As the sun threatens to appear, we are inundated with enquiries coming through about refreshing the suspension on the Porsche 996 and 997 (applicable to the 986/987 Boxster and Cayman too). 

This blog will seek to show you in a series of posts, what we work through with clients on a day-to-day basis when asked about a suspension refresh. 

Here’s a little low down on typical questions and decisions we work through initially with folk – and that’s before we even see the car!

WHY? 

Is it because the car is of higher mileage? Is it because you feel like the car is lacking somewhere in the handling? Is it because the car is 20 years old now? Or is it just because you think it’s the right thing to do?

Question number two: What is the car’s mode of use? 

This is important. Lots of folks these days are using their cars as dailies, as well as country road hacks and vehicles to enjoy long holidays over on the continent. 

It is very much a case of each to their own, and we can tailor the options to suit this preferred mode.

Question number three: What do you want? 

In an ideal world, what do you want from your car? It seems like a strange question to ask to most. “I want it to feel like a Porsche” is what I usually get. But it normally goes deeper than this. Often, we need to extricate this (and sometimes there is multiple) wants;

Some typical responses:

“I want the car to feel tighter.”
“I want the car to feel like it’s just come out of the factory.”
“I want the car to feel more composed and confident.”
“I want my wife to get in the car and not moan at me – and if she could drive it, that would be a bonus.”
“I want the car to look different.” 

The list goes on….

Usually the answer is yes, the feeling that something is lacking can be down to suspension (and/or wheels and tyres if we’re going to go further down the rabbit hole). However, it does not necessarily mean that the whole suspension needs to be refreshed to get to this point. 

The beauty of the internet is now we have so much information available to us that we can often get bogged down by the details and often think, well, what is the right option for me and what should I spend my hard-earned money on first?

In an ideal world, we would all refit the original suspension with standard Porsche parts. The reality is, however, with the cost of Porsche parts these days, it is often not even an option for most on a budget. And realistically with some technology (hello 996 M030 suspension) now over 20 years old, there are much more cost efficient and effective suspension solutions that will work over and above the OEM offering of yesteryear. 

We often see Porsche for a ‘suspension refresh’ range in mileage between 30 – 130,000 miles. Yes, if a bush or a ball joint is over 20 years old, it will not be as fresh as a car that has rolled out of the factory – HOWEVER, if it is in good health – why change it? Same basis with the dampers, whilst Porsche give an ‘efficient shelf life’ of 100k miles – they are not going to implode as you click over the magic number on the odometer – if they work well (and we can test them on the car for any that may be curious), why not put effort into improving the handling in other areas? 

For reference, a ‘full’ suspension refresh would include:

Front axle: 

• 2x dampers
• 2x springs
• 2x front top mounts
• 2x front bump stops
• 2x track control arms
• 2x diagonal control arms
• 2x inner rod end
• 2x outer rod end
• 2x front ARB bush
• 2x front ARB drop links
• 1x steering rack (PAS)
• 2x wheel bearings

Rear axle:

• 2x dampers
• 2x springs
• 2x rear top mounts
• 2x rear bump stops
• 2x track control arms
• 2x diagonal control arms
• 4x upper link arms
• 2x toe arms
• 2x rear ARB bush
• 2x rear ARB drop links
• 2x engine mount
• 1x gearbox mount
• 2x wheel bearings

In 20 years of business, we may have done a job or two like this,but no more. I envisage in this day in age that a job of this size would cost anything upwards of £10,000 and beyond – almost asmuch as what you can buy a 996 for! 

That says a lot, I think. More for the car and the way that the suspension wears than anything else! 

So, you’re probably asking yourself, why are you giving me this shopping list if it’s not actually relevant? Mainly so that you can see what an actual suspension refresh looks like before we delve any further. 

Psstttttt…. for a little more info – see here for a downloadable pdf given to PCGB member way back in 2020 to keep you going until Part II!

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