docman

Thanks tripedal, good information for sure!

I wound up doing my suspension rebuild using Cayman R bits. Yesterday I dropped wheel spacers off to the shop doing the conversion (I decided to maintain OE as much as possible at this time, wheels included) and the visual ride height is much better. Looking forward to my extreme negative camber being dialed back along with the wider stance filling the wheel wells, all post alignment. On road feel and driveway clearance, TBD.
Meanwhile, I'm hunkered down, not overly anxious to drive the 30 miles home with its summer shoes (I just couldn't wait for Spring to get the ball rolling).

A work in progress. Hopefully not penny wise, dollar foolish. I'll report back.

jmartin97850

Very informative thread. Thank you Ubermensch for the measurement information. I have a new to me 2009 Cayman S with 44,600 miles. 6 speed, 19" wheels, no PASM. My measurements from the center of the hub to the fender were;

front - 14.8"
rear - 15.5"

Plans are to drive it often as the weather improves. I live in an area with opportunities for spirited mountain driving. i will occasionally autocross it. My initial plans were to lower it, but I think I'll drive it through the summer first. If I still feel the need to lower, I will likely use new or used Cayman R Springs/struts.

First post, but long time lurker...

JayL

Barry's a great guy to work with, you won't be disappointed. He helped me tremendously with my Ohlins set up.

tripedal

So the day has almost arrived for install - scheduled for the coming Monday. I have a simple question for anyone that has familiarity with the Ohlins kit and/or has installed suspension on the 987 before:

Is there any grease or anything that goes "between" the front strut mount and the strut bearing? The bearing is plastic, mount is alloy, seems odd that they just sit up next to each other like that. I'm talking about the mating between the alloy piece here and the plastic bearing in black - see below:




I'm planning to pre-assemble the struts all around in advance, set preloads, height adjustments, and damping before handing over to my mechanic for a simple plug + play.

Thanks in advance!!

jmartin97850

Tripedal - Just had mine apart as I replaced stock springs with Cayman R springs last week. No grease between the 2 parts you mentioned from the factory on my car.

Slim987

jMartin - did you just do R springs and left in the S struts? If so how is that setup working? I am debating a full R setup on my S

jmartin97850

I just did the R springs. Purchased them new. It took me a couple of days last week to do the install. Had it aligned yesterday. Took it out for a 100 mile drive today. Initial impressions are that the springs are a bit stiffer in the back, only noticeable on really poor highway. Cornering has slightly better turn in and a little less understeer, probably due to the new alignment. Had it on some mountain roads for a little spirited driving. Very happy with the stance. The car is .8" lower in the front and .7" lower in the rear. So far, very happy, but it has only been 100 miles. The only real quirk is when the rear suspension is at full droop (when I take off the back tires) the new springs are much shorter and are "loose" in the struts. Here are a couple of pictures of the car from today's drive (Ran into snow at 7200' and turned around).

Slim987

thanks for the reply. That’s exactly what I was worried about (loose on rear at full droop) but you’re saying it doesn’t have any negative impact?

car looks amazing and good call on the U turn

jmartin97850

I think the only problems will be when I have the back of the car in the air (oil change, wheel cleaning). I'll have to make sure the springs are properly located as I lower the car. 100 miles is a pretty small sample, so time will tell, but so far-great!. If it becomes a problem I'll have to go to a shorter shock (Bilstein B8?). The good news is that after doing one side of the car, disassembling/assembling the other side of the car to remove the struts went fairly quickly.

adam_987.2

Not sure they should be loose. I just put Boxster Spyder suspension in my Boxster S and it's not loose at all when hanging in the air. I used the Boxster Spyder shocks and they looked pretty much exactly the same dimensions as stock.

jmartin97850

Thank you for the input Adam_987.2. I was concerned as well and searched forums and found a a few links to others that have had the "loose" springs when doing the Cayman S/R spring conversion including this one: https://www.planet-9.com/threads/nee...yman-s.243799/ . There was a significant difference in the height of the rear springs (attached photo). I estimate the new spring is about 1/4" from not being loose when the car is in the air for service. The drivers side appears to have a little more slack. If it becomes a problem I will switch shocks to the B8's. It appears the B6 Bilsteins will still have loose springs even though the are shown to fit Cayman R's
Thank you again for the input.

adam_987.2

No worries. Good luck with it.

This is the Spyder/R one next to stock.




Adam

adam_987.2

And I also remembered this.




Perhaps 3 mm is enough of a difference.

Climarepair.com

My vote goes for

Ohlins

acsX

I have a base 987.2 and I'm in the same scenario and I'm unsure which to go for. It's my daily driver as well. The decision is even more difficult considering I can get Cayman R suspension, struts and springs, for $1500.I've done some track work and plan on doing some more and maybe some autocross too. But part of me wants to save up for something even faster in a straight line (I live in the DFW metroplex, majority of the roads are flat and straight, can make use of it). Another part of me want to invest more into the suspension since it affects handling and that's way the Cayman is all about. So with all of that, I'm unsure which suspension choice to go for.