Bill Ball

I finally found the paint marks on my 89 S4 rear springs. There are TWO BLUE marks. The car came with sport suspension option (red Boge shocks, sport spings?). What does the two blue paint marks signifiy in terms of spring? I poked around and couldn't find much, although people often ask here how many paint marks are on springs and what color they are.

Also, a part number is visible on the underside of the top coil. It doesn't match any I can find.
Looks like 928 (space) 3 (space) 14 an odd symbol then 1822. Look here. Paint mark photo follows that.

khalloudy

Marked Blue??? weird! those are not in the Porsche specs for those years

87-95 standard suspension - Marked Brown Springs with Boge Blue/Bilstein Blue Shocks
87-95 sport suspensoin - Marked Brown Springs with Boge Red Shocks
88 SE/CS - Marked Orange Springs with Boge Red Shocks

Have not seen any blues anywhere for S4/GT/GTS/SE/CS

macreel

Bill... check your Tech Spec book, around pg. 68,70.

Or so. Mine ('84) shows 3 different arangements with
multiple springs in each. Colors can be : eg,
red, blue, green, green-white, yellow, 1 or 2 daubs.

G'luck.

Bill Ball

I'd like confirmation of this. The information in the Tech Specs book is confusing. The page is just labelled Front suspension. It clearly says brown from 86 on with the Boge sport (gas) shocks.

The WSM under rear suspension only refers to 79 through 84 with 84 being.... BLUE. There is no mention I can find of subsequent years.

So, is it correct that the springs that come with the Boge red gas sport shocks are coded brown for 86+, and blue, if anything, is for 84?

I had a suspicion, now much stronger, that my springs got mixed up when the shocks were changed. This helps greatly to explain the dramatic deterioration in handling I experienced almost immediately and that I have been bitching about constantly in the 3 years since. Somebody has a nice set of my stiff springs on their car.

khalloudy

Bill,

there is no way you have the right springs on your car. Check the specs for the types of cars I have listed above and the right shocks/springs with them. Ihave done a lot of research on this. If you want the stiffest ride, it will be Orange Springs and Red Boge. I have new Brown Springs and Red Boge and the car rocks. The 928 Engineers used the Orange with Red on factory toy racing cars around Weissach. The local dealer has a fron set of Orange for about $300 and i can get them to you if you like.

Sincerely,

khalloudy

Bill,

correction.... the orange or brown markings are for the FRONT SPRINGS only. The rears are blue for 87-95. For sport suspension all that is different is the Shocks for the rear.... you have the right springs... maybe they are just old and their elasticity is gone?

Sincerely,

Garth S

Bill,
My (ex ) S4 springs have 2x brown on front and 2x blue on back: that is a standard set up for all cars excluding the CS/SE ( even including GTS) with either standard or sport Boges. The twin stripe orange fronts were another tier option in the sport package, as Khaled noted.
If your adjusters were in low to mid range and the suspension height was OK, then the springs have plenty of life left.

dr bob

My adjusters are near the top, my ride height is OK by measurement but looks higher than others who claim proper height. I have the same springs that Bill has but with original baby-blue Boge shocks. The car chatters when cornered hard on my favorite mountain roads. Should I paint the springs blue and the shocks red and see if that helps?

Garth S

There is a point to this??

Regardless, with that admission, it sadens me to convey the news that those Boges are deceased; fresh shocks from either of the three manufacturers will quieted that chatter and increase your enjoyment.

Bill Ball

OK, so, the WSM and tech books are woefully lacking in this area. Garth indicates rear springs with two blue marks are found on S4s with the sport suspension, and the paint mark colors are different front vs. rear. Do you agree, Khaled?

My springs are in the mid-adjustment and ride height is 165. I guess the Koni shocks are still the prime suspect. New ones arrive tomorrow. I have new Eibach springs, as well, and plan on popping them on at the same time.

Dr. bob - red shocks do looks a lot better than blue.

dr bob

Ok! I'll probably go with new Boge, but paint them red to look like Koni's then. I can keep my reasonable boulevard ride, yet still have a little bling when folks peek into the wheelwells.

A local lister, Rolf R., put a new set of Boges on his recently-purchased S4. I need to go for a ride in it and see how it feels. My car has 70k on it, and is probably due for new shocks. It's just the 'which one?' question.


The 'tire chatter' on my favorite road is from frost heaves in some sections, where the car drops off each joint a bit. At speed, there's just the tiniest amount of lateral slip at the same time. No noise beyond the slapping of the tires over the joints. Stiffer shocks will make that worse, not better, unfortunately.

Garth S

Bob,
Boges may well be the better choice. For what it may be worth, the Boges pulled from my '88 S4 a couple of years ago were soft and the fronts no longer held the gas charge ... that was at a mere 50K Km ( 30K miles) of apparent gentle use. The rears still held some gas, as they yielded to the hacksaw to recycle the adjusters; however, they too were soft on compression.

The stock shock choices by Porsche are generally not noted for longevity - I have 8 shocks on the floor from two 993 C4S cars - all are gas charged Monroes: there are no two alike after 10 years and 26K and 64K miles respectively on each set. They range from no gas, stuck pistons, no resistance, etc - all are garbage, although when fresh were obviously excellent.

Red is always faster - I'm tempted to paint my new cadmium plated Bilsteins so they look like Bills favorite Konis.

sublimate

1st rule of engineering - only make one change at a time.

Bill Ball

Sub:

That was my plan. I really wanted to determine for sure if it was the Konis that have been broken all this time, but I'm going to break with the scientific method and change the whole setup.

macreel

In my Tech Specs, I have a section titled
"Tolerance Groups for Coil Springs", just
after the suspension details.

Do you have such ?? Anyone ??

G'luck.