Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Definitely not the bottom bolt. I raised the control arm with a jack to meet the new shock, which allowed me to thread it in by hand - means I can't have cross-threaded it. It had loosened slightly, so re-torqued to 123Nm and took it out for another blast, but still the same. Just for good measure, I took out the spare wheel etc from the boot, just to make sure it wasn't that.

So, by process of elimination, it's either the top bolt, a faulty new shock (unlikely) or some new problem that wasn't there before I started (also unlikely). Kind of hoping I've been a numpty and left a spanner attached to the nut on the inside! Will take another look tomorrow. If it's not the top nut, I'll swap over the shocks to see if the noise moves to the other side - that would indicate a faulty new shock.

Cheers,
Bryan

Sounds slightly interesting. There is no bump stop on the 944 for fully-unloaded; that function is taken up by the shock absorber at full extension and it should have something built in to do this. It could be that this is indeed faulty, and swapping from one side to the other will show what's what.

Keep us posted.


Oli.

I haven't read through the whole thread again but ball joints knock and supposedly give vague handling.

Well the good news is that as things are settling down, the front ride height is dropping and is now a lot closer to matching the rear. The handling is a lot more sure footed.

I've now swapped the right hand rear new shock for the old knackered one. Guess what? Noise gone completely. Same roads, same speed, no noise. New shock is now the prime suspect. Next step is to fit the suspect shock to the other side and see if the noise returns. I certainly hope so as that's conclusive proof of where the problem lies.

Had some non-car related good news today, so it's now beer o'clock!

Cheers,
Bryan

Put the suspect shock on the other side - no noise.

Just to clarify - new Bilsteins on the rear, noise from driver's side rear. Old shock fitted to driver's rear and new Bilstein on passenger's rear, no noise. Old shock on driver's side rear and the OTHER Bilstein on the passenger's rear, no noise. At this stage, I can now rule out the Bilsteins as being the source of the problem.

The issue is that I haven't a clue what is causing the noise as it only happens when the is a perfectly good Bilstein on the driver's rear.

Any ideas folks?

Cheers,
Bryan

Have you tried swapping the bolts from nearside to offside to see if there is a bolt wear issue and that is causing some movement on the offside when the Bilstein is fitted?

Worth a try. Actually, the bottom bolt was significantly harder to get in / out on the problematic driver's side than the passenger's side. I assumed at the time that it was because I hadn't jacked up to control arm high enough to meet the shock.

I would try both top and bottom bolts. The shock is not faulty but there's a knocking sound relating to the shock on the offside and the only part(s) that connect the shock to the car are the bolts so I'm assuming that one of them is the problem. I would firstly remove the shock and put the bolts through the top and bottom to see if there's any excessive movement of the bolts. Also try the bottom bolt into the lower arm without the shock to make sure its going in square and the its not been slightly threaded, bearing in mind you said it was tight to get out and in.

Keep us posted

Right, I've finally got it all sorted. All I did was refit the Bilstein shock, taking more care with the bottom bolt. I suspect I must have originally had it in slightly off-line, allowing some play in there. It was also much easier to turn this time, which confirms this.

Massive thanks to pilch, waylander & zcacogp for your help and support with this. I'm sure there are a couple of others I owe thanks to too. This is by far the most complicated thing I've ever attempted on a car and there's a massive sense of job satisfaction in getting to the end.

The great thing is that I can feel a real difference in aspects of the handling. Turn-in is fantastic, almost as good as the Alpina B3 I used to own. The understeer hasn't gone, but it's progressive and predictable, allowing me to take the roundabout close to where I live just a little bit slower than my Audi RS4. Impressive indeed.

Just got to replace the locking nuts on the top bolt (single use) and the geo is booked in with Center Gravity on 18th May.

Time to get some miles on the clock.

Cheers,
Bryan

Glad you go it sorted out and your pleased with the result you can dial out the under steer a little by preloading the rear arb a bit