dvenman

I found the cause of the rattling from my front suspension - a 6 inch long pice of front right spring separated from the car. The good news is the rattling has stopped, the bad news is that the spring needs replacing.

I'll be replacing both front springs, strut mounts and fitting on the top of the struts while I'm in there. However I'm come across a small problem getting hold of genuine items from Porsche since they're backordered till May. They *are* a good price though.

I'm after advice on H&R springs - I've found some on a local reputable car parts web site here in the UK for a decent price. Do they perform as well as the original parts, or should I keep trying to find a pair of genuine items ?

I'm not looking to modify the car in any way - I'm keeping it as stock as possible, but I am on a budget (and in the UK).

Advice gratefully received.

RennPart

If you would like for us to check stock in North America on the genuine parts we can certainly do that for you.

Typically H&R springs are "sport" springs and are usually stiffer and/or lower your car.

Macster

Have you considered used springs from a suitable doner car? They don't have to be from a salvage car though there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. (I sourced a pair of exhaust manifolds for my 2002 Boxster from a salvage business to replace one bad original exhaust manifold with a loose converter brick.)

You could find someone who's upgraded his car'st stock suspension and has the stock parts for sale.

If you go this route be sure you get the springs from the same model: base or S same as your car. I don't think the type of transmission makes a difference. Taht is while the automatic is heavier I don't think it requires stiffer springs. Ideally though the springs should be from a car that is as close to your car as possible.

GVA-SFO

Sorry, error from my side, wrong message.
Please moderator, you can delete this message, Thanks.

dvenman

RennPart

Thanks for the offer but I reckon the shipping to the UK from the US will be more than the parts

Macster

Thanks for the idea - I'll have a look.

dvenman

Sorry to add more to this! I've been investigating, and I can find "Genuine Porsche OEM parts" springs which appear from the pictures to be correct.

Except - the part number in the parts catalog for my vehicle is 986 343 531 05 504. The part numbers shown on the parts on the internet is 986 343 531 07 504.

The difference between 05 and 07 concerns me - those two digits are normally revision numbers for parts but given this is suspension I really don't want to take the chance that stiffness and spring rates are different.

My local Porsche centre is useful to a point - they can tell me (as per my original post) that the 05 parts are £135 a pair but not available till May, and the 087 part number are listed on the main Porsche part system but, crucially, are not listed as being compatible with any vehicles.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can check that 986 343 531 05 504 and 986 343 531 07 504 are suitable for my car?

Macster

Not much to offer in the way of help.

My experience sourcing parts for my cars has been rather uneventful.

Parts are tied to the car's VIN. When you visit the OPC and with your car's VIN what part numbers come up for the springs? If it the old part # ending in "05" then you are out of luck unless you can find an OPC that has a set in stock. You will have to call around and if you find an OPC with a set be sure whoever you talk to can put his/her hands on the set. Sometimes a set will show up in inventory but not actually be present. If the new part # ending in "07" comes up then the springs should be compatible with your car.

Occasionally when I am buying a part -- from a battery to windshield washer nozzles for instance -- for one of my cars and have a part # the parts department manager informs me the part # has changed. But his catalog in some way shows the part with the new part # is compatible with my car. The part # changed because the part was changed: In the case of the battery Porsche decided a larger battery was called for; in the case of the windshield washer nozzles they became electric (and required $150 worth of wiring harness adapters to work). There are other examples but I only heard about it 2nd hand from the tech as he sourced the new part to replace an old one on one of my cars. (Oh I remember another: Coils for my Turbo. The part # changed as Porsche spec'd a new/slightly different coil.)

But in all cases the parts do not in any significant way affect the basic car's personality.

RennPart

I do not show the p/n 986-343-531-07-504 fitting any specific models in PET (porsche parts system) but I can tell you that they label 986-343-531-05-504 as "blue yellow." I hope this helps!

dvenman

I've had a response from my local OPC - the 07 part number *is* suitable for use with my vehicle.

A pair on order!

mikefocke

For next time:

http://www.porsch-apart.co.uk/ in the UK

www.douglasvalley.co.uk in the UK

they are what you call breakers.

dvenman

Yep - knew about them, but I was planning to buy new. And the work the Porsche guy did in answering my query deserves some reward

JayG

As a side not, there is a really good Boxster forum based in the UK www.boxa.net
Also another Boxster forum that is significantly more active than this is www.986forum.com

wizard1

@dvenman.

Hello. I have exactly the same situation with the front suspension on my Boxster 2.7 Tiptronic (MY 2003)

As Porsche hasn't been able to locate any 05 springs, I was wondering whether you encountered any problems installing the 07 springs?

Regards

dvenman

I spoke with my local Porsche Centre, and they told me that the -07 springs are the correct ones. Apparently the ...05 504 are listed against the 986 without M030 suspension, the 07 504 are in the parts system but with no applicability to a specific vehicle.

However, the reply from the parts specialist was "Porsche Germany have now come back to me and confirmed that the 986 343 531 07 504 number would be suitable for your car".

And when it came to replacing the springs, no issues at all except one strut nut which had to be cut off. I'd prep both top nuts with plenty of WD40 or similar, and whack them with a hammer and blunt cold first in the downward direction on both sides first to break any corrosion bond.

HTH.

wizard1

Many thanks indeed.

Do you recall the colour coding on the springs - blue/yellow markings towards the bottom of them?