Best suspension for Boxster S 2001?
 

Hi!


I bought a boxster S 2001 this april with 76000km, in good condition in general. Although Montreal streets are very bumpy,my mechanic told me my suspenions need to be replaced next year, I agree as the ride quality is very poor and I hear like knocking metal from the rear. I was wondering thats a good replacement suspensions system you guys can recommend and where I can buy it from on the web?

Thanks in advance,
Samy

Unfortunately "best" is completely subjective. Here are some good choices depending on your needs:

Porsche M030- $1000 + install (street & sport)

Bilstein PSS9- $2100 +install & corner balance (adjustable street & sport)

JRZ $4000 + install, corner balance, setup (fully adjustable motorsport)

Penske Motorsport struts ~$20,000 + install, corner balance, setup. (fully tuned, adjustable Grand Am racing)

Budget is 1000/2000tops since - wanna gets mags and a 2 Din DVD, i
Think the M030's will do, any source I should check out for pricing?

Also how do they compare to the original porsche?

M030 is a nice setup for street & track. Sunset usually has the best price in the US:
http://www.****************************************************.com/parts/

The Porsche M030 is the upgraded factory "sport" suspension. This will increase the firmness and performance as as compared to the stock suspension. The front is lowered 10mm and the rear is lowered 20mm as compared to stock. The kit includes new shocks/springs at all four coners along with new front and rear sway bars and new bushings.

If you're happy with the performance of the stock suspension, another option is to just replace the worn shocks with aftermarket OEM-equivalent models, keep the springs and front/rear antisway bars that you have and ask the shop to replace any worn bushings. This would be cheaper than the M030 upgrade.

Think about just replacing your struts with new ones from Porsche or Bilstein HD's. Everything else will lower your car and be less comfortable on bad roads. I like harder suspensions, but they're not for everyone.

The mechanical clunking that you are hearing may be a worn suspension bushing. Very common.

Other way around, the front is lowered more than the rear.

I've got a new set of JIC/Cross adjustable coilovers available, and perhaps may be selling my Ohlins/Eibach setup in the near future if you're interested. I've got a new set of M030 ROW porsche/bilstein struts too.

Although if just a suspension refresh is what you're looking for to alleviate your bumpy roads in your area, perhaps just look into replacing your struts as mentioned above. Probably no need to get a full upgraded suspension setup, unless you're looking to change the driving characteristics too.

Sorry! I guess that dyslexia is my showing. Thanks for the correction. :D

You dont need a new suspension, you need a reinforce hard top with all the falling parts from bridges in Mtl LOL (For those who dont know, its now a running gag about the bad structure condition in Mtl. I'm from Quebec)

Seriously, I have the M030 on my 2000 S. I didnt know when I bought it, I thought I had factory setup. I didnt find the ride harsh or anything. Pretty good setup for not so good road.

wawa

In my opinion, RoW 030 if your car is a daily driver. Don't bother with anything else,unless you track it. The RoW 030 feeling is amazing without dropping the car too much.

I did H & R Springs with the factory shocks and it was the worst decision I ever made,the car was a pain to go up and down driveways....and it was a nightmare getting the car towed. Only once did someone tow the car without scrapping the **************** out of the front.

Yeah, daily driving a low setup gets to be a challenge at times. ROW M030 sounds like a good setup for you if you have a bumpy area like you mentioned (OP).

First off thanks in taking the time to explain everything, I'm a computer tech but in no way know about mechanics..

My garage is very inclined, I'm concerned with clearance .. The bottom of my front bumper is scratched from one end to the other even if I take it easy going in or out of my house, just wondering, is it normal that I need to change suspensions on a car with 80k km?

I'm sold on the M030's I think since many seem to be recommending them, I don't drive my porsche every day, I only take it out on sunny days, so 6k km per summer :D

If you scrape alot now and you don't like it, you probably don't want to lower the car. The RoW suspension lowers the front more than the rear, meaning the front end is more aimed at the ground than if the car was lowered equally at both ends.

People from Cali probably have no clue what you're talking about when you say the roads in Montreal are bad.

I was there in August and my god did I have to watch the road when I drive. Montreal is probably the worst if not one of the worst cities to drive in in the east coast.

I'd question your mechanic for asking you to get a new suspension, unless there's a leaking shock/strut I don't see the point of replacing the whole thing. A lot of times the noise are from worn bushing which can be replaced for fraction of the cost. And if you have to get new suspension I'd reuse the stock springs since you don't want to go any lower as you're already scraping.

Montreal women are beautiful, I just can't stand watching my suspension fall apart there.

5mm spacers
 

I have a set of factory 5mm spacers with bolts. I put 15mm H&R's on.

blair206@hotmail.com

Have the suspension checked out, there are a lot more parts that wear out in addition to the struts. There are strut mounts, control arms, drop links, track arms, etc. If there is wear in these parts, replacing the struts will do nothing to stop the noise you hear.

If these parts are worn out kiss you mags and stereo good bye! This ain't some Corolla suspension we are talking about.

You can easily spend $3500+ if you are having somebody else do the work. The control arms and track arms are not cheap

I was getting pretty competitve lap times at my local autocross on right out of box 986S suspension. When I added R-compound tires (RA-1) it got even better. So I have to wonder if paying a lot more is worth it considering it's just a daily driver. I would definitely NOT recommend going with coil overs (PSS9) on rough roads. The car will start to rattle a lot more and things will start to weaken or break. Assuming all of your mileage was done on those sketchy roads then your mileage is probably more like what you would see in a car with 100K miles on better terrain. I would go with replacing the OEM shocks and re-using your current springs. This runs about $2K with labor in this neck of the woods. Keeping your tires properly inflated also helps to keep the ride smooth. I keep an air-compressor in the trunk that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Finding a gas station with a working air-pump is becoming a chore around here.

Do yourself a favor and listen to my advice: If you're not planning to turn your car into a track car and it will have a lot of street use on bad roads, just replace it with factory struts and upgrade the control arms to the vinyl bushing-based ones from Vertex.

I have coilovers on my car now and the ride is so harsh that the wife won't ride with me and just yesterday, I went 2 miles out of my way to avoid a pot-hole and heaved road I used to drive down without a concern in the world.

after installing the row m030 kit this past summer . my car is to stiff for the crappy roads of the north shore area of Boston . the car handles great but the ride quality on these roads is terrible . it takes the fun out driving trying to avoid all the bad terrain.