specify rebound and compression (labeled handling/ride in the app) separately. This makes it very easy to end up with a bad rebound/compression mix, until you get a feel for where it should be.
On the other hand, the IOS app Custom setting controls the rebound/compression ratio together automatically.
This has made it fairly easy to get my best calibrations yet. Using the IOS apps custom setting, I am fairly close to an “ideal” tune. Still getting there though.
For those wanting to know if the Mando can replace sways...
Not on a daily driver. You will still want sway bars, even with the Mando.
Sure you can set the shocks stiff enough to just about eliminate all roll, but the ride quality suffers immensely at those elevated firmness levels. Even smooth roads will cause the car to rapidly pogo up and down (particularly at the front) at the settings required to control body roll like sways would. I may revisit this statement, as my custom setting gets dialed in more precisely.
And last but not least, and here’s the big one.
I found the reason why Mando was reluctant to sell these outside of Korea...
The Stinger is available in several markets:
North America
Korea
Russia
China
Europe
Australia
Each one of these places have their own suspension tuning.
Each place has a specific hardware (shock) and software (ECS Computer) calibration.
Parts (and tuning) also vary according to trim level. AWD and RWD use different physical shock absorbers too.
I mention this to highlight that the MAndo was obviously designed and calibrated for the Korean market Stinger.
We use the same springs as that Korean model, but our shocks are different. Plus, the OEM Kia Suspension Computer firmware is different to accommodate those different shocks as well as regional ride/handling objectives.
So, when we used the Mando on our North American shocks, and on top of North American OEM Kia suspension computer programming, we are certainly not getting/experiencing what Mando had in mind. Is it better than stock? Yes. Optimal? No.
This is probably the reason I cannot completely get rid of the front bounce, even with the Mando. Our front shocks and factory programming are simply too different from the Korean shocks the tuner was designed to work with.
Mando has said they are looking at offering the tuner here. If they do, I’ll definitely upgrade to a North American Mando (if it’s different), because even this Korean version is quite nice.
And on a somewhat related note, my Kia scantool (not Mando) just got updated...
Low and behold,
Genesis G70 settings have been present and stored in the Factory Stinger ECS Computer this whole time. I coded my factory ECS to
G70 3.3t Dynamic and that works just as good as the Mando does!
If you don’t want to spend for the Mando, dropping by the local Hyundai dealer and having them code your ECS to
G70, works just as well and might be potentially cheaper (just the cost of coding).
I’ve been toying with coding my ECS to different models and also using the Mando on top of that Kia coding to see which combinations produce the most refined ride and handling. A long process of trial and error.
