BimmFiniti

I have searched on this forum and on the web and can't seem to determine what the stock ride height is for a 2007 Cayman S. I'm also unsure how this is measured, considering the flexible rubber dampers on the underside of the front of the car.

I purchased the car used and don't have information on whether it's been lowered. I've gotten differing opinions on whether the car is, in fact lowered: The Indie shop that installed my tires said it isn't; some people who see the car think it is.

Can anyone help and provide stock ride height and a definitive way to measure the ride height in the front and rear to determine if my car is actually stock?

I've attached a couple pictures for reference. Bear in mind that the high quality picture is taken on a slope, which impacts the tire gaps, of course.





Thanks, guys!

FTS

It does not look lowered to me. If you look behind the springs, I think 2nd from bottom, you should see red and green marks, if you see them, they are stock springs.

FunkyJunk

It sure looks lowered to me. I have a silver '06 CS with those same wheels. (non-PASM) My car definitely rides a bit higher than that (unfortunately).

OP - do you have PASM? That lowers the ride height by about 1/2" compared to non-PASM.

I'll try to remember to measure the distance between the top of the wheel and the top of the fender when I get home. You should be able to compare apples to apples that way.

Bill Lehman

Measured at the jack pads of my 2007 Cayman S, front is 5-1/4", rear is 5-15/16".

BimmFiniti

Thanks for the responses, guys. I really appreciate it. See specific comments and questions below.

I can't make that out any red or green right now. The springs themselves, both front and rear, are blue. The rear springs have large gaps in them (i.e., they're not very compressed) while the front springs look almost completely compressed and I can't see behind them at all.

I don't have PASM. Not sure that was available in '07, was it?

My gap from top of the tire to the fender (this is tricky to measure well) is:
Front: 3/4"; Rear 1 1/4"

Mine are different, if I'm getting the point of the jack pads:
Front: 4 1/4"; Rear 5 1/4"

Kinda looks like my front may be lowered an inch while the rear is stock?

Are the springs in front normally so compressed? Is there any way you can "pre-compress" the fronts to lower the ride height? Presumably the car would ride like a tank if you did that, which it doesn't.

If not, is there any way to identify the springs I have?

Bill Lehman

PASM was available in 2007. I'm guessing you don't have that. If you check your math, your rear is lowered 11/16" compared to my stock ride height (which was measured with OEM tires). You can't pre-compress springs. Back in the day you could heat them until they almost melted and shorten them or cut them. These "hot rod" techinques are not common today. With the blue color springs, I'm guessing you might have a set of Bilstein PSS9s. Is the shock tube yellow? Does the spring seat on a threaded perch?

slavik

from the sounds of it, i would also guess that you have a set of pss9's installed...check the springs as they should say bilstein on them, also you should be able to see something like this...

BimmFiniti

Thanks for the photo. I don't think I have PSS9s based on this: my springs are much wider than this and have much fewer turns. The tube behind them isn't blue, either.

Here's some poor photos of:

Rear

Front


I'll jack the front and rear up later today to get some better shots. The front, in particular, is nearly impossible to see.

BimmFiniti

OK, here are some better pictures. These are taken from outside the car, after jacking the car up. Nothing from underneath the car (wasn't going to do that with my questionable jack arrangement).

Rear

Front


Are these aftermarket? They certainly aren't PSS9s. If they're stock... how (or can you) do you lower a vehicle with stock springs?

BimmFiniti

Anyone recognize these springs? I've convinced myself - through measurements and pictures - that my Cayman S is lowered. The shocks / struts appear to be stock, which means the only thing left is the springs.

I realize there are a number of vendors for lowering springs. I've looked at all the ones I can find and none look like these do.

Can anyone ID these?

RennPartsDirect

My guess is that those are not stock springs. All of the stock springs that I have come across are black with the different colored stripes signifying the type of stock spring. The rear springs from a 2010 Cayman S have two yellow and 1 white thin vertical stripes with a single yellow stripe above them where as the fronts have two green and one red stripe with a single blue stripe above that set. PM if you want to see any pictures. I actually have a brand new set of 2010 Cayman S springs available with less than 6 (yes, six) miles total on the set available if you want to convert the car back to stock.

Knight

Check this out on Planet 9. Proper way to measure, plus different measurements for vary suspension setups. Hopefully you can find something similar to your stance.

http://www.planet-9.com/cayman-boxst...de-height.html

BimmFiniti

Thanks, Knight. This is a great thread on planet9 that allowed me to compare my ride height to stock suspension and various other brands of lowered setups.

My measurements - center of rim to fender as recommended - are F: 13 1/2"; R: 14 1/2". Clearly my suspension is not stock (which is F: 14 1/2"; R: 15 7/8") and it seems to closely match the numbers others give for the Eibach Pro-Kit.

My springs don't look the same as what Eibach advertises now for their Pro-kit, however: mine are blue with some black wrap; the ones Eibach currently shows are all black. I guess I can't definitely say what brand I have w/o detailed inspection, but it sure looks like I may have Eibachs.

Mystery (mostly) solved!

BGB Motorsports

I've never seen blue springs on a Cayman from PCNA. Furthermore, they look slightly shorter from the photo but looks could be deceiving. Hard to tell from the photos but those don't look like the stock black springs that have yellow marks on them usually. A tick shorter maybe!

BimmFiniti

Ya, I've convinced myself they're not stock. Only problem is, I can't seem to match them to any aftermarket springs I've seen. The suspension height I'm at very closely matches Eibach height, but the Eibach springs (at least pictures of them on their web site) don't look anything like mine. They're black with what looks like many more turns on them than mine seem to have.

Any ideas on how to put this to bed would be appreciated. I've tried lots of different sources with no direct match and no one seems to recognize what I have.