mcbit

Shock absorbers are a wear item and as such are not covered, along with batteries, brakes, tyres, clutch, etc. for wear and tear in the Porsche Limited Warranty. Almost universally across the internet, from manufacturers and experts alike, the life expectancy of automotive dampers is averaged at around 50,000 miles. For normal driving mine were fine and even in a straight line at 150mph+ they were OK, it was when pushing the limits that I felt that the handling was not quite what I thought a high performance Porsche should be able to achieve. There were small tell tale signs: such as a higher than expected degree of body roll when turning into a bend, and a feeling that, on undulating roads, I was driving in a cross wind when in fact there was very little wind around. At no point however did it feel dangerous.

Refreshing the suspension has made a night and day difference to my car in terms of handling and braking. I did opt to go for PSS9/10 coilovers but have no doubt that I would have experienced a similar improvement had I just gone with a stock refresh. I couldn't be happier with my current setup in a road going car.

Damper wear happens very slowly and its effect on handling may slip by unnoticed.

The corner bounce test will tell you if your shocks are completely shot but will not illuminate lesser degrees of wear; there are sophisticated testing rigs with oscillating plates which constantly measure the vehicle load at the wheels which do just that. That being said, my turbo had recently passed the statutory efficiency rating for the suspension in its annual safety test.

jeanmarcboilard

http://sonnenporscheoemparts.com/par...?siteid=215405
I look up their prices (+exchange+shipping+duty )and compare them to my local Porsche dealer and go with whoever is cheaper. However I border on Michigan so I ship everything there and avoid higher shipping and duty costs.

breakfast

Im in complete agreement that they are wear items(and as mentioned earlier this seems to be more common in german cars, something I am familiar with)


Your description of being in a crosswind is exactly what this car exhibits sometimes.

Im going over what I will order.

The rear of the car is slightly lower than the front. Indicating possible issues. Combined with other signs....

Kevinmacd

Good listing of parts and diagrams of 2001 -2005 996tt just click on the pic of the assembly and get the exploded view and part numbers, then click on the part number. I would not order on this site, there are other sites that provide discounts

http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...05/landing.php

breakfast

awesome site, exactly what I was looking for.

thanks

breakfast

well here we are a couple months later.

Car has new bilstein sport dampers with h&r springs. (chosen over coilovers because street car and winter driven)
New front control arms(I have new control arms for rear but didnt install them....ill see if I regret that later :| )
New rear toe arms with eccentric hardware
New engine mounts(wevo)
997 trans mount(stock 996tt mount was original and in perfect working order; a sign of how its been driven its whole life- easy)


Got the car aligned at the dealership this time(x73 specs).

Front:
Camber
L -0.3 R-0.2 (best they could do. Not concerning for a road car imo)
Caster
L 8.0 R 7.7
Toe
L +0.05 R +0.04

Total Toe
+0.10

Steer ahead
0.00

Rear:
Camber
L -1.7 R- 1.7

Toe
L +0.15 R +0.17

Total Toe:
+0.32

Thrust angle
-0.01

Car rides much smoother with the new dampers and springs. Less crashy.
The old dampers were certainly functional. But maybe not quite as spritely as they were when new.
I plan to put it back on the rack after winter with new rear tires and see how it specs out.
Heres to hoping rear tire life improves

breakfast

I had also ordered new front strut mounts. I ordered the x73 /sport ones(which are a different part number than standard).

Box part number was right. Part inside = exact same mount as stock. Same part number as stock/non sport :|
To make a long story short, at my request, the dealership opened a dispute with germany about it. They came back saying the parts I had were the correct parts..... lol
So if you order the sport shock mounts....as of 2015 they seem to be identical to the non sport one. Straight from headquarters....

Still listed as two separate part numbers. Comes in the box with the correct part number for sport.

If you order non-sport. Same mount comes in a box with the non sport number for $100+ more per mount. lol smh.

Hazarding a guess, a different mount probably did exist when you could still buy the x73. Now that its been NLA, they just started slapping sport mount stickers on the non sport boxes.

rmc1148

I know its the same part but why would they want more for the non-sport, I would think the sport would be higher?

breakfast

You would think so, but check vendors(fvd has it listed). Sport is cheaper.

It wouldve been nice to have the sport mount(if it ever existed) but I guess Ill take the savings instead. My parts guy said go figure and he wasnt surprised.

gophaster

Interesting, do you happen to have the part numbers for the sport version mounts?

Thanks!

gophaster

Powdr, which bushings exactly should be upgraded at the minimum to reduce the toe changes in the rear for a street car?

Thanks!

993GT

I'm sure John will have some good input here...but I'll add, IMO thrust arm bushings will yield the biggest gain. Inner LCA monoball helps some as well, toe-link is also important... thrust bushing>toe link/lca monoball
cheers,

breakfast

http://www.fvd.de/us/en/Porsche-0/-/...er_Plates.html

fvd orders from porsche so best to check around.

Non sport:
996 343 015 04
996 343 016 04

Sport/x73:
996 343 980 15
996 343 980 16


but as mentioned when you order the sport...the box has the sport numbers. But the part inside is the non sport.

According to Porsche the part is correct. They do not share any other info. Not even with the dealer. But its stamped with the non sport part number. Every other number matches the stock non sport mounts I pulled off the car. So the only advantage with the "sport" mounts at this point is to save a few bucks.

The 997 parts look pretty similar too and are even CHEAPER. But I didnt bother ordering/trying them out.

breakfast

You definitely have better insight than me here. Seeing as this car is winter driven. I opted to keep the oem set up (for now).
I didnt even change the rear thrust arm bushings(planning to order over winter).

Monoballs were not an option for me at this point.


the car is running more toe in in the rear compared to the last alignment so it will be interesting to see what(if any ) changes there are in tire wear.

gophaster

Thanks Rob, I appreciate the info. I'm seeing adjustable and non-adjustable thrust arm bushings for about the same price any reason not to get the adjustables??

Thanks again