ehjun

Hi all. Im still very new to porsche and ive been trying read as much as i can. I came across a post that said all 996 and 997 suspension parts are interchangeable. is this true?

I'm namely interested in shocks and coilovers. I have a 4s and some companies say their coilovers work for 4s/2s/turbo and others just say 2/2s only or turbo only ect. it would make sense that turbo/4/4s stuff would be the same within the same chassis generation but what about between 996 and 997?

kisik

What is wrong with your nice stock PASM 997 suspension? 996 didn't have PASM. You can always buy Bilstein parts to save money to replace worn shocks. If you really want coilovers, best bang is used GT3 PASM coilovers (+ a few parts). For any specific companies like JRZs you can reach out to them directly for comparability. AWD cars have different coilover setups then non AWD.

ehjun

so does that mean they are physically interchangeable but have different damping and spring rates? nothing is wrong with my stock suspension. just not low enough and i like the adjust-ability of coils vs springs

kisik

996s don't have your PASM struts. If you want to lower your car for cosmetic reasons you can just change springs for cheap. If you want spent money anyways, then you can buy Bilstein B16s or even Olhins (no PASM).

Bruce In Philly

2009 C2S

Interchangable? Well sort of..... You are asking a tough set of questions. I can say for fact that the control arm configurations and part numbers are different for the 997.1 and 997.2. The stock shocks and springs are different between the S and base models for a given year..... it goes on from there. Porsche is big on handling and their setups vary from model to model.... now if you just want to bolt X on Y, for that you must contact a manufacturer for model compatibility assuming, of course, whatever you are trying to do is make something "better". There are plenty of suspension gurus on this forum so I suggest you post exactly what you are trying to achieve, and then you may get better responses.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

ehjun

what im trying to do is get coilovers for my car. i was looking at a set of BC's but they dont have them listed for 4 and 4s but they do have them for 996 turbo which is awd and they have them for c2 997 cars as well.

kisik says best bang for my buck is gt3 coilovers which makes me think that the c2 coilovers will work since the gt3 is rwd. and im thinking if not much changed suspension wise then maybe 996 turbo coils will fit. the only reason why i would think that not much would change in the suspension is because of the cars i have experience with before. in those cars suspensions were interchangeable between 3-4 generations of cars

so my question really is, does the suspension i get have to be specific to the year and the drive type or will any suspension for the 997 chassis work?

BillNye

Certain parts from certain applications are interchangeable with other applications. This is by no means a guarantee or an exhaustive list, but these sorts of things are top mounts, sway bar end links, and a couple ancillary parts. I believe that several other parts will also physically bolt up to the car and may be shared among some applications, but not all, e.g. lower control arms.
RWD and AWD front suspension are not the same.

GT3 coilovers arent exactly plug and play on the C2. The GT3 uses an inverted damper so additional parts are needed to make that work.

All that said, yes, in some cases 996 parts may be interchangeable with 997 parts. The chassis are somewhat similar after all. That does not mean that you can just get any full set of suspension parts from a 996 and they'll work on the 997. You'll have to research the specific combination of parts to know which will or wont work for any particular combination. Furthermore, a kit that was made for one car, will not be optimized for another car. The spring and damping rates will be based on the weight of the car the intended use, and other factors. Just bolting together a hodge podge of parts from various cars may physically fit, but it may very well be worse than before, or worse than a setup that was targeted to whichever variant you have.

ehjun

thats what im trying to do but i cant find a list of swappable items anywere. I understand that if i mix and match i might not get the most optimal performance but thats lower on my priority list.

Fined

Sounds a lot like this is completely about being able to slam the car and nothing to do with performance. Probably can get more direct answers if that's the case, as most folks here will helpfully try to steer towards performance benefits and not just being able to lower the car cheaply at the cost of performance.

BillNye

I realized what Bruce and I said are basically the same thing.

There isn't a "list" of what is swappable and what isn't swappable. Here is a totally made up example using the front suspension to hopefully explain this.
Your car currently has:

• Control arm A
• Upright B
• Damper C
• Camber plate D
• Spring E

Car 2 has:

• Control arm F
• Upright G
• Damper H
• Camber plate J
• Spring K

Car 3 has:

• Control arm L
• Upright M
• Damper N
• Camber plate O
• Spring P

1) Suppose you want to use control arm L, upright B, damper N, and spring P. In that scenario, camber plate D and J might NOT work.
2) However, if you use control arm L, upright B, damper C, and spring K, You might be able to use either camber plate D or J, but not O, but because the spring is extra stiff, the car might ride like ****.
3) Suppose you use control arm A, upright M, damper C, camber plate D, and spring P. In this secnario, everything was "interchangable" and bolted up no problem, but because it lowered the ride height you can no longer align the car properly, and handling will suffer.
4) Finally, if you build a setup with Control arm L, upright B, an aftermarket spring and damper C' and E', along with aftermarket camber plate O', you might find that it's the sweet spot you were searching for.

Most people aren't going to be able to tell you every permutation of possible suspension setups that will work on your car based on the details you've given.

Finally, in general, if an aftermarket manufacturer says that a certain part only fits on a certain model I'd be inclined to trust them. If you think otherwise you can always email them and ask, as it's possible they just havent tested them on a particular model variant.

Bruce In Philly

But you can make any of these parts fit.... folks here are too uptight. First, you place control arm F with the F'n Spring F... and lay on it with a hard swing from Hammer F.... Then F, you got it.

You just have to F it.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

BillNye

Instructions unclear: hammer stuck in uptight B.
Please advise.

Tj40

What happens if I want to use upright G - would that hit the spot?