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Changed my suspension, what an interesting couple of days!

Leon1davies

Well-known member
Joined
4 Oct 2015
Messages
702
I've got a 996 C2 cab thats now got to 106k miles and the M030 suspension which was factory fitted had seen better days. I was getting a lot of knocks and rattles and the car didn't really feel very stable.

Thought i'd share my experience of changing it over!

Took a week off work to do some DIY and thought I'd pick up the M030 retro-fit kit to give the suspension a bit of a refresh. Firstly trying to find the right info on the retro-fit kit was a bit of a challenge...even the OPC's in the south had trouble.

Porsche didn't make 30mm springs for the cab but they did for the coupe, so cabs came with 10mm springs on the M030 kit. I was able to pick up the kit from OPC Bournemouth for £806.89 plus VAT. It's known as a Porsche sports running gear I believe. The kit comes with the following:
- Front and rear shocks & springs
- Front and rear anti-roll bars
- Anti-roll bar bushes

In addition to the kit I also bought new top mount bearings (as you'll see below mine were completely shot to pieces), new nuts and bolts, new washers, bellows, additional springs...essentially everything that forms part of the shocks and mounts.

Total price with discount: £1438.45

So at the start of the week I got the car up on stands and decided to give it a good clean in the wheel arches. One thing led to another and I discovered that the rear passenger side footwell was soaking wet! So i decided to trace the leak and clean out the drain holes. Actually really easy to access the drain holes under the cab roof but I did find back here it was waterlogged and I struggled to find any blockages. I can only imagine a really heavy rainfall caused it.

IMG_2980.jpg


IMG_2997.jpg


This is the passenger side above the rear wheel arch...where i found it soaking wet!

F6_DA7720_3_F50_45_C8_8_EFA_AA7_A6_A477_C9_F.jpg


Once I'd dealt with the water problem I moved onto taking out the rear shocks. Undoing everything here was pretty straight forward and the shocks came out really easily but I underestimated how much effort was involved in getting the new ones in. I'd love to know what the correct way is but I found this to be a two man job.

Luckily @monster came to the rescue...whilst I stood on the wheel hub and pulled my full weight down he was able to knock the shock into place.

The rears weren't in too bad of a condition

IMG_2998.jpg


Once we knew what we were doing with the first shock, the second one was done in about 20 min!

Frustratingly packed up after the first day and found one washer left over! :frustrated: :frustrated:

IMG_3004.jpg


Luckily this went on the top of the rear mount so i was able to leave it all in the car and just undo the top nut, pop it on and do it up again! If it had been the washer on the bottom the whole thing would have had to come out.

My dad came along on day 2 to help with the front's which were a little harder...one side came out really easily but the drivers side took a real beating to get bolt out that holds the strut into the wheel carrier.
Once it was out it was a doddle to put back together.

Fronts had seen better days
IMG_3012.jpg


When I took the top mount off the bearing basically just disintegrated in my hands as you can see here..
IMG_3007.jpg


Anti-roll bars again only took about an hour in total to change the lot but a really easy job. Even if you were to just change the bushes its a simple task.

At the end of it the car looked a little something like this...and I now had a flat battery!

A44_D0316_CBA1_4_B17_A1_DC_53422_C7_A0_DE0.jpg


I couldn't get any power to be able to put the roof down, do up the windows or lock the car. I was able to get enough power to pop the frunk open though.
tried jump starting and got nothing! Called the RAC at 7pm who said they'll turn up at 8:30 but at 9:30 I'm sat in a 45 min queue to get through to someone.

IMG_3005.jpg


Cut a long story short...the RAC turned up at 3AM!!!! So i had been sat up on the Friday night on guard duty watching over my completely exposed pride and joy! Rain was expected at 2am but eventually fell at 4am thankfully!

Told the RAC not to bother starting the car for the sake of the neighbours but just get enough power in so I can lock her up...ended up with a new battery the following day as there was enough power to unlock the car and pop the frunk and then it died again.

I've now done over 100 miles on the new suspension and it has made a world of difference. everything feels so much sharper and more controlled. Need to get the geo sorted now but it was a job well worth doing that I really enjoyed.

If anyone wants any help doing the same thing or has any questions on it I'd be happy to help
:thumb:
 
Leon
Great write up. I admire you guys who really get stuck into proper mechanical work like you've done. I wish I had the knowledge and courage to do what you've done.
The best part I'm sure is when you can feel the difference to the ride of the car.
Job well do e mate :thumb:
 
Double post
 
Hi Leon,
I'll be following your lead later this year but I'm off to the OPC today to get the remaining parts for fitting cruise control as per your guide.

Now the sunshine's finally arrived I have a few jobs outstanding, LTT is on this week's list too.

Mike
 
Nice one!!!
 
Another great how to write up Leon mate.glad the cars better I know you were getting worried about the knocks and bangs etc. :thumb:
 
Thanks chaps! :thumbs:

LTT is a good mod to do Maldren, if you need any help with the suspension or have any questions just drop me a PM.

Found the guide on pelican parts semi helpful...was the only real guide I could find online but it misses some fundamental steps and isn't very clear on how to access the rear mounts especially on a cab...so had to figure that part out myself.

May give monster a hand doing his at some point so I'll have elements from a coupe and a cab, a 996 and a 997 so May put a bit of a guide together for that
 
Nice pics Leon mate.

Must have been nerve racking waiting for the RAC with the forecast of rain especially after drying out the footwell :eek:

Nice result tho bud, always a satisfying feeling having that first run-out
:thumb:
 
:grin:

We've all been there Leon. It's the only way to learn.

Kudos for sticking at it and it's rewarding once it's all done and you know you did it yourself.

Nice one! :thumb:
 
Good job! :thumb:

You really need to get the Paragon "101 Projects" book now; it will really help you to do more of this good stuff.
 
Nice job, well done, but maybe you should also be buying a set of jump leads and/or a battery charger
 
chicb said:
Nice job, well done, but maybe you should also be buying a set of jump leads and/or a battery charger

Yeah I did have a set of cables but for whatever reason couldn't get enough charge through them. Had it hooked up to the disco for about 30-40 min without any luck! Dodgy cables I put it down to so replaced them now
 
EGTE said:
Good job! :thumb:

You really need to get the Paragon "101 Projects" book now; it will really help you to do more of this good stuff.

Is that the one by Wayne from pelican parts? Will check out the paragon one if it's different...thanks :thumb:
 
Excellent load of work to have done yourself. As a recent convert to doing a few little jobs myself I can only admire your skills! Not sure I'd be brave enough to tackle that... wouldn't mind doing the shocks though.
 

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