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997.1 GT3 Very strange thing happened today - any ideas??

squelch

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5 Jun 2016
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A very odd thing happened suspension-wise this afternoon on the way to the Ace Cafe and I was hoping someone could perhaps shed some light...

I was heading along the M40 / A40 at around 65mph and hit a raised ridge in the road (along with every other car going with the flow of traffic including the 996 Turbo I was following) and felt the usual mild thump as you do over motorway ridges and expansion joints etc. However, immediately afterwards the car was pulling to the right and the steering became heavy and it felt like I had a bad puncture. I pulled over to examine the tyres and BOTH front wheels were significantly tucked under the arches as if both front coil springs were broken. I then gently turned the steering wheel to one side so I could investigate further and as I did so, there was a bit of a "ga-dunk" noise as if something had re-seated itself and the suspension rose by 1.5 to 2 inches back to its original position!! I gently drove off and continued to the Ace and the car drove fine, straight and true with no noises or clonks etc. Upon further inspection in the Ace car park it appears that the left side sits about 5mm lower now. The journey home was also fine but obviously I am concerned that it will happen again.

I will call Porsche tomorrow, but wondered if anyone has any experience of this or has ideas....??? :dont know:
 
Sounds like a snapped spring, but seems hard to fathom considering the condition of the car
 
No obvious signs of a broken spring. Having been scratching my head and looking at some diagrams, I'm thinking ARB / drop link related. And a message from NXI20 supports that theory, so that could be a good place to start.

I'll update with what I find asap...
 
Maybe the springs had jumped out of the cups a little and moving things around let them jump back into the cups.
 
Quite common fault on 997 and as the steering is turned the broken spring section mated back together rather than over lapping and lowering the trim height.
 
GlenB said:
Maybe the springs had jumped out of the cups a little and moving things around let them jump back into the cups.

Think it's this. Had something very similar happen. I took it straight to a nearby specialist and we jacked it up couldn't see anything wrong and the springs were fine. Drove off and it was back to normal.

I did manage to snap a drop link in half on another occasion though. :eek:
 
Update: So I jacked it up today and it's definitely not a broken spring (once a spring is broken the height is permanently lower to the tune of how much of the coil has broken off). Nor is it the springs jumping out of their seats (that would raise the ride height not lower it).

I was worried that there would be nothing evident, so I was oddly relieved to see that the offside drop link is significantly bent and the nearside link is slightly bent. The nearside top mount has about 5mm of vertical play, so that would explain why that side sits lower by 5mm or so.

I've been speaking with an OPC and the AA came to "assess" today and they will be taking the car to the OPC tomorrow.

Ball joints on drop links obviously do wear out but the steel rod itself should always remain straight, so what's seen in the image attached is a clear component failure in my opinion. The OPC has said they will need to assess it and look for any signs of impact / damage etc before deciding if it's a valid claim or not. I've certainly had no impacts, I watch like a hawk for potholes and there is no damage underneath or anywhere on the car - I made a video today of the underneath of the car and did a walk around vid too before it goes off to the OPC tomorrow ("Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me!")

The drop links are about £30 each and I could change them both in around an hour. The top mount is a little more involved, but still not a huge job and I would expect a geo / alignment to be done. But all of that isn't going to be a biggie so I would expect that Porsche would want a happy customer and simply get it done... Fingers crossed!

Here's a link to a vid of when the suspension pops up as I turn the steering wheel - you can even lip-read my mate saying "it just popped up!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wNS8uiziCI&feature=youtu.be
 

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Glad you got to the bottom of it and it's nothing serious :thumb:
 

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