986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post - Need help diagnosing suspension clunk and steering wobble

Steve Tinker · 03-10-2016, 02:26 PM

Gordon, I'm afraid that you are going to have to face he fact that your suspension is worn out @ 230,000km. Its going to be an expensive exercise no matter what you do - shocks, shock bearings, coffin arms, trailing / control arms, drop links, steering rods etc etc. Probably $3000 in parts if you do the work yourself, plus a 4 wheel alignment.

The rattles, clunking, squeaking and steering wobbles are being created not by one worn component, but a combination of wear in all the multilink bushes and ball joints. Pushing, pulling, tapping with rubber mallets while the suspension is either loaded or hanging makes not the slightest difference to detecting the wear - believe me, I spent 3 months chasing down a single worn control arm bush which knocked only over corrugations. I finished up replacing ALL of the front suspension @ only 75,000km.
You are entering the expensive end of owning an old, high mileage Porsche - replacing "ad hoc" only parts of the suspension is not going to fix your problems....

03-10-2016, 02:26 PM	#10
Steve Tinker Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Queensland, Australia Posts: 1,522	Gordon, I'm afraid that you are going to have to face he fact that your suspension is worn out @ 230,000km. Its going to be an expensive exercise no matter what you do - shocks, shock bearings, coffin arms, trailing / control arms, drop links, steering rods etc etc. Probably $3000 in parts if you do the work yourself, plus a 4 wheel alignment. The rattles, clunking, squeaking and steering wobbles are being created not by one worn component, but a combination of wear in all the multilink bushes and ball joints. Pushing, pulling, tapping with rubber mallets while the suspension is either loaded or hanging makes not the slightest difference to detecting the wear - believe me, I spent 3 months chasing down a single worn control arm bush which knocked only over corrugations. I finished up replacing ALL of the front suspension @ only 75,000km. You are entering the expensive end of owning an old, high mileage Porsche - replacing "ad hoc" only parts of the suspension is not going to fix your problems.... __________________ 2001 Boxster S (triple black). Sleeping easier with LN Engineering/Flat 6 IMS upgrade, low temp thermostat & underspeed pulley. 2001 MV Agusta F4.