Porschenut_Lee

I'm in the process of having a garage built, and as soon as it is complete the car is going up on jackstands. I'm kinda blowing my budget on the garage, so funds are tight on luxury maintenance items for the 964.

With that said, the car needs some suspension work and I have a set of barely used Bilstein HD and H&R greens ready to bolt in that I bought from another Rennlister last year.

I also have noticed that I am getting increasingly worsening steering wheel shake when applying brakes lightly, so I think I am in need of new front control arm bushings at the very least.

Without being too short sighted about not doing a complete overhaul, what can I get away with doing now and minimizing cost? What would the experts recommend?

The car is a 1990 C2 with 75k on the clock. Street use only (weekend warrior). I am thinking sport rubber from elephant but will listen to other suggestions.

For parts budget, assume $1,000 to $1,500 tops. I already have the shocks/struts, so does not include those. I'll be doing all of the work myself.

I'd like to get parts on order now so that in a few weeks I can get started. What should I order to get max benefit on a limited budget?

Thanks guys.

-nick

Shake with light brakes sounds like you need new rotors.

There's a German distributor on ebay that has RS bushings with much less Porsche tax, if you really feel like you need them. Starting with just the struts/springs will be a major improvement. There aren't many while-you're-in-there parts unless you want to go looking for them.

Porschenut_Lee

Thanks Nick. Rotors are brand new cross drilled with only about 1,200 miles on them. I was getting brake pedal pulsating before I replaced and that solved the issue. About 500 miles later I started feeling a bit of steering wheel shake which I assumed to be control arm bushings, but I guess could be tie rod related?

I'll browse eBay for the RS bushings you are referring to. Might be the way to go for now until I get funds saved up for a more comprehensive overhaul.

kreeshp

I'd recommend a pair of RS engine mounts. For not a lot of money, you can reduce some of the car's sloppiness.

jimq

Before you tear everything apart be sure the parts you bought came from the old style shocks and springs car.

justin-in-athens

You should be able to do all the bushings for just a couple hundred dollars:
Control Arm bushings (see Chris Walrod on this board)
Ball joints
Anti sway bar bushings
Tie rod ends
Drop links
Pwr steering rack boots

It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't and if you are going to the trouble of pulling the suspension--now is the time.

Bill Verburg

In front the 964RS & 993RS used stiffer rubber bushes on the trailing leg of the A-arm, regular on the leading leg. You can emulate the RS easily enough or even better use sport rubber on both legs.
A good place to purchase sport rubber bushes is Elephant Racing in Ca.

I'd advise against any p/u bush. p/u is a soft materiel that relies on lube to ameliorate friction and wear, lube doesn't last forever and wear increases as lube decreases. I've seen measurable wear after relatively low mileage on p/u bushes. Their sole recommendation is that they are cheap.

brake vibration could be the bushes it could also be uneven pad deposition or wheel bearings or even lots of runout on the rotors for whatever reason.

If the shocks are just sitting around i'd also advise looking into a digressive rebuild, Bilstein San Diego and maybe Elephant can do this for you at a reasonable cost, the issue is more usually turnaround time unless you are working w/ a shop that has an in.

Porschenut_Lee

Gentlemen, Thank you for the input.

As much as I would like to go the extent of Goughary's suspension madness, it isn't in the cards for me at the moment and I am going to take care of the necessities for now.

The shocks/struts are indeed for an early suspension car, and I have WEVO motor mounts installed so good there.

I'm definitely doing front control arm bushings, and I suppose ball joints also since the control arms will be removed. That makes sense to me. If sway bar bushings aren't a lot of money, i'll probably swap those out also.

On the rear, I don't know what to do. Looking at Elephant's site, everything for the rear is huge $$$. Maybe leave rear alone if nothing is obviously disintegrating?

Beyond that, it will be discovery work as Bill stated. If I find wheel bearings bad, or rotor runout I can tend to those as needed.

I'm sure I'll be back for questions as I dig in. I'll be pouring through Goughary's thread first of course as a guide along with many other threads on here. I'm excited to have an even slightly refreshed suspension!

Goughary

Lee- feel free to give me a shout. In the rear. You want to look into monoball top hats. Those will make a difference- sort of best bang for the buck. And swaybars could do you well for not a huge amount of money. Also you can press in new lower bushings into your bilstein. I have the part number somewhere (or on suspension madness) so if you call bilstein they will supply.

Up front- best bang for buck - minimum if they are worn- outer tie rods, ball joints, C4 end links - I have a good used set of C4 end links if you want to save some money. I may have a good set of ball joints. But I understand if you want new.
Then elephant sport from rubber bushings. Poly rack bushings and a rack brace. Use the oem top hats up front. They are very good and you get plenty of negative camber for steer use .
And same up front- swaybars aren't expensive - there is a good set of rs or h&r sways on eBay right now cheep. (But after everyone reads this, they will likely be gone)

Then- once any or all of that is done - alignment is your friend. You have my number...gimmie a shout when ever.

HalV

I'd check for uneven pad deposition before I went any did anything else regarding the brakes. Try some higher friction pads like Hawk Blues and go through the "break in" procedure to see if you can "clean" the rotors. If this works, then change to OEM pads or something similar to keep this from reoccurring.