Bilstein HD's,
Love em charging around the countryside or track, not so much on rough roads or long drives. Andreas and I both sport the M030/BilsteinHD setup on our cars and we are seriously considering having our Bilsteins re-valved. This is a service provided by Bilstein, and for our shocks they charge $75 ea. So, for $300 plus shipping we may be able to find that sweet spot that you guys with the PSS10s have already settled on. What could go wrong!

What we need to determine is that optimal setting. What settings have you found to offer the best compromise for spirited driving and everyday use? Without question this is subjective, and that is a good thing. The key is having enough of your responses so we can begin to get a feel for how we want to spec our re-valve.

Thanks in advance, please be sure to indicate front and rear settings.
Comments welcome,

Neil

 

I used to 7 rear 5 front.
After a while I decided that Michigan roads are more conducive to 5 rear 3 front.
Let us know how it goes.

 

Georgia roads are really nice and well kept for the most part. Full stiff baby!!

 

Regardless of whatever 'average' PSS10 settings one resolves to be a target point for revalving HD's from this inquiry, how does on reconcile this with the differences in spring design ( one vs two piece) and rates to achieve analogous results?
Not suggesting that this is not possible - just curious.

 

I cruise around at 3f 4r. It feels good and solid but i still have to dodge bumps and slow down on rough roads. I've been meaning to turn them down to 2f 3r for the street. Are you guys able to reach the rear adjusters with the car on the ground? I haven't tried yet (i adjust them when i'm on a lift) but those rear tires look too big for my arm to get around.

 

The helper spring (small spring) does not provide any actual spring rate, it does not help hold the car up. It's only there to keep the main spring seated. With the car resting on the ground the helper springs are fully compressed.

 

Pss10 PS2
front 3 32lbs
rear 5 36lbs.
Stephen

 

Hey Neil (and Andreas),

I was facing this same issue and instead of taking a gamble and revalving my HDs, I decided to sell them (and the M030 springs) and upgrade to KWs. It's a bit more expensive this way, but you end up with a much better setup which you can adjust (both compression and rebound) to your preference.

Do it right and do it once. FD Motorsports got me a good price on the KWs.

Cheers,
Joe

 

Ive been speaking to Jon at JIC. They are launching their new range of 15 ways adjustable shocks with a number of design improvements over their recently discontinued JIC-Cross product for 993 in June. If you mention Macca from New Zealand and ask to be put on the introductory list you will recieve 25% off. This will mean around $2200-2300 for a set of coilovers, 2 way adjustable with 15 steps, they are 3mm bigger idameter than the previous model (7mm more than PSS10). They come with your choice of 10 different springs (different rates), alloy bodies for the rears and now stainless seteel for the fornts. Rears are mononball and fornts come with camber plates. You can buy remote adjusters for the rears (asjusters front and rear are top side making adjustment far easier than PSS10 on low cars), making adjustments a 2 minute affair.
Beautifully crafted making the PSS10 look a bit basic in design and execution. Designed and built in US Im lead to believe and they have a 993 race car as one of their key sponsorships so know our product well.

Just a thought. I have same delimma. By the time I pay up to $900 for them to be pulled out, out back and re aligned etc I may as well have sold the old set for $1300 and replaced with something that will last for life.

Cheers
M

 

I have played with my PSS10s settings a fair anount. At the recommendation from Steve Weiner, I started out at 4F and 5R then gradually moved them up and then down. I find that the best setting for me is right where I started.

The roads I play on are mostly canyons and have very good surface conditions.

I think that the sway bar setup needs to be factored into your analysis. I changed the the stock bars to MO30 sways which are slightly larger and significanly impact how the car carves turns.

The car also has a Perfect Power strut brace which also impact suspenion performance.

I mostly drive my car alone. If you plan to have a passenger in the car most of the time, that should be factored into the revalving. Commuting on highways is firm yet compliant. Increasing the compression/rebound dampening makes canyons more fun but highway driving not so much.

I have driven quite a few 993s with various suspension setups. I still believe mine is the tightest and best handling car of the bunch.

Probably more than you wanted to know.



Bob-

 

9 at each corner!

 

3F / 5R for me. Stared at 1 / 3 and moved up until I liked the balance of street and sport.

 

IMO you'd be better served if you spoke to someone that deals with determining the re-valving "spec's" for HDs as determined by anticipated application.

Our local resource Jae Lee @ Mirage International pretty much won't sell a set of HDs unless Bilstein customizes valving.

Jae is in San Diego CA, you might have a similar local resource.

http://www.mirageintl.com/

good luck

Craig

 

I leave mine set at 6f / 8r for both track and street driving.

 

5 Front & 7 Rear- summer spirited driving, tours, track, auto-x.
3 Front & 5 Rear- winter
Also have H&R Sways.