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Thoughts on OE Match for coffin arms?

midnightblue997

midnightblue997

New member
Joined
12 Jan 2025
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9
Apologies if this has been asked before, but I'm looking to install various suspension bits: front control/coffin arms and rear coffin arms. I spoke with CG who recommended sticking with OE for top mounts, but that aftermarket arms should be fine.

However, I can't seem to find posts regarding Design911's OE Match Classic suspension parts. Any thoughts on how they compare to other aftermarket suppliers such as Meyle, CTE, etc? (Forum searches indicates that TRW is OE supplier, but can't seem to find those available at Design911 or autodoc). Thanks for your help!
 
If you're talking to CG, hand over you car, keys, credit card and leave them to it. They did the coffin arms kn my old 997.2, wheeled out a Porsche and aftermarket coffin arm. Showed me where they ground off the Porsche badge and put into aftermarket box.
Remember, your buying an outcome, not parts with those guys. 10/10
 
FZP said:
If you're talking to CG, hand over you car, keys, credit card and leave them to it. They did the coffin arms kn my old 997.2, wheeled out a Porsche and aftermarket coffin arm. Showed me where they ground off the Porsche badge and put into aftermarket box.
Remember, you’re buying an outcome, not parts with those guys. 10/10
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, due to logistics and their schedule, they’re unlikely to fit me in before a road trip. Planning on going to them for proper geometry work.
 
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CG did a complete suspension refresh on my 997.2 Carrera S in Nov 2024. OE top mounts, Eibach Pro springs, Meyle suspension arms and tie rods. Meyle arms are good quality and CG recommend them; however, we were hit with a bad batch of front coffin arms from Meyle, CTE, Optimal. In the end CG replaced the bad Meyle front coffin arms with the OE Match arms from Design 911.

The full story of my suspension refresh is documented in this thread. HTH

Neven

Thread 'Opinions please: Full or partial suspension refresh'

My car was assessed by Center Gravity recently and the following components were noted by Pete as requiring renewal/replacement:

  1. Front top mounts
  2. Tie rod ends
  3. Front diagonal control arms
  4. Rear top mounts
  5. Rear track control arms (coffin arms)
  6. Rear diagonal control arms
Basically all the items I've marked in RED in the diagrams below.
I'm also replacing the factory springs with Eibach Pro lowered springs. Finally, once all that has been done, I'll be having a fast road geo setup.

Front Suspension.png

Steering.png


Rear Suspension.png

I'm interested in hearing your opinions on...
 
Neven said:
CG did a complete suspension refresh on my 997.2 Carrera S in Nov 2024. OE top mounts, Eibach Pro springs, Meyle suspension arms and tie rods. Meyle arms are good quality and CG recommend them; however, we were hit with a bad batch of front coffin arms from Meyle, CTE, Optimal. In the end CG replaced the bad Meyle front coffin arms with the OE Match arms from Design 911.

The full story of my suspension refresh is documented in this thread. HTH

Neven

Thread 'Opinions please: Full or partial suspension refresh'

My car was assessed by Center Gravity recently and the following components were noted by Pete as requiring renewal/replacement:

  1. Front top mounts
  2. Tie rod ends
  3. Front diagonal control arms
  4. Rear top mounts
  5. Rear track control arms (coffin arms)
  6. Rear diagonal control arms
Basically all the items I've marked in RED in the diagrams below.
I'm also replacing the factory springs with Eibach Pro lowered springs. Finally, once all that has been done, I'll be having a fast road geo setup.

Front Suspension.png

Steering.png


Rear Suspension.png

I'm interested in hearing your opinions on...
Click to expand...
Thanks! Will give it a read.
 
It was a few months ago now, but after reading that post from Neven I went with OE Match front arms from Design 911. Fitted them myself over a couple of weekends.
The creaking noise I had in the front end stopped, but didn't feel much better to drive.
I had a quick Geo check at Kwik-Fit which showed it was toe out at front and rear. They adjusted the front, but rear wouldn't budge.
Anyway, I have a couple of other jobs to do before booking into CG to get the geo done properly, but with just the front toe sorted it now drives like a different car entirely.
I am not recommending the Kwik-Fit route, they are probably OK with a 15 year old Fiesta, but clueless on a 911, however if your geo is really bad and need a quick fix they are better than nothing.
I had no issues with the OE Match arms, but getting the old arms out was a huge fight.
 
@Gizmob73 I agree that if your alignment is out (which is very likely after replacing coffin arms), then any competent wheel alignment shop should help the situation. If you do take your car to CG you will see a marked difference again because either Pete or Chris will drive your car, fully assessing every aspect of its handling, ride, etc. It’s their vast knowledge and experience that makes the difference, not really the numbers from their Hunter Hawkeye alignment machine. That’s why you hear folks exclaim things like they transformed my car.

