chris walrod

First off, race cars are way easier to work on than street cars. Believe me, I have worked on both 250mph race cars, and 150mph street cars.

The quickest, easiest, and cheapest solution to your installers problem is to simply adjust the perches for proper ride height. There is plenty of adjustment range to do so with just about any spring. Euro M030 rear springs will appear too short with the car at full droop. This is completely typical.

993 4S

Are you sure your mechanic actually finished the installation and took the car off the lift and let it rest on the ground? Or did he see that the springs were too short and assume that the car would be sitting on the ground once completed? I only ask because I had a mechanic install the same setup on our 993tt--he'd never worked on a 993 before. He called me in a panic, thinking maybe we had the wrong parts and if your mechanic is at the same point right now, I highly doubt he took the car off the lift and let it settle (unless of course you have seen the car on the ground and it really is slammed). I e-mailed him the link on page 1 of this thread (InTheAir's writeup), explained that the shortness is the M030 springs is completely normal and to take the car off the lift and let it sit on top of the springs, and 3 hours later he was done and had the ride height set to our specs. My guess is that your mechanic is just assuming the car will be slammed since the springs are naturally shorter and maybe there is no problem at all (I hope anyway). Good luck.

Brett - 1996 C4

Correction: Bilstein sometimes mislabels the shocks themselves. Checking the part numbers isn't enough. You need to physicially inspect the shock and verify that the brake line mount will be to the front on that side. Ask me how I know.

geolab

So the best shock absorbers for the 993 are sometimes mislabeled?
And the boxes have wrong part numbers?

And ex-23 heures du mans champ. mechanics PANIC when installing bilsteins?

Where are we going?

IMHO? let Jenn bill those mechanics $2k for a membership on this board, they will learn A LOT,
and ammortize the membership fee in one day

Marv

Conversely, if I leave the car I will have to:

a. Purchase a flight to Florida and then rent a car for my daily driver. Then have my car shipped down to Florida ($1500 for shipping) or buy another flight up and drive it down over the weekend (I have no vacation days at my new job in Florida).

b. Rent a car and drive down and keep the rental for my daily driver. Then have my car shipped down to Florida ($1500 for shipping) or buy another flight up here and drive it down over the weekend.

I start my new job on the 11th and I need to get down before that to sign the rental agreements, set myself up, etc.

So, if you think the PSS9s are expensive, the cost of missing my deadline is even more expensive!

I am anxious to see the length of the Eibach springs compared to the M030. I would bet that they are short, to. Which leads me to believe that Rick received the wrong struts from Bilstein. If that is true, then we would be sunk since the earliest he could get started again would be Tuesday and that would be too late for my Wednesday departure.

Marv

He claimed he put weight on wheels (WOW) because I asked him that specifically. I remembered Jeff's post about the shortness of the springs, so I wanted to be sure he wasn't spoofed by the gap.

He said he put it down and the *** was on the ground.

AOW162435

Marv,
After reading all of this, and knowing how involved the proper installation of a 993 suspension is, I would wholeheartedly vote for you to request the original suspension be re-installed. Have him align it as best he can, and drive the car to Florida. The old suspension will not fail.

When you get settled in Florida, find a competant shop and have the car set up correctly. While just nuts and bolts, these suspensions are more complicated than a Civic's underpinings....

Andreas

geolab

I totally agree,
I remember Porsche in germany telling me that the suspension should normally last 200.000 km together with lots of stuff on the car. (catalytic conv. muffs, etc.)
Put all back, settle down, and then play
You're planting your corn very very late . . .

Caveman

Doesn't Bob live in Florida now?....

Is your old suspension so shot that it won't make a gentle drive to Florida from Ohio? This all sounds like you are rushing things and it can only end in tears... I would concur with the others. Drive the car to Florida and sort it out once you are settled.

Good luck.

Regards,

David

Marv

Yes, if I only could have... should have, would have...

I will talk to him this morning and see what he can manage to accomplish today. If he can't get this straightened out today, then I will request he reverse gears, but I will give him today to sort it all out. If he has to reinstall the old parts, there should be enough time to get it back together for the trip. It will be close.

Thanks for everyone's input! You guys are invaluable!!!

Dudley

I was lucky enough to buy my suspension from VB a couple years ago. It was my first suspension install and I made a lot of mistakes. VB continued to answer my dopiest questions and never once made me feel as though I was an inconvenience. It turned out to be a great experience.
Marv, a shame you don't have more time for the install, many R'listers would jump at the opportunity to pay back a bit of the good will we have received here.
Best of luck.

Marv

Just called the shop and they hung up on me!

This is getting worse.

InTheAir

WHAT????

Get in other car, drive down there, slap them around, reclaim your property.

Marv, I really feel bad for you right now.

Marv

Thanks. Given the car is in pieces I really don't know what I can do. This may be a job for an attorney, but I can't do anything right now. Legally, this needs to play itself out. I'll go back to smoking more hope.

Additionally, I am on crunch time right now and have other things that must get done before I leave (like move a machine shop out of my basement and finish a deal with General Dynamics). So I can't babysit this problem and I seriously doubt I can help them at this point.

pcar964

Sounds like you found yourself a real **** mechanic. Sorry to hear it, we've all been there before. Last time I encountered belligerence like that, it almost came to blows. Best you can do is go down there, retrieve your car if possible, and don't pay a dime.

We pay mechanics for their expertise - otherwise, we would do the work ourselves... so... when a mechanic shows a total lack of expertise, I show a total lack of payment.