initial

Gents,

I'm a suspension N00B.

I followed the "Ride Height Survey" thread and got curious about my ride height because I always found my rake to be flat to slightly raking to the rear.

The previous owner had purchased the components from Gert in 2010
Bilstein HD B6 (extra thread) w/ RoW M030 springs and had them installed by a local shop.

After filling up the tank and leveling the car as much as possible (as suggested by Gert), my results are:
Front 140 mm (avg)
Rear 116 mm (avg)

The RoW M030 Specs are:
Front 144 mm
Rear 127 mm

It would seem I need to lower my front by 11mm or raise the rear by 7mm.

My preference would be to lower the front, but I have no clue where the adjustment nuts (if any) are situated under the car. If anyone had actual under-car pics pointing to it, that would be great. Lowering the front on my 3.2 Carrera was super easy, but I'm a complete n00b with this setup.

Van1

It would be much easier to lower the front than the rear as you dont have to deal with the sway mounts. Just lower the spring perches down along the threaded portion of the shock body. You'll need the lock ring tools to do this. Of course, you'll need to re-align after.

Your picture looks about right. Are you sure you are measuring from the correct location?

initial

Are the lock ring tools easily availabe and standard for most shocks?

I know my front measuring point is 100% correct. I'm not 100% concerning the rear since I think there are 2 similar looking points I can measure from. I will double check based on the diagrams.

IXLR8

Does anyone know if that Extra Thread option is a Gert creation or are two different sets of B6 shocks made by Bilstein?

Edited to add:
Talk about a fast response from Gert...

BTW, the length differences between the B6 and B8 can be see in this pic on the Carnewal site...

initial

Here are my measuring points. Could someone please confirm?

You are looking at the rear passenger side of car, picture taken looking towards the rear of the vehicle.
Measurements were taken from the yellow arrow.
I retook a measurement from the black arrow, which points to an indentation. The results where 129mm, which would be perfect.
Which is the correct point to measure from?



Front passenger side of car, picture taken looking towards the rear of the vehicle.

Van1

Red arrow.

initial

Red arrow! Ouch! The picture is taken from in front of the rear tire, pointing the camera towards the rear of the vehicle. I'm sure you know your stuff, but, I would feel better if I had a second opinion on the rear measurement point.

That puts my rear at 113mm, or an extra 4mm from what I though was an already low rear. My Front would need to come down 15mm.

That would mean:
Front 140 mm (avg)
Rear 112 mm (avg)

The RoW M030 Specs are:
Front 144 mm
Rear 127 mm

IXLR8

See attached pic out of the Porsche Repair Manual...looks like the yellow arrow or rearmost point to me.

Try using a higher f number when taking a pic for more depth of field.

initial

How's this? Is red the proper point?

Van1

According to the diagram that Alex provided, the yellow arrow looks correct on your much clearer picture. However, I am pretty sure I used red arrow when I set mine, but I then had it corner balanced. Probably not much difference between red and yellow arrow.

Cupcar

If you look at IXLR8'S factory diagram carefully, I think your colors match the arrow colors I added below and you want your Yellow Color point to measure.

PNogC2S

Just eye-balling it. The rear looks about right. The front looks a little high. So given the two choices I'd definitely lower the front.

Cupcar

To spin and lock the front/rear suspension coilover nut adjustments you need tools like this:

http://www.offroad-engineering.com/rashspwr.html

IXLR8

I wonder if they aren't on the same plane (I'd have to check the next time I am under there) and when you think about the floor you are measuring from, that is easily out quite a few millimeters from one location to the other.

Which is why I thought of running a string from the underside of one tire to the other to use as a reference line to measure to. Of course all four tire pads have to be on a level plane. Being on the street and still on factory shocks and settings, I'll worry about it one day.

initial

Thanks for the pictures and the help. Hopefully this thread will be of use to others.

I agree about the floor, when it comes to a couple of millimeters, I can't really take them into consideration, but in this case, I'm off by over a centimeter from the rear. Visually, it feels like that as well, not to mention that doing the very non-accurate fender measurement, it should give me a fender measurement that is lower than the rear in the front (if I was setup properly). In my case, my front fender height measurements are greater than my rear fender height measurements.

It seems we have consensus that the yellow arrow is the proper measurement point. I'll pursue lowering the front by 11mm at home, re-align at a shop and throw in some new tires while I'm at it. (I have a flat spot from the PO braking hard that drives me nuts).