As for the rear suspension on your car not budging. I have a strong suspicion that might be related to stretched eccentric bolts. Pete told me that you can only tighten them a maximum of 4 times before they need replacing as every time you torque them they stretch by design. Once they reach a certain point of fatigue, they won’t hold correct geometry any longer.
 
I think the other issue with the rear eccentric bolts is that they're fitted without anti-seize and they pass through mild steel collars they're bound to seize at some point. I took my car, which has a very clean undercarriage, to CG in Dec 23, and the only parts which had an issue were the eccentric bolts. The arms had to be cut out, using a reciprocating saw, to remove the bolts. A simple dab of virtually any gloop would have stopped them seizing and saved me a small packet.
 
Neven said:
@Gizmob73 I agree that if your alignment is out (which is very likely after replacing coffin arms), then any competent wheel alignment shop should help the situation. If you do take your car to CG you will see a marked difference again because either Pete or Chris will drive your car, fully assessing every aspect of its handling, ride, etc. It’s their vast knowledge and experience that makes the difference, not really the numbers from their Hunter Hawkeye alignment machine. That’s why you hear folks exclaim things like they transformed my car.

As for the rear suspension on your car not budging. I have a strong suspicion that might be related to stretched eccentric bolts. Pete told me that you can only tighten them a maximum of 4 times before they need replacing as every time you torque them they stretch by design. Once they reach a certain point of fatigue, they won’t hold correct geometry any longer.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am planning for a CG visit and expect that I will need the new eccentric bolts which CG can hopefully fit as part of the job. I suspect that the existing bolts are probably corroded on place rather than stretched if they are anything like the bolts on the front. They will probably need cutting out, so I am not going to mess with them as the geo will be really messed up badly if I do that.
 
Gizmob73 said:
It was a few months ago now, but after reading that post from Neven I went with OE Match front arms from Design 911. Fitted them myself over a couple of weekends.
The creaking noise I had in the front end stopped, but didn't feel much better to drive.
I had a quick Geo check at Kwik-Fit which showed it was toe out at front and rear. They adjusted the front, but rear wouldn't budge.
Anyway, I have a couple of other jobs to do before booking into CG to get the geo done properly, but with just the front toe sorted it now drives like a different car entirely.
I am not recommending the Kwik-Fit route, they are probably OK with a 15 year old Fiesta, but clueless on a 911, however if your geo is really bad and need a quick fix they are better than nothing.
I had no issues with the OE Match arms, but getting the old arms out was a huge fight.
Click to expand...

The bolts seize in the rears and need chopping out - no outfit can do anything with the rear set-up unless they're prepared to attempt removing those bolts......which can be a right pain.

My local kwik-fit have been fine setting the geo. I just make sure before I go down that all adjustment points are working. They load up the model on the Hunter hawkeye which gives very clear and visible instructions along with pictures on how to adjust each setting. The lads there always let me get involved and let me into the bay they're working in to watch what and how they are doing stuff.

The bushes in the rear lower arms are aluminium. Unless copper grease has been applied to the bolts, the steel bolt fuses with the aluminium (just like every other steel/aluminium mating faces on the car - manifold bolts being the most infamous) and will very rarely shift. MisterCorn actually but the bush and seized bolt out the rest of a coffin arm to see how many tonnes it would take to press the bolt out the bush. It was some ridiculous figure like 5 tonne.
 
Last edited:
Alex said:
The bolts seize in the rears and need chopping out - no outfit can do anything with the rear set-up unless they're prepared to attempt removing those bolts......which can be a right pain.

My local kwik-fit have been fine setting the geo. I just make sure before I go down that all adjustment points are working. They load up the model on the Hunter hawkeye which gives very clear and visible instructions along with pictures on how to adjust each setting. The lads there always let me get involved and let me into the bay they're working in to watch what and how they are doing stuff.
Click to expand...
Mine were a bit slap dash with a "close enough is good enough" approach but humoured me on getting the toe the same both both fronts
Wheels. The steering was straight before, but wasn't afterwards, although I guess that could be due the the rears both being toe out by different amounts.
They had to use a serious amount of heat on the offside track rod each time they adjusted it. It was glowing red each time.
I figured I'd settle with the steering wheel rather than let them dabble with it any more. It still drives way better now, and it is only short term until I get it done properly.
 
Yeah - the direction of the rears has to match the direction of the fronts (clearly visible on the hawkeye display) otherwise your steering wheel will be at an angle. 1st time I went and the bolts on the rear were seized, they actually showed me this and then set the fronts level with the rears (and not the chassis) so that at least I wasn't driving round with a wonky steering wheel.

Seen here - Total Toe
JeawFpq.jpeg

9wCcv7H.jpeg
 
Centre Gravity everyday of the week if you want something special as Frank has stated above.
 
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