944 suspension

[tonygofly]

I have a 944 2.7 and I think it is time to renew the springs and shocks. I want to keep the suspension as road friendly as possible. I would appreciate any hints and tips any of you might have on the subject.

 

[Lowtimer]

If, like me, you regularly have to traverse seriously crappy urban and rural roads full of potholes and sleeping policemen, then stick with factory standard stuff. That's what I did anyway, and it's worked just fine for me. All new bushes will tighten up the body control quite a bit, as will factory new standard-spec dampers. You will get a car that feels much nicer than anything on seriously old suspension without introducing any harshness. Incidentally you may well find there's nothing at all wrong with the springs. The original manufacturing quality of car springs seems better than on stuff build 20-30 years ago than on a lot of newer cars (Talking across all mainstream makes, not making a Porsche-specific point). You probably know the suspension geometry is all adjustable so there is a lot of tweaking to be done - a good geometry alignment by one of the experienced 944 experts will probably make a world of difference, and in any case is mandatory after a suspension rebuild. On the other hand if your kind of driving is mainly well-maintained dual carriageways and motorways, and you want something a bit racier than standard, then the smart money is generally on KW Variant 3.

 

[Dockrell]

I replaced my front and rear suspension with standard shock absorbers, but retained the existing springs as they were in good condition. I found that the rear bolts were reusable and like new with their gold coating intact once cleaned. A trick for releasing the rear upper nut is to use a plastic tie wrap to secure a ring spanner to the shock absorber tube, and be generous with releasing fluid. You will need the front suspension alignment checked after replacing the front shock absorbers. Also check out the front strut top mounts - if they are worn they are very expensive to replace. The front anti-roll bar may also be loose in its rubber bearing due to rust, but can be rebuilt by metal spraying. Mike White 2.7 automatic

 

[colin944]

I would say stick to standard stuff. KW's and Gaz Gold set ups get very high praise but also come at a big price. New standard stuff is good on the road, you can always put on poly bushes and bigger anti roll bars if you want to up-rate it a bit. I've got a spare set of S2 anti roll bars lying about. i thin k they are a wee bit thicker than the standard 2.7 ones. Alan Locke ( loc944 ) on here did a fair bit of track work in his 2.7 and also replaced a load of the suspension parts. He would be a good guy to ask.

 

[macc944]

My Turbo S has old adjustable Koni's which were set up too hard for road use. I managed to soften the fronts but the rears are wont adjust. The result is a back end that is "over enthusiastic" on the road - too much power oversteer too often! Do you have any advice on changing the dampers to get back to a standard road set up? Would replacing the rears only do the trick, and what is the spec of a standard part? The cheapest ones are Sachs & Boge, then "uprated" ones by Koni and Bilstein. Does uprated mean stiffer? And can I get away with not changing the fronts at the same time?

 

[ChasR]

The rear Konis are adjustable, but they have to be taken off the car (you may get away with not needing to do so). Basically, you fully compress the damper and turn it so as to adjust the rebound rates. On my Focus they were not too bad at all if I am honest. My choice would be Bilstein B6s personally.

 

[944Scott]

What's your budget ?