Franklin229

OK-had the car out two days ago for a fairly normal drive everything is fine as usual. Take car out this morning and I am noticing that everytime I go over a dip in the road at slow speed, the front end seems to make a "woosh" sound when the suspension compresses. I just assume these are the shocks making noise as they cycle up and down. Over sharp bumps, no noise. The car still feels tight and handles as good as always. I need to also throw in the following:

1. The temp here was and is right now in the 16 degree range, dropping dramatically from the other day.
2. My car has original shocks w/42,000 on the clock-not a lot of track time or rough driving.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Franklin229

Let me rephrase-is this normal to expect or are my shocks telling me they are shot?

maurice97C2S

If it is both front wheels moving together, it could be a variant of the front anti roll bar bush squeaks. Try lubing the bushes with a dose of petroleum jelly.

Otherwise your shocks could be the problem, but what you normally notice is a loss of rebound damping - not initially apparent on compression ...

HTH, cheers, Maurice

mike cap

Check for inner fender liners loose or mis-aligned. They will rub against each other in a situation like this and make the noise yous describe.

Franklin229

Maurice
Thanks for the tip. Would you notice shock falure as dramatically as you would in a standard sedan or is there a "Porsche" way to test for shock falure? This probably sounds crude but I used to check the shocks on my '66 Ford Fairlane simply by pushing down on a fender then letting go-if it came back up right away-no problem. If it bounced around a bit-get new shocks. Mind you -I never drove the car with failed shocks. My car does not have any excessive hop or bounce-so I'm still perplexed. I hear guys talk about mileage being the deterimining factor-which sounds bizarre to me-I would think there would be noticable decrease in handling.
Anyway-I'll check out the bushings tonight.

Mark in Baltimore

Franklin,

I'm not convinced that's a good test for our cars. I performed that "tried and true" technique on my 993 when I first bought it with the blown stock shocks. My shocks did not bounce around at all when I pressed down on the bumpers, even though I knew the shocks were toast due to the compromised high speed stability.

Franklin229

Mark-
You're right-I was not thinking of bouncing my car up and down-
Mike-
I will check the fender liners
Thanks all!

viperbob

If you have 42K on the shocks, they are GONE. Of all the cars I have done recently, none of them had over 30K miles, and ever set was COMPLETELY worn out. The woosh you are hearing is the lack of resistance on the compression stroke of the dampener.

ruffy

thats right bob, the perfect reason to upgrade.

how do you explain the need for seven injectors?

Franklin229

Bob-
Thanks-(BTW-I'm the guy who bought your RS tranny mount).
Not to refute what you have said Bob but...I am green when it comes to P-car suspension.
I hear so many conflicting points of view regarding this subject-even from seasoned mechanics. I was recently told that these shocks hardly ever die and when they do it's usually due to high mileage, upgrades or severe failure. Also, we are all so "Mod" happy I'm sure there are very, very (sarcasm here) small numbers out there who would find a way to justify a suspension upgrade.
So I guess I might have to start to justify a suspension upgrade....now where are those downhill skis.....

viperbob

Yes, I remember. Did you install the tranny mount yet??

Bilsteins are rebuildable, so from that standpoint they can be resurrected. If you so wanted, for around $85 each you could just rebuild what your stock units.

I was also not even recommending a mod upgrade (which is not like me). I was just stating the the past dozen suspensions I have done were all to the point where the dampeners were worthless with 30K or less on the factory units. Every single person that installed new dampeners were thrilled beyond belief with the NEW ride to their car. Yes, some of it could be the springs, but just the dampers that can control the springs makes that car ride 1000% better...

Franklin229

Bob-
Thanks again.
No I haven't put the tranny mount in yet-I actually am a little intimidated by it's location and my lack of sufficient equipment to get the car high enough off the ground. I will probably have EPE do this next time I'm in there (can't say enough good things about EPE..).
I guess my question is, when you say worthless, what criteria do you use to determine this?

viperbob

The shock absorbers job is to dampen (or slow) the movement of the spring in the suspension. When I say they are bad, they no longer have the capability to dampen these suspension movements. This means especially in the bump (shock absorber being compressed) that there is virtually no dampening. All of the shocks I have done recently you were able to push in to piston with your open hand with virtually no effort. This translates on your car to hitting a bump, and with no shock dampening, the spring will try and absorb the bump unchecked in its movement and the shock piston just goes along quickly for the ride (hence the woosh sound from the shock). You will feel this as hard harsh impacts over small bumps, bouncy behavior, etc...

I hope this explains the situation a little better.

914und993

I agree with viperbob's diagnosis of the whoosh. When I bought my 993 a bit over a year ago, with 25,000 miles on the clock, it had the same "whooshing" sound described in this thread's first post. I was also profoundly disappointed in the way the car handled and thought maybe the 993 was over-rated.

Since replacing the stock suspension with Bilstein HD shocks (and H&R springs, thicker sways) the "whoosh" is gone and the handling is phenomenal.

Chip

Franklin229

So I guess there is no way of diagnosing this unless you've driven different P-cars to have some base line for comparison. I should probably have a mechanic /someone knowledgeable to drive my car to get the final opinion before I do anything. Thanks again for the input!!