DSSV Damper Fade

[SS MoFo]

I often browse to the Z/28 section of the boards after a couple beers. An amazing driving car no doubt...

I'm curious about DSSV Dampers and the durability of the damper on the Z/28. I 'm thinking of changing over to the DSSV technology and increased spring rate but I find myself wondering "How durable is the DSSV damper"? I'm on a damper changing schedule of around 20K miles as 1LE dampers tend wear out fast on the bumpy highways in my area. Anyone have a set of DSSV dampers that feel like the compression or rebound dampening has noticeably changed due to wear? What's your DSSV damper mileage?

[URBAN LEGEND]

I'm at 10,142 miles here. Everything is as stiff as ever here.

[D2M]

If you have bumpy highways in you area the last thing you want is DSSVs. They are %90 track focused and %10 street.

[I4toV8]

28k miles in downtown Los Angeles streets. and they are still breaking my back

[aris]

From what I understand, one big advantage of the DSSV over conventional dampers is it's long term durability.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/from-f1...ers-explained/

From the article:
Conventional dampers use multiple thin discs covering ports in the piston moving up and down within a tube containing hydraulic oil to generate the forces that control body and wheel motion. The flexibility tuned into these discs—and the size and shape of the ports they cover—determines how fluid flows between the chambers above and below the piston. The greater the flow restriction, the higher the damping force.
While that principle is sound, problems arise with mileage. The steel disc material is subject to fatigue, which diminishes its strength and stiffness. Bits of debris from the damper seals, piston, and shaft become trapped between the disc layers, altering their damping qualities. Anyone who has owned a high-mileage car with clapped-out shocks knows that the term “handling” no longer describes its dynamic behavior.
The other shortcoming with conventional dampers is that they can’t be tuned to cover the full scope of road driving, track lapping, and off-pavement excursions that ambitious manufacturers are striving to cover.
Multimatic’s DSSV dampers retain basic components such as a sealed tube filled with hydraulic oil and a piston that moves within that tube in sync with suspension motion. The difference is that the thin discs are replaced with a pair of hollow cylindrical sleeves nested concentrically within each other and held apart by a coil spring. Suspension motion forces damper oil inside the sleeve cavity. When that internal pressure is sufficient to overcome the spring force, one sleeve moves slightly with respect to the other, uncovering apertures, which allow oil to move to the opposite side of the piston. One sleeve valve regulates compression damping; another controls rebound damping.

The beauty of this arrangement is that the sleeve valve components are not susceptible to wear or fatigue. The stiffness of the coil spring and its preload and the shape of the apertures facilitate three distinct damping curves. A linear “curve” provides damping forces directly proportional to the velocity of the suspension movement. Progressive damping characteristics mean that the force rises gradually with suspension velocity. Digressive damping is a steep initial rise in damping followed by the force curve leveling off at some specific suspension-travel velocity. Multimatic has software called SpecFinder that allows ride-and-handling engineers to quickly and easily pick spool valves that deliver the damping curves they desire.

[All2Easy]

12,000 miles on mine....no degradation in performance that I can detect.....and Houston streets suck

What I find really impressive is how tight the car's interior is.....ultra stiff ride on crap roads and not a rattle or squeak to be heard.

[URBAN LEGEND]

Originally Posted by All2Easy

12,000 miles on mine....no degradation in performance that I can detect.....and Houston streets suck

What I find really impressive is how tight the car's interior is.....ultra stiff ride on crap roads and not a rattle or squeak to be heard.

Where in Houston? I'm here too.

[All2Easy]

Originally Posted by URBAN LEGEND

Where in Houston? I'm here too.

Missouri City......Sienna Plantation

[The_Raging_Bull]

Nothing to brag about for sure None of you guys have Memorial Drive here in Tulsa...I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow..But Tulsa has some of the worst roads ever. And yes in those rough areas your teeth chatter.. But when its smooth-> the Z and its DSVV shocks eat short sweeping 90 degree corners at 50 to 65 mph...

However for a practical demonstration......I did a 50 mph 180 degree turn (where the highway and side road met it was smooth..) at speed....

The Z came around to 55 or 60 degrees in the turn, it then acted like the car was pivoting on a straight pin, and went all the way around 180 degrees, with my friend and I receding the opposite direction at 55.
No body roll, no huge tire squealing, no undignified half A turn attempt....no, it came around flat as a brick, planted on the street, then squatted did a little wiggle and we took off like a scalded dog in the opposite direction. That turn was ALL due to the DSVV suspension .

My friend-> who owns a911GT RS3...was astounded by what we did; saying WT...!!! - I can't believe that you did that!!! Did you know it was going to do that? Me?? I was like WT... I cant believe it did that!!!

This car makes every driver better, and in that turn made me look like The Stig - or well just fill in the blank w/your favorite driver. I LOVE this car.

[L99CAMA2011]

I am sold. GEN5DIY guy offered me a set and I am going to take him up on that next year. 28k from the previous post is good enough for me.

[JUSTIFIED]

Originally Posted by aris

From what I understand, one big advantage of the DSSV over conventional dampers is it's long term durability.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/from-f1...ers-explained/

From the article:
Conventional dampers use multiple thin discs covering ports in the piston moving up and down within a tube containing hydraulic oil to generate the forces that control body and wheel motion. The flexibility tuned into these discs—and the size and shape of the ports they cover—determines how fluid flows between the chambers above and below the piston. The greater the flow restriction, the higher the damping force.
While that principle is sound, problems arise with mileage. The steel disc material is subject to fatigue, which diminishes its strength and stiffness. Bits of debris from the damper seals, piston, and shaft become trapped between the disc layers, altering their damping qualities. Anyone who has owned a high-mileage car with clapped-out shocks knows that the term “handling” no longer describes its dynamic behavior.
The other shortcoming with conventional dampers is that they can’t be tuned to cover the full scope of road driving, track lapping, and off-pavement excursions that ambitious manufacturers are striving to cover.
Multimatic’s DSSV dampers retain basic components such as a sealed tube filled with hydraulic oil and a piston that moves within that tube in sync with suspension motion. The difference is that the thin discs are replaced with a pair of hollow cylindrical sleeves nested concentrically within each other and held apart by a coil spring. Suspension motion forces damper oil inside the sleeve cavity. When that internal pressure is sufficient to overcome the spring force, one sleeve moves slightly with respect to the other, uncovering apertures, which allow oil to move to the opposite side of the piston. One sleeve valve regulates compression damping; another controls rebound damping.

The beauty of this arrangement is that the sleeve valve components are not susceptible to wear or fatigue. The stiffness of the coil spring and its preload and the shape of the apertures facilitate three distinct damping curves. A linear “curve” provides damping forces directly proportional to the velocity of the suspension movement. Progressive damping characteristics mean that the force rises gradually with suspension velocity. Digressive damping is a steep initial rise in damping followed by the force curve leveling off at some specific suspension-travel velocity. Multimatic has software called SpecFinder that allows ride-and-handling engineers to quickly and easily pick spool valves that deliver the damping curves they desire.

Great info. Thanks. I have just over 11k miles and still stiff as ever, but do wonder about wear and tear from street use. You feel every dimple in the road and when it's really rough and/or uneven (esp. on the highway) it gets interesting, but the Z just shrugs it off.