NoVector

You'll have to adjust the collars on the springs (many threads here on Rennlist on how to do that). A time consuming project because after you make an adjustment, you have to take the car for a spin to get the suspension to settle before you can measure and do it all over again. Someone once posted how many turns of the collars = x distance in height. If you can find that or if someone can post that, that would really help I'm sure.

chart928s4

@Speedtoys has the spreadsheet and it's easily found with search. But you can measure from the top or bottom of the collar - its like 3 mm/turn or something (6 or so pulls = 1 turn. The math is horrifying). Rear settles pretty well when it comes off the jack but the front does not. To make it faster leave the car on the ground and turn the front wheels to the side that allows access to pull the wrench. This procedure is 15-90 minutes of IMO some of the worst work on a 928. But you only do it once (so far) and it is such an improvement that you won't believe it.

Speedtoys

Again..down below.

The Forgotten On

You're measuring the suspension in the wrong spot BTW.

There is a flat square section on the bottom of the lower control arm that is put there specifically to measure suspension height from.

It's still easy to tell that your car is riding way too low. The control arms should be pretty level compared to the sag that yours are set to.

Christopher Zach

Are you sure? I felt a flat spot there and measured it at that post.

Thank you all for the feedback. Sounds like the wonderful previous owner really lowered the car a *lot* and I need to bring it back up some. I realized I have a telescoping magnet thing that I could use to get a more accurate measurement, I'll find a level spot and do a check this weekend. In terms of fixing it sounds like I need 10 rotations to bring it back to factory so I'll also pull the front wheels and start bringing it up 2 turns at a time until I don't hear the bang (which now that I think about it might have been the shocks bottoming out)

Will keep updated on the status.

GregBBRD

If you read carefully what I took the time to write, you should understand that raising a car that has been this low, for a long period of time, rarely occurs without new/rebuilt items.

A large percentage of the costs involved with repairing 928's are induced by people who should not be working on/selecting aftermsrket/poorly designed/poorly engineered pieces for these cars.

In your case, the upper shock foam "springs" (which are also part of the vehicle's spring rate) will be destroyed. The shocks, which have essentially been bottomed out for an extended period of time are unlikely to properly perform. Your lower control arm rubbers have been twisted to positions they were never intended to be twisted to. The upper control arm rubbers will have the same problem...overly distorted. And both the ball joints (upper and lower) will have been operating at extreme angles they were never designed to operate at.

In short, you really need to take things apart and replace a large percentage of the front suspension to bring this car back into specifications and get back the proper performance from the vehicle.

Fortuantely, the super expensive parts, previously only available new from Porsche (control arms) are available rebuilt from 928 International at extremely low cost. Standard wear items (shocks, upper shock foam springs, ball joints, tie rods) are also all available from high quality aftermarket suppliers. 928 International can help you with these, also.

10 years ago, it would have cost you about $4,000 per side just to "undo" the damage that an idiot caused. Today, it will cost you about 1/4 of that amount.

All thanks to 928 International sourcing a company to rebuild these parts!

dr bob

What Greg Said ^^^^ plus

You'll need to get a great alignment done after any height adjustment as toe will change significantly. Regardless of whether you replace parts, go drive the car 100 miles after height adjustment, confirm/record actual ride height, then have the alignment done.

Cars that have been riding low will have a lot of additional loading on tie rods and ends. Replace those with the rest of the worn/damaged bits on Greg's list to complete the job.

Speedtoys

Get the car back to stock, replace the old shocks, and see if you enjoy the car as Porsche intended before attempting to make it handle like a car they did not intend it to...its a GT car.

You may find you like it better than you think. The consequences of "looks good" are significant.

Christopher Zach

I did read it carefully Greg, and while I understand that only certified Wizards should be working on 928's the fact is there are a limited number of them and the value of the cars is not exceptionally high at the moment. I knew I was buying a basket case when I did, and quite frankly I'm amazed I've been able to get it this un-screwed up so far. This is yet another thing that needs to be un-screwed....

