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Suspension Refresh with MO30 kit

Steve Gom

Monza
Joined
4 May 2015
Messages
215
Following feedback from my Indy after my recent service on the 996 I've decided to refresh the suspension with an MO30 kit and a visit to Center Gravity for a Geo. Car's mileage is now 102,500.

I don't believe I'll use the car on the track much but do like to enjoy the car to it's full potential on the quieter Northumberland roads, where I can and have been fairly impressed with the stock equipment's performance up to this point. The MO30 kit will give a slight ride height drop, but 10mm isn't going to make too much difference to the current stance but it should be a bit firmer with a bit more control from the beefier ARBs, without being too harsh on our poorer roads.

Having already replaced all 4 coffin arms and the front top mounts I've come to the conclusion the MO30 kit at £1,000 from my local OPC is pretty good value when you consider the costs of other springs and shocks alone. Yes, an Ohlins set up would be lovely (best upgrade I've ever done on my VFR800) but I think I'll achieve more for my budget with the MO30 kit in association with new rear upper control arms X4, front and rear track rod end outers X4 and ARB drop links X4. The latter parts came from CarParts4 less and FrazerPart for £320.

I've been perusing the excellent Q&A section of the forum and am weighing whether to take a couple of days off work to do the job myself versus giving my local garage £250 (as quoted, as long as nothing untoward crops up) which was half the cost of the labour required by my Indy. It's just a suspension component swap, so not sure if a Porsche Specialist is really necessary, especially as the car will be going to CG for set up.

The Geo visit at CG is not until mid June so I wasn't planning to get things underway until the start of June, but either way this is going be close to a £2,000 job, so I'm hoping it'll be worth it???
:D :D :D
 
Most definitely worth fitting the full M030 kit as supplied by OPC's.
Alas I never get my hands dirty so I usually get CG to replace everything, at least I know it'll be prepared and installed correctly.
 
Might be worth changing a few other bits whilst you are in there - my fromt bumpnstops were shot (only get new rears in the kit) and front top mounts (sachs from Autodoc in Germany - OEM part with number ground off but 1/4 price)

The bearings (according to CG) usually just need a clean and regrease which I did. I had to change 1 collar on the front which goes between the bearing and rubber spring seat - it was rusty and swelling.

The suspension has a few odd metric nuts and bolts not in your usuall range of spanners/sockets. Cannot remember which exactly but be prepared for a dash to halfords.
 
16 and 18mm sockets and spanners will be what you need and not normally in usual sets as mentioned above.
 
I fitted M030 to mine, it's not a hard job but be prepared for some seized components. I ended up removing my front struts and taking them to a local garage to remove/drill out various bolts (upper drop links) and cracked ABS sensors. If you are prepared to do that you will save on labour costs but it may take more than a couple of days overall. Top mounts for a C2 are cheap but most can be cleaned and regreased if there is no wear, rear top mounts should be fine. The M030 kit doesn't come with rear bump stops (IIRC) so you will need to purchase them.

My M030 kit only lowered my car by a couple of mm as the original springs must have sagged, a couple of years later I replaced them with -30mm springs. My car handled much nicer with M030 fitted than with the original suspension.
 
Cheers for the input folks.

The DIY route is looking less favourable as I keep hearing more "it was fine apart from the problem I had with this" and "eventually, after 2 days I had to cut that off"

I'm being told to factor in 2 full days' labour for all the work by my local garage, but 8 hours as the best case scenario, which is approx £250. They ve just done this exact same job on a 2005 80k mile 997 for the owner of the garage and got it done in a day, but you just don't know what's in store when you start stripping bits off.

I do like working on the car but I'd be miffed if I got stuck part way through the job due to an issue I couldn't overcome with the car on stands and half the running gear replaced and the rest refusing to surrender!!
 
Hi Steve,

We use the same Indy and my 996.2 had the M030 kit fitted from Porsche Teesside 500 miles before I got the car. If you want to see what it's like then give me a shout as I'm NE3, just off the A1.
 
My 996 has MO30 from new now has 109k miles and I had the full alignment at CG a couple of months ago. Set up is, of course, great and the MO30 was judged as fine and no leaks etc. They did ask whether I thought it too firm (nope - just right) so recommended I replace it with the same when the time comes, good value. Rural Lincolnshire has similar roads to Northumberland.
So, I bought a kit "for stock".. Having looked at it I'll be paying my local Indie to fit it and then CG for alignment when the time comes. It is very much "in bits" and I don't have the spring compressors etc. Having said that, it is just a box of components!
 
@toobusy- interesting- did CG test the shock absorbers on their rig? Internet wisdom would have us believe shocks are dead by 100k miles...
 
infrasilver said:
Robertb said:
@toobusy- interesting- did CG test the shock absorbers on their rig? Internet wisdom would have us believe shocks are dead by 100k miles...

CG checked mine at around 100k miles and they were still fine, I eventually changed them for new around 110k but they didn't really need to be.

Hi Chris!

RobertB - Yes they did. I had the full Porsche clinic check in January and they said that apart from some sag in the springs they were ok. They did recommend some other replacements such as a top mount and coffin arms (which I had done locally) but that was all.
I usually plan for one "upgrade" each year and so M030 will probably be fitted next year. Deep sump this year....
 
Mine was still on original shocks at 170k miles. It still drive ok.
 
Cheers Eldavo I did test drive an early 996 with MO30 suspension and wouldn't say it was much different to mine. Unfortunately I didn't get to test drive that car the way I've learned how to drive mine, so hard to make a proper comparison.
The ride in my car is pretty good but I'm just trying to update/refresh things to continually improve the driving experience.

Too busy - love the roads around NE Lincs, I used to live in Cleethorpes!
Chris from CG has been really helpful so far and I'm hoping once the new suspension components have been fitted I'll be able get the car dialled into how I like things but I'm going to try some trips over roads I'm familiar with to get a feel for the 'new and better' suspension before I get to CG for some fine tuning and improved set up.
 
Collecting car tonight :) :) :)
 

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