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Diving under braking

sawood12

sawood12

New member
OK, is diving under braking a function of the suspension geometry and design or simply a function of stiffness of the springs and dampers? My 944 seems to lurch under accellaration and braking much more than say my Focus or any other conventional car not fitted with sports suspension. I realise my shock absorbers are way past their best but the spring rates should be pretty stiff in comparison. Have those out there that have recently replaced shock absorbers with new noticed any vast improvement in this area or does it take an upgrade to some aftermarket setup to calm this behaviour?
 
Your old springs are probably 20 years old, so have lost their newness.

As springs age and are worked, they become weaker... Yours probably started out being rated at 165 lbs per inch of compression... Which is quite soft even when new,,, after 20 years, 100,000 miles (for example) and millions of bumps and pot holes, the springs are probably now rated at about 110 lbs per inch of compression.. which is seriously soft.

Dampers degrade very rapidly.... Replace the dampers on almost any car and you will notice an improvement, even if they were last changed 20,000 miles ago... If they are 100,000 miles old they will probably make a really big difference to stability and to an extent will help reduce dive.


 
Scott, I replaced all the shocks on my S2 at 160k miles (which has the same setup as your '87 Turbo) and it really firmed everything up. The lurching and diving under acceleration and braking was greatly reduced and of course the car also rode much better over rough surfaces.

I only wish I'd known at the time that springs degrade too because they are not that expensive to replace whilst I was in there [8|]
 
I narrowly missed out on some M474 shocks on ebay recently (damn work for blocking ebay!!) and was going to go for the M474 set up. I really fancy the KW set up but cannot justify the cost based on the number of trackdays I do a year so hopefully the M474 probably with uprated ARB's will be a good compromise setup. If i'm best off replacing springs as well I may as well go the whole hog!! Having said that I don't fancy replacing the rear TB's so might go for 968 M030 rear helpers to stiffen up the rear end. Hopefully 944 M474 up front and 968 M030 at the back will be a good match.
 
If you add the 968 helpers at the rear then you may find that you'll have to re-index the torsion bar. I fitted some to mine and they Jacked up the car considerably (SP?) [quite a lot!]
 
I'd have thought that by the time you buy M474 struts, new springs and 968 rears with helpers you'll be within a couple of tanks of petrol and a few good curries of the cost of KW, and it's a much better setup.
 
AS lali so rightly mentioned,, your making a LOAD of work for yourself IF you put the 968 M030 shocks + springs on the rear....Itl look like a 1980,s custom car [ mk2 capri with jack up kit ]...[:D][:D][:D][8|][8|][8|]
Just stick with the 944Turbo M030 shock,, NON spring assisted...[;)][;)]
 
Theres a set of 944 turbo mo30's for sale on piston heads at the moment, dont know if there worth what he asking or not tho !!!
 
ORIGINAL: random hero

dont know if there worth what he asking or not tho !!!
Click to expand...

Ooooh I hope they are, as I'll probably be selling mine in the New Year and mine are freshly rebuilt [:)]
 
I would love the KW set up and if the costs of something else comes close I would probably go for it even though I would not really make use of its adjustability. However the reason why I was considering an OEM upgrade is that generally insurance companies are less bothered about loading your policy if you have upgraded with OEM parts rather than aftermarket componentary. But I agree that by the time i'm done i'm going to be close to KW costs and by going for KW I can avoid replacing my TB's as the rear coil overs can compensate for my current soft TB's. I don't see the point in just refreshing the shockers if the springs are going to be soft so I might as well go the whole hog!
 
Nosedive is largely a function of blown shocks! [;)] LOL, sorry, I had to. Seriously though, having blown dampers will cause alot more suspension movement. The stock 944 spring rates are very soft. Even 200 and 250# upgrade springs still aren't that "stiff" Some new Koni's will do wonders for the feel of a car that has blown dampers. Preferrably I'd upgrade the springs to 250# at the same time, if you can afford it.

Just FYI about the rear 968 M030's. I happen to have some on my 951 at the moment. I found it interesting but, the previous owner cut something like 1-2cm off of the shock's upper body (the upper collar that the bump stop rests inside). This component only houses the bump stop (which can easily be trimmed), so cutting it is no big deal. The effect this had was that it raised the upper perch by the same 1-2cm which helped make up for the "jacking" effect coilovers tend to give our cars in the rear. Now my car rides pretty much stock ride height in the rear w/ 968 M030's and 200# helpers (I think the stock helpers are 100#, mine are Hypercoils though) and that's without re-indexing. Anyways, I figured you all might like to know as it seems a simple and quick solution or bandaid for the rear end height jack issue.
 
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