Catorce

I was wondering if anyone had ever seen this, because I searched high and low and didn't find anything.

As a background, I just did a major engine out service on the '09 TT, which included coils, plugs, new clutch and a bunch of other stuff. Two weeks before that, I had pulled all the struts and replaced the springs with Eibach lowering springs. Car has 58K miles.

As to my background, I have a lift in the garage and have built Porsche motors for 20+ years, and I do all my own work. I have done springs and struts probably 20 times in the past, I have NEVER seen anything like this.

As I said, I put the lowering springs on 2 weeks ago. No issues. This week, pulled the motor, did a bunch of stuff, and was doing my first test drive. I was cruising at about 15mph, testing out the clutch.

Hit a small dip in the road, heard a clunk, steering went sloppy, and PASM Failure showed on the screen. Heard metal falling on the street.

Its a residential street, no traffic. Stop the car, go back 20 feet and I see a metal disc with a 997 part number on it. Looks like the disc that mounts under the strut mount. Uh oh......

Limp the car home (I had only gone less than 1000 feet from home), put it on the lift, and the PASM strut is literally sheared off.....

WTF? I had been driving it for 2 weeks with zero issues or noises. What the hell kind of failure is this? Strut shaft is awfully thin walled.

I'm kind of freaked out at how thin those shafts are, considering replacing with non-PASM struts. No damage other than to the strut.

Has ANYONE seen anything like this? I own 9 Porsches, been working on them for 25 years, never seen anything like this. Luckily I was going 15mph.......

TT Surgeon

I've seen that when the washer on top is put on upside down on both oem struts and bilstein damntronics.
Lowering springs definitely shorten the life of struts and could be the root cause. Remember, putting springs on a relatively new car is one thing but maybe not such a good idea on a ten yr old car. I used to be a huge proponent of lowering springs when the cars were new. Now, I think I'd recommend lowering springs with bilstein b8 sport shocks and struts, B8s are much heavier duty and were actually developed for porsche tequipment motor sports as the x73 version for the 997tt platform.

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Catorce

Yeah, I'm not new enough to make the washer mistake. I agree with you though....I have never put brand new lowering springs on a shock this old - 8 years old and almost 60K miles, it's at the end of its life.

Lesson learned, I guess. Replacing with new units.

Still troubled by how thin the walls are on that PASM strut because of the wiring that has to be routed within the shaft. This is definitely not an issue with solid shaft shocks (like on my 2 996s).

TT Surgeon

Check out the B8s, wire external and shaft solid as I recall.

Catorce

^picked them up today. Wire is on outside, shaft is solid. Someone was using their brain when they designed these.

I recently did springs on my '02 Targa, maybe 2 years ago. Autocrossed the **** out of it, car had 90K miles when I did the springs, never had an issue.

I am suddenly not a fan of the OEM PASM shock's construction. Bilstein must know something to transfer the wire to the outside....

TT Surgeon

Sweet!

atcbi5

that happend to me and it was a washer, but the lower one. Needs to be concave down. It's the bottom washer. If you place it wrong it grabs the shaft tight and when you turn the steering wheel full rotation, it shears the hollow shaft. It will stay broken an you won't notice until you unfortunately hit a bump and up and down travel of the shaft breaks the two wire PASM unit.

Catorce

So here's the fix.....brand new Bilstein shocks. Notice how the wire is now routed from the bottom of the shock. Bilstein gives you a pigtail to connect to the car's PASM harness. Interestingly, there is already a hole in the shock tower....all you need to do is add a grommet.

The shocks are beefier and the shaft is solid. Way better solution, should have come that way from the factory.

It is very clear to me that this is a design defect, or else Bilstein would not have changed it.

JG 996T

Nice where'd you pick up the B8's? On my short list.

TT Surgeon

Cool, funny how that hole is there.....that's the best combo for the 997tt imo.

Catorce

Thanks! I picked them up from SSF, which is my wholesale parts supplier that supplies parts for people like Pelican and other outlets. I have enough cars to where I picked up a commercial place to store them, a seller's permit, and have a car company with commercial accounts so I can buy Porsche parts wholesale. I only service my own stuff though I don't have customers on purpose.

But it works out great, picked them up same day.

They are not hard to find, they are all over the place.

Turboslut

Nice discount for non hooked up people at TH Motorsports for the fronts (until July 30) and rears at Summit Racing

Catorce

To give an idea, their price is the same as my cost = super steal.

TT Surgeon

sorry, that discount code expired.

Car Crazy

Anyone have the part numbers for the B8 on all 4 corners? I'm thinking of doing the B8 with Eibach lowering springs.