front bumber sraping

kennyboy · Apr 23, 2006

Took my 4S out for it's first 'serious' drive today - across the Dales, loved it.

The car appeared to love it too as I thought she handled superbly..... on what I think must be the original shocks.

...But.... she did 'bottom out' literally 2 or 3 times at high speed in dips in the road... by bottom out I mean I heard something scrape underneath the car.

I got back home and could see the scraping was underneath the front bumper - along the full length, even on the vent bits on the end. There is also a very small bit of scraping on the underneath of the car just behind the bumper.
There's is no sraping anywhere else - I did expect some to be underneath the exhaust tips - but nothing.

As I say I think I must be on original shocks there is no evidence in it's history of them being replaced. The car doesn't float though and body control is good.

My question is - is this normal on a 4S? the car is low but I wouldn't expect it to bottom out like that.

Another question is - is there anything I can do to prevent this other than altering the ride height of the car, perhaps if the shocks were OK this wouldn't happen?

Thanks

kennyboy · Apr 24, 2006

Hi Maurice

Oh yes it was great - 6am start..... amazing roads and just 30 mins from where I live and I didn't know they existed!

ah yes good point - mileage. just turned 68k will full main dealer history.

some bits of the road very very bumpy.... no problem there.. but on 2 occasions the road would suddenly dip at maybe 45 degrees and then rise at 45 degrees within 20 feet or so.... that's when it did it, at quite a lot over 80mph as it hit the bottom.

when I saw the undulations coming up I instinctively braced myself so must have been pretty rough - but other chaps driving in front of me at the same speed didn't mention any bottoming.. and one was a 993 2S with less than 30k on it.

On another stretch of road I took on board a passenger and I swear it started to do it a little more - with the extra weight do you think that indicates a shock problem Maurice?

Will check the shock colour this week.

I've been wanting to change to bilsteins anyway but of course don't want to do it until I'm absolutely sure my current one's are dead - but if I change AND get my scrapes repaired (the ones on the vent can be seen when standing up!) I want to be sure I can press on but not bottom out.

Gert's protection bar - deal! [

] can I ask why you don't use it any more Maurice?

Guest · Apr 24, 2006

Just thinking latterally. Are you 100% sure the marks on the bumper weren't already there, i.e. curbing marks? And could the "scraping" have been a low frequency creak? If so could be dry antiroll bar bushes (remove and apply Vaseline), or the wishbone bushes (just had mine replaced at 68k miles).

Cheers

kennyboy · Apr 24, 2006

Are you 100% sure the marks on the bumper weren't already there?

Yeah just about - I could see little shaves of plastic hanging off when I got back and as I definately haven't curbed it since I bought it 2 months ago I'm sure. Good question though as the car was already scraped under there but not to a large extent...also the vents on the ends of the lower bumper weren't scraped before I'm sure (or am I? aaggh).

Very nice Maurice - nice to see the 993 guru doing some mods of his own.... is that you on the horse in the background? [

]

Still sound like shocks problem then?

Maurice - you sending pm to me to sort the bar?

mbrands · Apr 24, 2006

Maurice, at RS hight, do you get a lot of bump steer, or have you got the RS uprights and tie rods ? (sounding almost like I know what I'm talking about [

])

kennyboy · Apr 24, 2006

I occasionally have a little scrape on undulations at RS height with PSS9, but with good shocks at M033 height you shouldn't be ... but it does sound like pretty enthusiastic use, especially with a passenger [8|] !

Summed it up well there and yes it was very enthusiastic.... I'll put it down to experience and just be more carefull on those particular roads.

The bumper needs doing now anyway so if it gets scraped again before I do upgrade to bilsteins it's not so bad.

Presumably it's a full bumper replacement job to repair the scrapes down there?

TRW40 · Apr 27, 2006

I have got the inevitable scrapes under my front bumper and some of the rubber tubes which drop through the floor pan have broken off. Do these serve any real purpose and does anybody know where you can get new ones? I did try a couple of porsche suppliers but got nowhere.