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So I just got my 2014 Z51 back from getting the MRC calibration update. The car sat overnight and acclimated so the settings are relevant as I understand it.
My first impressions after a 30mi drive home on some slower bumpy twisty roads and highway, decent mix of everything: Harsh. Very harsh. I’m a racer, I understand suspension and I can feel this update would be amazing on a nice smooth racetrack or smooth roads, but it feels like it’s sitting higher in the stroke and compression feels very harsh. There’s a bump coming into my neighborhood if I hit too hard I’ll feel the little black air deflectors under the front end would scrape a little. I purposefully hit the bump and no scrape for example.
Does anyone else have any feedback on the update? I don’t know if it’s even possible to go backwards with software on corvettes but unless something changes, first impressions I wish I had left it as-is. Now I’m feeling every bump and crack. I pretty much always stay in sport mode and changing to touring and eco or track for that matter, didn’t seem to change much. Idk maybe it takes more time to settle in acclimate, I sure hope so cause so far this is a downgrade!
So I just got my 2014 Z51 back from getting the MRC calibration update. The car sat overnight and acclimated so the settings are relevant as I understand it.
My first impressions after a 30mi drive home on some slower bumpy twisty roads and highway, decent mix of everything: Harsh. Very harsh. I’m a racer, I understand suspension and I can feel this update would be amazing on a nice smooth racetrack or smooth roads, but it feels like it’s sitting higher in the stroke and compression feels very harsh. There’s a bump coming into my neighborhood if I hit too hard I’ll feel the little black air deflectors under the front end would scrape a little. I purposefully hit the bump and no scrape for example.
Does anyone else have any feedback on the update? I don’t know if it’s even possible to go backwards with software on corvettes but unless something changes, first impressions I wish I had left it as-is. Now I’m feeling every bump and crack. I pretty much always stay in sport mode and changing to touring and eco or track for that matter, didn’t seem to change much. Idk maybe it takes more time to settle in acclimate, I sure hope so cause so far this is a downgrade!
I have a 2016 Z06 so our chassis / suspension is different, but I had the opposite experience to you, for me the update greatly improved the ride quality without compromising the handling, the damping simply felt more refined is the best description I can think of. It was less harsh over bumps and it's probably my favorite update so far.
I haven't heard anybody say their suspension was harsher after the update so something doesn't sound right, the worst comments I've seen are simply that some people didn't notice much difference and thus not worth the money.
So I just got my 2014 Z51 back from getting the MRC calibration update. The car sat overnight and acclimated so the settings are relevant as I understand it.
My first impressions after a 30mi drive home on some slower bumpy twisty roads and highway, decent mix of everything: Harsh. Very harsh. I’m a racer, I understand suspension and I can feel this update would be amazing on a nice smooth racetrack or smooth roads, but it feels like it’s sitting higher in the stroke and compression feels very harsh. There’s a bump coming into my neighborhood if I hit too hard I’ll feel the little black air deflectors under the front end would scrape a little. I purposefully hit the bump and no scrape for example.
Does anyone else have any feedback on the update? I don’t know if it’s even possible to go backwards with software on corvettes but unless something changes, first impressions I wish I had left it as-is. Now I’m feeling every bump and crack. I pretty much always stay in sport mode and changing to touring and eco or track for that matter, didn’t seem to change much. Idk maybe it takes more time to settle in acclimate, I sure hope so cause so far this is a downgrade!
Our car is a 2017 Z51 with mag ride, so our suspensions should be identical.
Our 2017 is our fourth modern Corvette, our first with mag ride.
When new, the ride settings were Stiff, Stiffer, and Brutal. I actually considered trading into a car without mag ride.
About a year or two after buying the car, the mag ride update came out. We got it immediately and could tell the improved ride just during the ride home from the dealer. Just like GM says, both the ride and the handling improved. The Track selection on our car did not change but everything is better about Tour and Sport.
Over the years I've seen a couple of reports where the person said that the improvements weren't that big a deal, but nobody who said the ride got worse.
I suspect that something went wrong with your update, or perhaps they inflated your tires to 40 psi.
Good luck, keep us posted.
I have a 2016 Z06 so our chassis / suspension is different, but I had the opposite experience to you, for me the update greatly improved the ride quality without compromising the handling, the damping simply felt more refined is the best description I can think of. It was less harsh over bumps and it's probably my favorite update so far.
I haven't heard anybody say their suspension was harsher after the update so something doesn't sound right, the worst comments I've seen are simply that some people didn't notice much difference and thus not worth the money.
Ok maybe I’ll give it a little more time then contact the dealer.
Our car is a 2017 Z51 with mag ride, so our suspensions should be identical.
Our 2017 is our fourth modern Corvette, our first with mag ride.
When new, the ride settings were Stiff, Stiffer, and Brutal. I actually considered trading into a car without mag ride.
About a year or two after buying the car, the mag ride update came out. We got it immediately and could tell the improved ride just during the ride home from the dealer. Just like GM says, both the ride and the handling improved. The Track selection on our car did not change but everything is better about Tour and Sport.
Over the years I've seen a couple of reports where the person said that the improvements weren't that big a deal, but nobody who said the ride got worse.
I suspect that something went wrong with your update, or perhaps they inflated your tires to 40 psi.
Good luck, keep us posted.
