[Horsey]

Originally Posted by lbjgh

Try this: http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Conte...b-732048a9e3fb

And there in lies a root cause of confusion ...

... watching the video places more emphasis was on the selection of comfort vs. sport suspension stiffness rather than anything about the adaptive qualities of the suspension.

I started a thread a while ago which aimed to discuss the relative merits of BMW VDC vs. Evoque Magneride suspension.

Some good qualitative comparisons would be nice ...

... sadly I doubt I will get to drive standard vs. adaptive versions of both marques (let alone one brand) side by side for a balanced comparison.

Where is a motoring journalist when you need one!

[Nahoa]

Originally Posted by 3Bimmer

Thanks, all, for the great responses and information.

Based on this discussion, some online research and digesting written and video reviews, I have added DHP to my order.

Now, what does this system do again?

This board is the best!

[Horsey]

Originally Posted by Nahoa

5 more days till I get my X3.

How to pass the time?

I know ... see how many VDC & DHP threads I can start before I get kicked off!

[lbjgh]

I think people get confused by the acronyms and advertising bs.

I've tried to get my head around this whole adaptive/dynamic/variable BMW babble-speak.

Lets take another direction on this discussion…

Bear with me here …

Picture the suspension components (with the exception of the damper/shock) completely constructed out of HAMMERS (ya hammers). How the hell does any computer (using sensors, blinking diodes or fancy LED schematics) turn the hammers into anything other than hammers? Marketing babble-speak aside the only thing that can change is the shock/damper’s dampening… and to do that you need adjustable dampers.

Now, pictures the damper as spanner and the adjustable damper as an adjustable spanner.

Throw in some teutonic, highfalutin, dynamic, variable computer programming and now you can get one suspension component to change… yep a variable damper can be adjusted just like an adjustable spanner.

So if you bought a car with spanners and hammers for suspension components how does anything happen with the suspension when you hit a button on the console?

Someone might have to take me out to the tool shed on this one.

p.s.
I guess if you disagree with my rant you can point out what parts (on the attached image) that the computer magically changes if your car does not have dynamic dampers…

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by lbjgh

I've tried to get my head around this whole adaptive/dynamic/variable BMW babble-speak.

Lets take another direction on this discussion…

I guess if you disagree with my rant you can point out what parts (on the attached image) that the computer magically changes if your car does not have dynamic dampers…

Nothing in the suspension changes, if you don't have the adaptive strut/damper with the valve on the side.

I sense from some of the postings in the threads on adaptive damping, that there is the feeling there is some secondary system which is 'modified' with the toggle switch, even if VDC is not fitted.

We had the same sort of feeling and comments when the F10 came out. True there is a difference in the feel of the car, even without VDC, when switched to sport, but it is only the steering being 'tightened' which has changed the chassis feel. (Confirmed by BMW).

It is not all in the mind either, the vehicle's dynamics do change. As a driver you do feel the difference, but it isn't a 'secondary' suspension modification.

HighlandPete

[kingbadger]

I wrote this to help explain the difference a few months ago...


Adaptive damping is, IMHO, one of the most impressive options you can have. It allows you to have a limo-like gliding along feel (when the wife or kids are with you) or a firm sporty ride when you are on your own! It works with the computer to vary ride while the computer also (in sport) doesn't change up as soon, makes the engine more responsive to the throttle and alters the steering rates. But without adaptive damping, nothing can change the ride quality.

I' taking many liberties with accuracy here, but you can think of regular dampers as being like a doctors syringe full of oil. It takes effort to squirt out the oil because you have to force it out through a small hole. There is a spring around the syringe to push the plunger back out.

On a car a one way valve allows the oil to be sucked back in very quickly ( through a large hole) as the spring pushes the wheel down/car up after being squashed, keeping the wheel in contact with the road. It stops whole car bouncing up and down on the springs multiple times (think simple harmonic motion in school physics class!)

Adaptive damping electronically varies the size of the "oil" hole very fast based on information from the car's various sensors and your chosen setting. Sport will use smaller apertures and give a firm ride, normal gives bigger apertures and a softer ride. It's a neat system, quite inexpensive (for BMW) since its code plus more expensive dampers. Fully "active suspension" is much more expensive and complex - and more likely to fail as a result. Computer controlled hydraulic pumps at each wheel etc.

The Audi system achieves the same by electronically altering the viscosity of the damper oil/fluid "magna ride" - a very fancy fluid whose viscosity properties vary with applied charge....BMW changes the size of the hole it is being pushed through. Smaller hole = thicker fluid, larger hole = thinner fluid.

Does this help?

[Nahoa]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Nothing in the suspension changes, if you don't have the adaptive strut/damper with the valve on the side.

I sense from some of the postings in the threads on adaptive damping, that there is the feeling there is some secondary system which is 'modified' with the toggle switch, even if VDC is not fitted.

We had the same sort of feeling and comments when the F10 came out. True there is a difference in the feel of the car, even without VDC, when switched to sport, but it is only the steering being 'tightened' which has changed the chassis feel. (Confirmed by BMW).

It is not all in the mind either, the vehicle's dynamics do change. As a driver you do feel the difference, but it isn't a 'secondary' suspension modification.

HighlandPete

For me, at least, I'm not saying that there's additional equipment modifying the suspension -- I don't KNOW there isn't, but I don't THINK there is, as you've said. There are, however, two things that "adaptive damper" can do. One is Normal-to-Sport and the other is real time modification of individual dampers. Those function use the same equipment, but their goals are different. Dynamic does not mean being able to change between Normal and Sport, it means the car adjusting itself on the fly.