First step though is to get that suspension load out of the car and get it back to something approaching normal. Thus I'll unwind the coils slowly and see what the reaction is. Right now the car is quite drive-able (and was able to keep up with the other 87 and up 928's on the fun fun run in NC even not sliding out when the guy in front of me did :-) so we'll see what it looks like as I bring it back into spec.

*Then* it will be time to review the shocks, chocks, and clocks that make up the suspension.

Probably. I'll do some more checking once everything is unloaded, and now that I have a happily running 944S I can afford to take the car offline for awhile to look into this and a few other things that have been annoying.

Agreed. 8k is more than the average non-GTS 928 is worth, so parting the car out and sending it to the scrapper would be the right option. I'm always glad there is a good community and people who have taken the time and effort to ensure that parts are around for these things.

Christopher Zach

One of the biggest problems with not having any 928's at the local autocross is that it's really tough to identify what is "normal" on these cars. Here I've been driving it for 2 years now and didn't realize it had been seriously lowered. I just thought these things were hell to get in and out of :-) If it runs well with this whacked of a suspension I wonder how well it would be with a proper one.....

Anyway I can run it all the way back to stock and see what it looks like; does it really look that much different? We're talking an inch of height overall. And the extra cost of replacing spoilers (and what a pain in the rear *THAT* is) doesn't seem to justify it looking super "cool" (the thing already looks cool)

GregBBRD

I supported/built race cars for....more than a few years. Very successfully.

One of the "tricks" is to always make sure that there is ample suspension travel for the track/event you are running. Whichever end of the car runs out of travel the first is going to be the "controlling end" of the car. Once either the front or rear hits the stops, no springs, no shocks, no tires, no adjusting is going to help....the car will go into "understeer" or "oversteer", depending on what end bottoms out first.

Mark Anderson

Thanks Greg

Christopher Zach

Ok. I drove the car to a flat place. Flat is a school parking lot, at a point where I can push the car bac4kwards and forwards equally without it running off with brakes off.

With that I put the parking brakes on, got out, closed door, and checked measurements with a small telescoping antenna and a metric ruler. 2 tests each side.

Driver's front: 140mm
Passenger front: 140mm

Driver's rear: 153
Passenger rear: 155

It is to note that I do not have the spare tire in the car, but I do have a full tank of gas. Likewise no one in the car, full charge of R134 (hey you never know), fluids topped up.

So it's 30mm low if we assume that 170mm on the front is -10mm from the desired height of 180mm. Time to start a-wrenching, is it easier to just jack the car up and pull the tire as I go 6.0 turns? And do I pull towards the back of the car or the front (loosen I assume but checking)

Thanks!

chart928s4

If I read this correctly, some very experienced guys I respect are telling the OP that he needs professional replacement of a bunch of parts. Factory spec is not really possible for a 30 year old car without doing that, but the $4000 in parts is now down to about $2000 in parts if you include rebuilt control arms, shocks, and miscellaneous rubber, Labor is unchanged at probably 16 hours (wild guess) including alignment, height adjustment, and general fiddling. So it's still pretty big money.

On the other hand, it will cost literally nothing to try to raise the car a little more to ~175 and see if that makes it drive better. Unlike DIY timing belts and other 928 jobs, it's practically foolproof. Next step would be new shocks along with all the various rubber bump stops - also fairly easy.

As stated above, an alignment is definitely needed after a height change. Make sure the front is settled (i.e. drive it over bumpy roads for 20+ miles) and the shop doesn't lift the car off the wheels at any time during the alignment.

I suspect that at the right height everything will function, take an alignment reasonably well, and still have some malformed rubber parts. Any bushing that hasn't been replaced is probably a little wonky (like some are on my car). My car had a lot of suspension work last year and it certainly helped, but the height itself was the most dramatic difference.

Speedtoys

It's a height thread.

It is possible.

You can swap arms and shocks in a day at hope with a check-book and UPS.