Hey yes…I haven’t checked the tire pressure maybe they changed it. I’ll check that, cause this think is a rock now, so stiff.
I meant that as a joke, but stranger things have happened...
Legit! Worth checking, but unfortunately no. Called dealer back and gonna try to have them fix or return to previous settings. It’s horrible. Drove a bunch more today. It’s so messed up the softest setting is a track mode, sport it like driving with 50psi. It’s so bad even with softest setting(track) I’m hearing creaking and rubbing and squeaks I’ve never heard…it’s a convertible. Oh well I’ll take it back…at least there very friendly and helpful. Called them after my test drive and then called them to ask questions and he got their vette mechanic in his office and talked about it and he said maybe try a few more days and bring it back if it doesn’t settle down. Which I can’t believe it will cause it’s sat for days to temp acclimate…supposed to take 8-10hrs.
READ THIS: If you get this update ALWAYS confirm they do a Ride Height Calibration after completion of the MRC update. If your car has been lowered or raised since its birth and you don’t do the ride height calibration, your shocks don’t know there they are in their stroke and the result is terrible. My car had been lowered, and ride height not calibrated and I thought I would have to sell the car it was so harsh. Of course my local dealer was useless and clueless and learned about this through another on this forum and a YouTube vid I found. So I bought a Foxwell scanner that’ll do the reset, took all of 2 minutes and now it’s perfect. I won’t name the dealer, don’t wanna burn bridges but it’s the #1 corvette dealer in my area with a specific corvette tech and service manager that only deals with Vettes!
I was out of the Vette game for a bit but picked up a new-to-me C7 a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying to get the update done and many, many dealers later, I think I'm giving up on the GM route. Most have never heard of it or don't want to try it. One dealer which sells quite a few Corvettes told me it was a waste of time and wouldn't even schedule me. Another dealer told me it "must be installed at a certified Chevrolet Performance dealer. " One of the downsides if living in a rural area.
I see that Jim Mero is offering upgrades for the C7 now so I emailed him this evening. I'm going to try that route instead.
This is what mine shows. Does this mean it was done? Wish it had dates because I thought the updated calibration was only available on 2018/2019 models. Also I was just going to do the module swap with Jim Mero but I think mine has been lowered. If you see post #31 this caused major problems unless you do a ride height re-calibration. ACDelco website on 2nd screen capture below shows same exact information.
^^^ I believe that's just the factory program load. Not the updated calibration. See below.
I don't think mine was updated. See below for part numbers (some may be superseded). My 2 options are boxed in red below below and it does not show up on either of my history reports.
I was out of the Vette game for a bit but picked up a new-to-me C7 a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying to get the update done and many, many dealers later, I think I'm giving up on the GM route. Most have never heard of it or don't want to try it. One dealer which sells quite a few Corvettes told me it was a waste of time and wouldn't even schedule me. Another dealer told me it "must be installed at a certified Chevrolet Performance dealer. " One of the downsides if living in a rural area.
I see that Jim Mero is offering upgrades for the C7 now so I emailed him this evening. I'm going to try that route instead.
I am interested in going with the module swap with Jim Mero for the C7 as well. There have been many reports that the dealer has no idea how to do the upgrade or could care less. Swapping the module is easy and knowing that Jim has done the upgrade you know it will be done correctly. Please post your results with Jim or maybe Jim could comment on the site himself for the C7 upgrade. I see on his site that he doesn't mention the Track Calibration so I assume that is not changed.
I am interested in going with the module swap with Jim Mero for the C7 as well. There have been many reports that the dealer has no idea how to do the upgrade or could care less. Swapping the module is easy and knowing that Jim has done the upgrade you know it will be done correctly. Please post your results with Jim or maybe Jim could comment on the site himself for the C7 upgrade. I see on his site that he doesn't mention the Track Calibration so I assume that is not changed.
I will definitely post my thoughts once it's done. For $75 over the dealer cost, it's a no-brainer for me to get it straight from the man who designed it. Still waiting to hear back from my inquiry on his site.
Mero didn't design it. He tuned it. And actually he sat in the car and told the BWI guys what he didn't like while they tweaked calibration values. Maybe at some point he picked up the tuning himself but when I was involved briefly with GM my impression was that the vehicle dynamics engineers signed off on tunes (for steering, suspension, braking calibrations). There is almost always a supplier engineer driving the laptop. Maybe after a few model years the GM guys got more involved but for 2014 at least they were just the overall approved.
Regardless Magnaride is owned and designed by BWI who bought the technology from Delphi (out of bankruptcy when Delphi killed its braking division and also sold of steering which eventually became Nexteer). Delphi when it was originally developed in the late 1990's was a part of GM, but all the algorithm experts got spun off with Delphi. GM retained no detailed knowledge of the product.
I did get the updated tunes for my 2016 Z51 when they came out and I think they are an improvement over the original tunes.
I'm biased though, from what Scott M told us (he was the ZFLS guy who tuned the C7 for us) he effectively did the Tour and Sport steering tunes with only some input from Jim. Jim focused on the Track tune. Granted this was the 2014. I'm not sure if they changed anything going down the road. I know EPS was new to Jim on the C7 while the MRC stuff was not. However this is where my impression comes from.
Last edited by user051728; May 29, 2025 at 11:32 PM.
