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Advice on suspension and brake refresh

elan

Well-known member
Joined
27 Nov 2014
Messages
243
I bought the 996 few months ago after owning the 997 Turbo for a year. The idea was to have a 996 that I could use more regularly without worrying about where I park it etc.

The car has recently had a major service but the suspension and the brakes needs overhauling. I would like to replace shocks and the suspension bushes. Also to get a rebuild kit for the calipers together with discs and pads. I am planning to keep it stock (although lowering it a tad would be good). The car is a 2001 996 C4 3.4 Manual coupe. Any advice on the parts and the best places to get these from please?
 
I have used Bigg Red for caliper refurbs in the past on a couple of cars. Great service and a price so reasonable it wasn't worth bothering looking at doing them myself. I used Gert at Carnewal for the M030 kit on my 996. I tend to use ECP for disks and pads.

MC
 
MO30 and H&R springs have been great on mine with a fast road set up on the geo. All undertaken and lovingly cared for by the Gents at Autofarm.

MrB
 
Thanks for your advice guys. M030 suspension sounds good. I think I also need the coffin arms. Should I stick to certain brand for this and the brake pads/discs?
 
I went with Brembo pads from ECP, they were good value and they have performed well, they feel similar to the Pagid pads I removed. For road use, I suspect any reputable manufacturer are fine.

There seem to be 3 options for coffin arms and I'm interested in peoples views as mine will need replacing soon: OE, Meyle and Prekom (as sold by Hartech). There are arms on Ebay but It's not always clear what they are!
The OE arms are very expensive so it's an important decision. Some on here have raised concerns about Meyle arms in the past, are they ok now? The Prekom arms seem to have good reputation.

My car has M030 suspension, I'm looking to refresh it soon but I'm considering alternative dampers, it's one area of technology that has improved significantly in recent years and I believe it's a major reason why newer cars ride so well - the handling's fine on my car for road use but I would like to improve the ride. However my car is 14 years old and I'm sure new standard dampers would improve things.
 
If anybody is considering recon standard arms and wants a set of used arms to have refurbed, I have a full set on eBay at the moment, starting at £10.

MC
 
You'll struggle to get hold of an M030 kit now, seem to be out of stock at the bargain kit price.

Assuming a standard C2 then stock shocks are Bilstein B4 which are available aftermarket.

Some ideas for you:

Bilstein B6 shocks, an upgrade over stock £944
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371669028045

Koni Sport adjustable dampers £807
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302213522145

Koni Sport kit adjustable dampers with 30mm lowering springs £983
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292017611585

Also worth contacting http://www.carnewal.com/Suspension#P96 but I think the prices may be out of date.

Brakes - similar Brembo calipers are used on lots of cars, the rebuild seal kits are fairly commonly available.

Check for corrosion on your brake pipes that run in front of steering rack and in front of engine as they often get missed.

Oh and check your steering rack hard pipes on the rack for corrosion before you get your alignment - mine were corroded and leaked. £37 https://tinyurl.com/y9vl9q3s

I used Pagid flexis from carparts4less (find your part on eurocarparts, then copy and paste the code into carparts4less for a reduced price).
 
Thank Wasz,
has anyone here tried Koni or Bilstein B6 and got any comments on the ride quality?

I've heard the ride quality from Ohlins is good but they are very expensive!
 
Eurocarparts are a genuine 35% off till later tonight. Not sure how that compares with others.

I have Bilstein B8 dampers together with H&R 30mm lowered springs. The B8's are a shortened version of the B6 to cater for the lower springs. They are a monotube damper as opposed to the Mo30 kit which use the B4 twintube front design and monotube rears.

Its hard to offer comparative feedback, as these are the only damper I've tried on this car with these springs but:

The low speed ride is definitely firm. They do round off the shock of the bumps and potholes, so are not crashy like the car was on worn out Mo30 dampers I had fitted before these. As the car picks up speed it smooths out a fair bit and provides a great controlled movement of the suspension. A feeling that the wheel is following the road as opposed to skipping over the rough patches. Ride get better as speed increases.

As an aside, all the suspension arms were replaced with Meyle coffin arms and CTE diagonal lower arms. No issues with either. Though to note, the Meyle arms are 300 grams heavier than the Porsche standard items at 1.5 kg versus 1.2 kg.

I went with Bilstein B8's after considering both the Ohlins and Bilstein PSS10 fully adjustable's. In the end I couldn't justify the extra purchase and set up cost when I will probably only ever trackday it a couple of times.

A good geo make a massive difference to the feel of the car. ie Turn in, and cornering behaviour.

Brakes, I run Textar pads and really like them. They have a bit more initial "Bite" than the brembo's I tried, otherwise prob not much in it.

Hope this help's. All the above only my inexpert opinion. :)

Good luck with it, Cheers
 
Many thanks James, that was the sort of input I was looking for (my car has ageing M030 too).

Anyone tried anything else?
 
Any recommendations between Pagid and Brembo for the brake pads and discs?
 

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