thecajunboy

Has anyone installed the rear suspension reinforcement strut on their 981? In particular, the item sold by Suncoast? Their ad states that it is a genuine Porsche part. I watched a You Tube video yesterday of a 718 and they showed the undercarriage and I saw this part installed on a brand new car. Comparing parts lists for the 981 vs 718, lots of the rear suspension are 981 prefix numbers, including the suspension supports that this part mounts to. Question is, if you purchased this from Suncoast, can you provide information about what p/n it is? Looking online at either the 2016 GT4 part or the 718 part, it looks as though you could save a few dollars by shopping around. Anybody can offer some help?

okie981

I installed this on my '16 981 Boxster S. I bought the 718 part. If you buy from Suncoast, it should come with the longer bolts and the rear sway bar caps. But if you want the correct installation, you will need the lower "pan" part from the 718 that you see in your photo running under the dog-bone brace. The 718 support "pan" has two indented boss areas and holes for bolts to firmly tie the dog-bone brace to the "pan" near the center area of the dog-bone. I did this on my car, bought the "pan" also. You could get by without it, just drill holes in the standard 981 part and probably use some washers or shim material to eliminate the gap between the bottom of the dog-bone and the "pan". I only installed the dog-bone brace because I was tracking my car pretty extensively at the time. It's retired to street life now.

Tommy L Garage

I can confirm the same.
718 part and I also drilled holes in the bottom pan.

Lawrence H

I just installed it in Nov - PN PK981BRACE. Really easy to install, but did need to drill two holes in the pan. Probably about 30 minutes of active work

saabin

Thats just the Suncoast 'obfuscated' part number.. There is a real part number of the brace and bolt(s)? that you would need to use if you were to order from any other dealer.

Suncoast does this so people don't just use their site to find the real part numbers and order it elsewhere for about a 15% (or more) cheaper price. Doesnt mean you cant figure it out with a little detective work

Lawrence H

Those sneaky lil bastids...lol

thecajunboy

Thanks for the responses. It wasn't clear that the Suncoast kit would include other required hardware. Once those are factored in the advantage of other dealers is non-existent. I'll likely just end up ordering these through the local dealer. I ordered some other parts late last week and they quoted me list prices but gave me a 10% discount after asking. That leveled the playing field as I didn't need to pay shipping charges from an online dealer. For those that have drilled the holes in the pan/plate/bracket, how much of a PITA was that? I'm not wanting to disturb the mounting of te platet so just wondering how to locate the hole centers. It looks as though you can only drill from the bottom.

okie981

IIRC, the dog-bone brace is not bolted to the plate on the 2016 era GT4 cars. That began with the 718 variants of 981 cars (or 982, or whatever). So, it's not mandatory you bolt the dog-bone to the plate, but obviously there is some advantage because that's what Porsche decided to do with the 718 era cars. Getting proper location of where to drill is the hard part if you leave the plate installed because you have to drill from the bottom up and you can't see where the holes are in the dog-bone. If you remove the plate, you'll need a couple of new bolts because some of them are single-use only, torque-to-yield type. The diagonal braces have to be removed to get the plate off and the bolt at each forward end of the diagonal braces is a torque-to-yield type. Torque to yada-yada, then turn an additional 60 degrees, etc. Be sure to refer to the WSM for proper torque values and procedures. And do NOT reuse any fastener designed to be a single-use type.

Lawrence H

I didn't drop the plate - it's so easy to just drill through that I really see no advantage to doing so, particularly given the single use hardware. The holes are relatively close to the edge of the plate, so it's easy to approximate where the hole in the bracket is just by forming a 'c' with your hand. Then I just used progressively larger drill bits and it lined up perfectly.

Jim981CS

I purchased a like new Suncoast kit from a forum member and installed it with the additional bolts without removing the pan. The holes are close to the edge and should be easy to approximate the drilling location but i used my right angle drill with a short broken drill bit to make a pilot hole from the top and finished it from underneath with a step bit.
Jim
The gold bolt is the grade 8 bolt that is drilled through the pan to bolt new brace to existing pan without removing the pan.

txbdan

What's the PN on the 718 pan? I think this brace is a lot more compelling if tied into the pan.

okie981

2013-2020 Porsche Reinforced Plate 981-331-261-11 | Porsche Marin (porschemarinparts.com)

But understand you will need to also remove the diagonal braces to install this parts and the diagonal braces have single-use bolts, one at each forward end. There may be other single-use bolts you remove to do this plate swap, it's been over a year and I don't recall for sure, but I know those two at each forward end of the two diagonal braces requires a new bolt. You also have to remove all weight from the rear wheels and support the vehicle at the jack points when removing this plate. Some Porsche workshop manuals also say you should do a wheel alignment after taking the pan and diagonal braces off and reinstalling, but some don't say this. I didn't but soon after I was doing another track alignment anyway, so it didn't matter.

ElCid86

I still have not been able to find the actual Porsche P/N. Anyone?

I think I found it! Rear Support - Porsche (981-331-275-00)

kisik

Can you guys educate what is all about? Who would benefit from this Rear Support? Any reports of failures if no action is taken especially for heavy track use?

thecajunboy

That's the 981 GT4 item. The one with the tabs to mount to the large triangle support plate is the 718 version.
718 - Transverse support - 982 505 475.