joshb217

I will fight through this install though... The car is lucky it's pretty. If it takes 2 weeks to get through this then so be it. She's worth the wait.

pfbz

A rattle gun, air or electric, might help. Even something like a lower power 1/4" battery impact driver. The little 'hits' seem to work in the pb blaster and help loosen it. Less chance of snapping in than just putting on a big-*** breaker bar, and they tend not to spin the shock as much either.

joshb217

Thanks. I just may try the impact on low tonight and see how that goes. If nothing I will soak them some more with blaster steam/water and find something else to work on. Installed Function-First motor mounts yesterday successfully. Can't wait to drive it.

joshb217

woot! I got the right front strut nut removed by using the impact wrench on 100 ft-lbs of torque. I got it to move a bit on the right side. Another question. I'm not replacing the rear strut mounts and I don't want to ruin them. Should I loosen the center bolt on the mount with the rear wheels on the ground, with them in the air or does it make a difference? The center of the mount I removed is stuck (as you can see in the picture) and i'm probably going to have to saw it off. Is there a way to avoid this on the rear?

dkraige

You'll have better luck getting the nut loose while the car is on the ground, since it will have the weight of the car holding the damper shaft from spinning. Spin it off with an impact wrench while the car is sitting on the ground, then just thread it back on finger-tight to hold everything together while you remove the shock from the car.

joshb217

Well... I got it all put back together and a lot of the problems that I was hoping would go away in fact didn't. The first problem I was hoping would be gone though is this:

1) When I drive over a bump the steering wheel actually turns in the direction of whichever front wheel went over the bump first. So basically whenever I go over a bump the steering wheel will shake back and forth at a rather freaky amount. When I'm on a nice flat road it doesn't pull at all even though I need an alignment. When the road is uneven it's unpredictable which way the steering wants to turn. It's much more apparent at slower speeds. The steering feels really sloppy and loose.

2) The second issue is the amount of feedback/vibration there is in the steering wheel from the road. I tried 2 sets of rims and tires and it's the same. I won't rule out wheel balance though until I get both sets checked.

I'd like to address the 1st issue mainly. Everything seems nice and tight up front under the car. I didn't replace the sway bar or sway bar links but they seem fine too. Is there anything else that could be causing it besides the shock itself. I'm really not wanting to take everything back apart to install shocks. I couldn't even inspect them when I had it apart because I couldn't remove the lower strut bolt. When I compressed the shock to get it to clear the fender should it have taken much effort? It was fairly simple and both front shocks felt the same and when they un-compressed they did so very slowly. Am I talking non-since and it's just possible I need a really good alignment to tighten things up?

Research pointed me to this thread with a guy having a similar problem and replaced his shocks and the issue was gone. https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...ver-bumps.html

If you do agree that issue #1 is related to bad shocks would you have a good recommendation on what to use with H&R sport lowering springs so it's as close to original ride or better? I don't track and it's my DD

Is it necessary that I replace all of 4 at the same time or can I just do the front for now?

Thanks fellow p-Car people in advance!

nckwrnr

My car did very similar nasty bump steer like you are talking about when I changed the front camber myself after installing coil overs. When I changed it back to the original settings it went away. I would try an alignment first I bet this gets rid of 75% of it.

dporto

As noted above^^^ you're experiencing "bumpsteer". This is usually caused/exacerbated by incorrect geometry due to lowering the suspension and can usually be compensated for with adjustable tie rod ends. The fact that you still have the stock shocks on there leads me to believe that they also could be contributing to you problem - I've got H&R springs on my car with Bilstein B8's and experience no bumpsteer (even without adjustable tie rod ends). Of course an alignment is recommended as well. Good luck

dkraige

To me, the amount of bump steer being described here (violent jerking of the wheel) is more than would be present just from lowering the car, unless the lowering is extreme. I've had lowering springs (1-1.5" drop) on half a dozen cars of different type and never experienced that kind of behavior. To me this sounds more like something is badly worn/loose, or the alignment is WAY off. Either way a competent alignment shop should be able to fix the alignment, and/or identify the loose/failed components.

joshb217

I should add that it just kind of started doing it one day before i installed the springs. I had a torn CV boot so I replaced the half shaft and lower control arm hoping that was the problem but it still did it. I went for alignment (not from Porsche) it was a little better but still there. Then my thought was it must be the upper strut mounts so I replaced those and the springs but it's still there. I just priced out the B8 Performance Plus Struts at 1k. I think I might just go pay the 200 for an alignment to an indy to see what happens.