Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Let the tyres down - well you wanted cheap!

Hi, this may sound a bit dodgy, but you could cut the front springs and re-index the rear torsion bars. Cheap but effective.

Reindexing is not cheap unless you do it yourself, especially as everyone seems to be scared to do it. It's not necessary though as there should be some adjustment on the eccentric bolts on the rear arms. There's something like 40mm available, but it was there to allow the factory to get the ride height correct and every car is different, you might be able to lower it 35mm or you might be able to lower it 5mm before the end of travel.

Cutting springs is the cheapest option but it's rough as you like and it will almost certainly not enhance the handling, not be even across both sides and will introduce bonging from the struts when the steering is turned.

The right way to do it is fit 968 ClubSport springs, but they are dealer only and not cheap. You might get G-Max or some-such rubbish that fits but they will be poor quality and will lower the car too much would be my guess. The S2 and Turbo (later Turbo at least) use smaller diameter springs than Luxes so not all springs available fit.

Sadly to do anything properly on a porsche, you have to do things the right way.

Save a few extra pennies and get some decent suspension rather than skimping now, you'll be grateful in the long run...

go to B&Q get a few bags of sand and place them cunningly in the car

Its not that expensive though Fen. Ive heard all of the self-professed experts tell me that its eight hours worth (one PH & PCGB member, but not active here fortunately. He 'knew' because he has an 8hr invoice for the job supplied by the previous owner... ) of work, but in reality three hours is more like it. Ive paid to have it done to two separate cars and neither has taken longer.

Now: if you drill a 60mm hole just ahead of your rear wheelarch, you can withdraw the torsion bar and re-index them yourself in about 15 minutes...

no matter how you lower it you'll still have to have the geometry set up afterwards, i agree with a previous post re 968 cs springs, but they might not fit the struts

You should certainly do everything at once: as it will need a full four wheel geometry setup, as stated. At the very least Id replace all four dampers with standard replacements (or better) along with all of the compliance bushes and the stut top mounts.

I did mine as part of refurbing the rear beam and I don't know what the fuss is about, but most indies seem to suck their teeth when asked to do it from what I hear around the forums.

Strut tops are ridiculously expensive. For a late Lux 2.7 they are around £220 Each. When I stripped a car recently to do a strut top they were 100% OK, not sure I'd automatically replace them.

Fair enough: conversely mine are completely knackered and this wear is exaggerated by my running 17" wheels. Im confident that suitable parts can be found for a good deal less than £440 per car though.

Who do you use for this Simon, is it EMC? I suppose because they do this a lot when building race cars they know all the best ways to save time - itwould certainly make the job a heck of a lot more resonable if it was 3 hours

I think I'm right in saying that every single car I know of that has had them checked has needed new mounts for the rear beam, so I'd strongly recommend dropping the lot off and doing the re-index, fixing the fuel and brake lines and replacing the mounts at the same time. Of course that ain't cheap, but it's done, done fully and done right.

It isnt EMC Paul, although Alex and Kev agreed that three hours was about right. PHSportscars in Shardlow will do the job and this is how long Simon (ex Evans Halshaw, factory trained fitter who runs the service garage) is quoting. Even if it runs to four hours then the job wont break the bank at their labour rates.

Simon