The sport bottom and PASM damping map

I have asked this question before and I have not had an answer from anyone, so I would like to try it again. It appears to me when you engage the sport bottom then disengaging the PASM to go back to the softer setting, you actually do not go back to the softest setting regardless of road condition, and the damping levels are actually closer to a (non- pasm ) car dampening levels and this assuming the road condition has not been changed. Now this is a different situation if you just engage the PASM then disengage from the PASM bottom as the dampening levels go naturally to the lowest setting unless you are driving aggressively. Let me be clear....I am talking here about engaging the PASM by pushing the Sport bottom then disengaging the PASM only and after sport has been engaged. You end up with more aggressive dampening setting of the normal map and closer to the top level of the map. I noticed this because until yesterday I was actually driving both a PASM and Non PASM car. I owned 08 non PASM car for 5 months, and the butt strain gauge has been calibrated to that setting, so I can usually spot that setting. There is no write up indicating that sport bottom adjusts your normal map regardless of road condition. It could be all in my head and I am just having a NON- PASM withdrawls!! Does anyone know for sure? Mark

Pasm Due to the road conditions in Scotland I often set my CS up this way, sport on and PASM of setting it back to normal. I have never observed the setting to be anything other than the softer setting. I also believe the system only has 2 setting as there are no variable valves etc its all or nothing kind of set up.

I think I agree with this, it's subjective so difficult to be sure but I've not noticed a difference between sport on or off with PASM in normal mode.

PASM has 2 (and only 2) variable maps: Normal and Sport. Whether you are in Normal as the default setting or because you pushed the button twice to go into and then out of Sport gets you to the same map: Normal. I think it's in your head, perhaps mislead by the changed SC throttle map. BTW, although Normal is the softer of the 2 settings, the default setting within Normal is not the softest. The suspension will soften further as needed by road conditions, e.g., driving over railroad tracks. I'm sure you've seen the PASM mapping below.

Thanks for all the replies Thanks Brad for the explanation. I agree with your input. I think part of the difficulty in making the comparison is the fact it is indeed an adaptive suspension. I did find the car track much better with PASM on the rough road, than the Non-PASM but for some reason 80% of the time PASM car still felt stiffer. I really think the system is geared towards of keep maximum traction to the tire so it is constantly adapting to do that and if the wheel is achieving this maximum traction it is reverting to a higher dampening levels, so it may feel stiffer on the average but it is doing its job as advertised which is keeping this wheel on the road at all times. I am coming to the conculusion, It is really difficult to compare a system that constantly changing against a fixed one. I have found on the internet a write up about there are actually 5 diferent programs that govern each of the 2 maps (Normal & Sport), that deciede what the dampening levels are. Again thanks for all the inputs Mark

Hey Mark - You're welcome.... something else to consider is that PASM is actually serving a number of "masters" if you will... traction is one of them, but another very important one is consistent ride-height - through sensors that sense ride-height and suspension travel, another of PASM's "jobs" is to basically eliminate body roll and "dive" and "squat" under braking and acceleration, respectively... this really adds the the efficiency of getting maximum traction on the contact patches. brad