De Jeeper

Im sure theprf made them as he is a pretty good machinist. I too cant see how adding 15mm under the mounting surface could effect the dynamics. Loads r still transfered to the same spot and since the studs on top just retain the strut in compression it will be fine. Expecially since u r not performance driving.

Adding 15mm between the mount and the spring top or bottom would be better but its a harder part to make.....even better would be replacing the spring.

hbdunn

Wouldn't this reduce the upper travel of the dampener?

De Jeeper

No u r just making up the distance of the overly compressed spring. The shock will still fully extend if u "floated" the car and it puts the shock hight back in its intended ride height position.

996love

If I were in the market for coilovers, I would also look to the Ohlins Road & Track first. However, I would be extra careful about researching their height adjustment range. I remember reading about Ohlins being pretty low even when adjusted to their tallest height. If you’re unhappy with the lowering of the H&R springs (given they’re not defective), there is a possibility you will also be disappointed with these.

JTT

I didn’t but will take one when I get home if I remember. Super simple though, as it’s simply a collar that sits between the spring and the lower perch (the silver collar on the damper that the bottom of the spring sits on). Cut it to the rise I needed. Only downside is that you have to remove the spring to install it vs spacer on top of mount where you don’t have to remove the spring.

hardtailer

There is a bumpstop/auxiliary spring around the damper piston rod (on the stock shock absorber as well as on the B8 Bilstein). The top mount spacer has the same effect as putting a spacer around the piston, above the aux spring. I.e. it makes the aux spring come into action at less wheel (bump) travel than designed.


Also, with said spacer, the wheel travel in rebound is increased as the wheel must extend lower to reach the end of shock travel. This results in greater than designed angles in the CV joints in the half shafts and higher stresses in all rubber bushes. It could potentially even lead to contact between control arms and subframe/rear axle carrier halves.
With a 4" shorter shock the wheel travel is reduced so much that a 15mm spacer is not a problem.

Some shock absorbers have a coil spring inside that is compressed when the shock absorber is extended beyond a designed amount (think spirited cornering levels of wheel travel, nothing close to full extension). Putting a spacer in would effectively increase the rebound travel of the wheel before said spring starts to get compressed.

Not saying it won't work but I do think it is like opening a can of worms.
Not worth it imo if a spacer below (or above) the spring itself yields the desired result without above unwanted side effects.

danix

@cqhall check the part numbers on your springs. There are different H&R springs for cabrio/targa and regular. I wonder if that's what happened. My C4 is sitting level with B6+H&R.

Atgani

The R&T’s don’t come with front top mounts, they’re designed to be run with the stock top mounts.
If you want to track the car, and need additional front camber adjustment or better strut top location, they can also be used with aftermarket camber plates.

cqhall

Will do.

My mechanic wasn't able to get to the job last week. Hoping he'll finish up today. I've asked him to take pics.

Here is the car as it sits in his lot. One can kinda see the droop I'm dealing with:

TheChunkNorris

When they had their recall, they began including the Taretts but I don’t know for how long.

theprf

The recall was only for the AWD cars. I believe they were shipping Elephant Racing top mounts.

cqhall

Update: Got pics of the part numbers for the rear springs that were installed. No front pics yet, but they came in the same kit box.

According to the H&R website, 29466 is the correct spring and that's what I ordered from Tire Rack (see pics).

dan of montana

Looking into this setup myself. When I measure off the ride height with the stock setup, the front is about 1/2" higher than the back. The H&R springs look like a 1" drop front, 1" drop rear. I'm assuming that if there was a 1/2" disparity before, it will still exist if the front and rear are dropped the same. Probably just easier to see with the wheel gap made smaller front and rear. If/when I pull the trigger, I wonder if stacking one or two of these up in the rear would correct the front / rear difference: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/por...or-99634351101

cqhall

UPDATE:

The "Taco Lean" spacers worked! The rear and the fronts are now within 5mm of each other and we can probably chalk that 5mm in the front to a near-empty fuel tank.

I didn't experience any noises or squeaks from the spacers. My mechanic says that the install was very easy. I could have done it myself at home, but I had him look at other stuff, too. The was plenty of thread available after the spacers were in place (like 4-5 turns). The suspension did feel a small bit different, but I didn't experience any adverse handling on the drive home. But, I didn't push it because I want to make sure that everything is settled and I re-torque after a couple dozen miles.

I think the shadows in the pic below make it look worse than it is. I measured all 4 corners with a measuring tape from bottom lip of rim to bottom of fender and I got 190mm front and 185mm rear with about 1/8th tank of gas. It should be noted that I have 15mm spacers front and 12mm spacers rear. I found that that looks pretty even to me (haven't measured...probably should).

So far, it's a win. Thanks De Jeeper! Now I can put that $5K towards some E88s or something 😅

For anyone following, I got the ones here. Same link as De Jeeper, just without all of the extra stuff in the URL: https://www.amazon.com/MotoFab-Lifts-Taco-lean-Spacer-Leveling/dp/B07FYPCVJM/

cqhall

I think you are right about the 1" drop front/rear. Looking back at old pics when I first got it, the front was always noticeably higher than the rear. That seems to be the case with a lot of US-spec German cars from years ago (in my limited experience).

Regarding the part you link above, it's not spec'd for my 2003 C4S. It's listed as "May not fit" on FCP Euro.

The part 99733350400 is recommended for my car: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/por...or-99733350400

...which is what I bought and had installed today.

To make part-number-soup even spicier, the spring pads that I removed today (which seem to be original) are stamped 99333350400. Note the 993 (previous generation) prefix, but it kept the same suffix "33350400" as the 997 (subsequent generation) part.

The two parts 99333350400 and 99733350400 looked to be the same with the older being black and the newer being a creme color. Same blocky ridges on one side.

Vets here who are familiar with Porsche part number schemes can probably explain what's happening.