Sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring to the control arms and such. Those parts that you linked to were ones that I already purchased. It seems that all of the major suspension links are either Porsche or Meyle (made in Asia).

 

OE is Original Equipment, as in what would have been installed by Porsche at the factory and are official Porsche parts. OEM is Original Equipment Manufacturer, meaning they are replacement parts made by the same companies that manufactured the OE parts, but they not branded as Porsche parts and may or may not be the exact same quality. Likely, they are the same, but it's difficult to prove 100%.

 

OP - Crap-ton of threads here with plenty of info on who used what and why. If you have the wherewithal to do some ‘footwork’ you’ll save plenty of scratch. If you just want to get it done less painstakingly and now, do what your indie suggests. I had fun researching and gathering all the parts for my suspension rebuild. As someone, not De Jeeper, (of course-he’s invisible) hints at; TRW makes all the OE control arms (including GT3). Meyle and Lemförder, as well as TRW, make nearly all of the rest. OE for top mounts, nuts and bolts. OE links are fine for non-adjustable sways. Pick your poison for the flavor of springs, dampers and sways,; and Bob’s your uncle, your done. Simple, right? FCP usually has a good mix for their kit, but the way parts supply is these days, they may not have the ‘best’ option for a particular part available.

Bottom line: Get OE when it makes sense. Avoid needlessly paying the Porsche tax when feasible. Just a little shopping around will save you at least $500 for a full redo. A fresh suspension is transcendental for a 996.

 

Thanks to everyone so far, it's been very enlightening.

Thanks. No problem with doing the footwork, but this site is basically a series of huge silos; this is the 996 silo, and everything relating to that vintage is all piled together. Google does a half decent job even so. Now that I have some idea who the true OE manufacturers are, I can use those as breadcrumbs to dig for more.

I've also run into supply chain joy already, on my first order no less. I'm looking forward to that transcendental moment but it may be more of a wait than I had hoped.

 

TRW and Lemförder are both owned by ZF. The last set of GT3 LCA's I got were TRW castings in a Lemförder box marked made in Germany. Other Lemförder parts I have recently gotten have been marked made in France, Tunisia, Italy, and Turkey. The Meyle stuff can be a bit of a crap shoot, most is fine and some is trash. I have some Meyle front drop links that are marked made in Turkey, probably in the same factory as the Lemförder ones, which look fine but I can't use them with my adjustable front sway bar. The ones to avoid at all costs IMO are anything by Hamburg Technik which is all Chinese made.

 

I mostly went through FCP Euro, but they were out if stock on some items. Outside of Pelican, Germanautoparts.com and Autohausaz.com also carry parts in stock. I ordered most last October, I don’t remember what exactly came from where. Rockauto had the best pricing on struts.

 

+1 for FCP Euro warranty. Hell, you can even send your oil back...

 

Here's a great video from FCP on OE vs Genuine. Around 7:00, you'll notice them mentioning in some cases you'll buy an OE part and it actually has the BMW logo in this case, ground off of it. I have seen this.

 

Well, that answers all the questions. Many thanks!

/thread

 

Just did this! Check out europaparts.com. They have Meyle Classic, a better version of the Meyle, including what FCP, offer, with urethane bushings. They also have the TRW arms. And reasonable prices.