IXLR8

As most shocks can but from what point?

The question is, what is the maximum and minimum ride heights that can be achieved with PSS10s or any other set-up?

Ron

So how is the answer to this question determined?

IXLR8

By installing a set and adjusting the collars fully up and down. Unfortunately, owners of shocks never seemed to have tried that and posted the results.

Bilstein should have that data, but instead they and others usually state "lowers 0.4 to 1.8 inches". Lowers from what ride height though and with what springs did they determine that?

When you run out of adjustment and you are no where near where you want to be, that is a big FAIL on the part of the shock manufacturer as far as I'm concerned.

il pirata

whew…

Bilstein manual says you can achieve a lowering of approx. 30-50mm at front and rear, which I would assume is from stock, but you can confirm this with Bilstein. The tech you talked to earlier was correct that it lowers the car from stock height. If you want stock height you get a different product from Bilstein (or other suppliers)

Bilstein manual says you have an adjustment range of 20mm. From the OEM specs chart it would appear that you can adjust approx. from ROW Sport to RS.

This is appox. as other components can effect the adjustment range. On my C4S I have a couple of custom bits to make the PSS10s work with the OEM RS Camber plates which effectively could allow the car to be a bit lower than the overall 50MM from stock.

Have you measured the current ride height correctly to know where you are starting from (or did I miss this)? If you are at RS or lower you MAY be happy at ROW sport.

IXLR8

From stock but which stock; North American or Euro stock ride height. Bilstein is vague on that aspect and they even have two different front B6 part numbers as the following 2014/2015 on-line catalog shows.




What do they mean by "With Standard Chassis"? Which one NA or ROW?

Note the comment for the second set of B6 Sport shocks. "Shorten by"...shorten by what?

Bilstein needs to get it together with respect to eliminating the confusion.


From a previous catalog. Different comments once again...

Ron

Exactly. page 44-3 of the workshop manual gives 7 different heights , all model specific and each with plus or minus 10 mm variance in each direction.

JB 911

+2 it's a disgrace, really for a company that large to have that much confusion out there regarding their products and people driving around with the wrong set up on their car. Complete buzzkill.

Ron

Spoke to Mooresville, NC this morning about heights. Not sure I got what we are looking for. Here’s what I was told as I understood it.

1-Germany has not provided them with the ride height they use as a starting point. Germany just says stock height.

2-For my car a 1997 C2S the PSS10 the kit was represented as being able to raise or lower the front end from 120 mm to 140 mm, from stock height which is unknown when measure from the factory reference points to the ground. So this is its range of motion so to speak.

3-The kit will lower the car from 15 mm to 35 mm. This figure too does not give and reference as to what the stock height is that they are starting from.

4-Kit will raise rear from 195 mm to 210 mm; again no starting point to measure from.

JB 911

Ron, I don't think there is confusion with the PSS10 I havn't seen any posts with unhappy customers regarding adjustability. They will go RS to ROW without any issues I believe.

The confusion lies with their dampers and which one to use. B6 B8 etc and how much thread they do have/ don't have etc.

Ed Hughes

Haven't heard a lot of complaints on Bilstein dampers sold outside of PSS kits.

Slow Guy

I don't see how you guys can fault Bilstein for this, Bilstein can only control the amount of variance on the collars of the shock, where the vehicle the shock is relative to the surface is out of their control. Tires are but 1 item that will vary the height, suspension bushings are another. Expecting Bilstein (or Porsche for that matter) to give you exact measurements sounds unreasonable to me.

k722070

those numbers, 120-140 front and 195-210 rear, are the adjustment range measurements for the struts from the pss10 instruction manual.
they don't relate to the ride height numbers in the 993 shop manual.
my experience with pss10s is that the highest you can get is about 5mm below row m030 and lowest to right around rs.
rather than changing dampers you might try to find a shop that rebuilds struts in your area.
they can test your current struts for working condition and range and let you know what springs would fit.
maybe there is a spring 1 inch longer that actually works with the struts you have.

Ed Hughes

The multiple spring choices also have a huge impact on final height. They can't control MO29, 30, 33, ROW, Eibach, etc....

JB 911

Ron, I'd like to retract my earlier comments about the Pss10 not being confusing also. In light of what K722070 writes about them being only able to get to a max height of about row sport -5 that is a problem since you at one point mentioned ROW as a possible goal. Bilsteins answer to your question no 1 is a surprising fail and I can see how that is confusing and frustrating. I mentioned earlier, my PSS9s are at ROW sport and I had room to go up more. Not sure how much, I don't remember them being pegged so I just assumed I had at least 5 to 10 more so that some one could do ROW if they so wanted. It seems the Pss10s may have changed in that regard it would be nice to get some confirmation.

IXLR8

Ron, looking at both of the Bilstein tables above, I believe when they state Standard Chassis, they are talking about ROW standard height. And that is 154mm Front and 147 mm Rear. Those numbers are 20 mm and 10 mm less than US standard heights of 174 mm F and 157 mm R. Source: 993 Essential Companion.

The reason why I believe the above is that in the second and older table, they list a set of B6 shocks "Only for the United States of America" which would mean a ride height of 174 mm F and 157 mm R and that also applies to the US M030 option which has the same ride height.

Note also when searching on Google Images that all B6 front shocks that you come across on US sites (forums or vendors) have a part number label of:
Front L: F4-VE3-B648-H(1 to 3), new Bilstein PN: 35-116486
Front R: F4-VE3-B649-H(1 to 3), new Bilstein PN: 35-116493
which is what is listed in the second table above, 2nd row.

So if anything, maybe Bilstein 35-046929 and 35-046936 (1st row) should be used with ROW standard springs that provide ROW standard chassis ride height, or the Bilstein B8 for ROW M030 or M033 springs as listed in row 3 that many here seem to be using.

Thats how I see it. I'd like to know what the dimensional differences are between those two sets of front B6 shocks. When I asked Bilstein for some dimensional drawings for that reason..."that is proprietary"...as if I can't measure them if I had a set in front of me.