Just had may car completely rebuilt at CG.
Having ridden in Dammit's car, I decided to replace the M030 kit with Ohlins and since I was going to that trouble, I thought I would replace all the wearing parts, happeth of tar and all that.
CG advised that drop arms are easy and cheap to replace later if required and rear dog bones are expensive and rarely fail (although they do fail on Turbos) so I didn't get them.
Even though everything was being replaced, Pete started with a drive assessment and geometry check. He immediately picked up on the slight pull to the left (which I knew about) and the various rattles which he attributed to wear in various components, particularly tuning fork ball joints which apparently can't be felt in place but have a characteristic rattle.
Pete was pretty quick as dismantling everything, they've done loads before and it shows. The track rod ends were a bit tight and notchy and the fork ball joints were worn, exactly as picked up on the drive. One of the rear links was also a bit bent so that explained the bad geo on one side. The front drop arms did need replacing, ECP delivered. The rear roll bar bushes that I had been supplied were the wrong size, 26mm rather 25mm, we ordered ECP replacements but they delivered 24mm. The originals were ok so that's a job for another day.
My car came apart really easily, at 96k it's still very good underneath, the only tight part was one of the rear anti roll bar bush bolt which sheared, Pete drilled it out and cleaned up the thread.
The old dampers were not too bad and the front top bearings and mounts were ok but I had new parts. Pete quickly built up the Ohlins, he knew what settings to use to get the ride height and also had spare rubber spring seats that Ohlins don't supply. There are various awkward nuts and bolts etc and Pete knew exactly what sequence to do everything. He also had the special offset angled torque wrench to tighten the eccentric bolts and a home made deep socket to do the inner track rods (apparently Porsche take the rack off!)
They are meticulous, lots of care, all new lock nuts and copious ally grease (they think coppaslip is not a good idea with ally/steel interfaces) so that it will come apart in future if ever required. The whole lot is finally sprayed with Wurth wax, apart from general corrosion preventation, Chris recons this helps preserve the coffin arms by stopping corrosion delaminating the rubber parts.
So how do I want it all set up? Well for me, it's standard mixed road driving, no track days. I was happy with the ride height that I had (worn M030) so we settled on X71 which is very similar. We also decided to stick to the standard Ohlins springs rather than going for the softer 'S class' ride that Steve Bennett of 911&Porsche World went for. With the dampers on 13 clicks (out of 30) from fully hard, the handling is superb and the ride is much improved. All the rattles have gone.
Having done a couple of hundred miles since, I'm delighted, just need to sort out all the trim noises that are more obvious now!
Photos to follow when I get home on Sunday and download from my camera.
Mike
Having ridden in Dammit's car, I decided to replace the M030 kit with Ohlins and since I was going to that trouble, I thought I would replace all the wearing parts, happeth of tar and all that.
CG advised that drop arms are easy and cheap to replace later if required and rear dog bones are expensive and rarely fail (although they do fail on Turbos) so I didn't get them.
Even though everything was being replaced, Pete started with a drive assessment and geometry check. He immediately picked up on the slight pull to the left (which I knew about) and the various rattles which he attributed to wear in various components, particularly tuning fork ball joints which apparently can't be felt in place but have a characteristic rattle.
Pete was pretty quick as dismantling everything, they've done loads before and it shows. The track rod ends were a bit tight and notchy and the fork ball joints were worn, exactly as picked up on the drive. One of the rear links was also a bit bent so that explained the bad geo on one side. The front drop arms did need replacing, ECP delivered. The rear roll bar bushes that I had been supplied were the wrong size, 26mm rather 25mm, we ordered ECP replacements but they delivered 24mm. The originals were ok so that's a job for another day.
My car came apart really easily, at 96k it's still very good underneath, the only tight part was one of the rear anti roll bar bush bolt which sheared, Pete drilled it out and cleaned up the thread.
The old dampers were not too bad and the front top bearings and mounts were ok but I had new parts. Pete quickly built up the Ohlins, he knew what settings to use to get the ride height and also had spare rubber spring seats that Ohlins don't supply. There are various awkward nuts and bolts etc and Pete knew exactly what sequence to do everything. He also had the special offset angled torque wrench to tighten the eccentric bolts and a home made deep socket to do the inner track rods (apparently Porsche take the rack off!)
They are meticulous, lots of care, all new lock nuts and copious ally grease (they think coppaslip is not a good idea with ally/steel interfaces) so that it will come apart in future if ever required. The whole lot is finally sprayed with Wurth wax, apart from general corrosion preventation, Chris recons this helps preserve the coffin arms by stopping corrosion delaminating the rubber parts.
So how do I want it all set up? Well for me, it's standard mixed road driving, no track days. I was happy with the ride height that I had (worn M030) so we settled on X71 which is very similar. We also decided to stick to the standard Ohlins springs rather than going for the softer 'S class' ride that Steve Bennett of 911&Porsche World went for. With the dampers on 13 clicks (out of 30) from fully hard, the handling is superb and the ride is much improved. All the rattles have gone.
Having done a couple of hundred miles since, I'm delighted, just need to sort out all the trim noises that are more obvious now!
Photos to follow when I get home on Sunday and download from my camera.
Mike