Suspension questions

[Karl Nettgen]

How long before suspension gets tired on a boxster? Mine seams a little loose.

Has anybody had experience with these? D2 Racing RS 36 Step Adjustable Coilovers Suspension Porsche Boxter 986 96 04 | eBay

[fatmike]

My suspension was pretty shot @ 60K miles. Definitely worth updating if you plan to keep the car.

I don't know the D2's. But...they spell the car "Boxter" in the subject line, and later in the ad they claim "FITMENT: PORSCHE CARRERA 986 1996-2004". I figure if they did a lot of business with the Boxster, they wouldn't get that kind of stuff so ridiculously wrong.


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[Eric G]

I replaced everything at 90K including struts. Far better to go back to all new at one shot than doing it piece meal and continue chasing gremlins that pop up as they age.

[psquared39]

For what is worth just did my 02 at 80k. RR strut was leaking bad and started pricing around, ended up with a ROW M030 from Suncoast. Added rear adj toe links, all four mounts, drop links and front bearings. Took a week off work and did a ******************** ton of other maintenance items while it was on jacks, actually $4800 total... Amazing transformation. Most surprising experience was just last night, the wife and I were out and she said "haven't driven this forever", so she drove it home. The experience I had in the passenger seat was exceptional. Not having my hands on the wheel you could sense ever minor input she was making, and the ride was......"rough" even in our area on really good roads. Having read many posts about trying to tune down coilovers for street driving, I would have to say this ROW kit is STIFF enough for a DD on the street. Hands on the wheel this new suspension is on rails compared to the old, and the old was exceptional!! Sorry for rambling but I'm just extremely satisfied with the $$$ and time i spent upgrading the car ...

[Johnny Danger]

Originally Posted by Karl Nettgen

How long before suspension gets tired on a boxster? Mine seams a little loose.

Has anybody had experience with these? D2 Racing RS 36 Step Adjustable Coilovers Suspension Porsche Boxter 986 96 04 | eBay

The overall quality and reliability of the D2 coilovers have always been suspect. I would recommend staying with brands that have a proven track record like Bilstein, H&R or the RoW M030 kit.

[Karl Nettgen]

Thanks for all the great input, I'll stay away from the D2 suspension. The car does still handle great it just seems to get a little twitchy on small straight line corrections. Also the rear has a slight sag.. I can't really justify 5G into a 14G car at this point so I guess it's good enough for now or until it gets worse...

[woodsman]

Originally Posted by Karl Nettgen

Thanks for all the great input, I'll stay away from the D2 suspension. The car does still handle great it just seems to get a little twitchy on small straight line corrections. Also the rear has a slight sag.. I can't really justify 5G into a 14G car at this point so I guess it's good enough for now or until it gets worse...

Twitchiness sounds like an alignment problem- having one done is relatively cheap.

[Bmod986]

Well if you do the work yourself and buy the Row M030 ($1,095+shipping) plus the shock mounts (range from $30 to $50 or so). If you add in the lower control arms that are $40 each from FCP, its not to bad. I can vouch for the FCP control arms bought the front ones and it made a huge difference in sharpness and for $40 its not a bad deal at all. I still have to do mine just trying to save up the money. College books aren't cheap.

Hope this gives you a better price perspective.

[thstone]

There is a lot of variability in suspension ageing because of variability in use. With that being said, the stock suspension can need attention as early as 75K miles. By 100K, a lot of parts can be worn. At 125K miles, it definitely needs a refresh. I replaced my suspension at 110K miles (with Bilstein PSS9's) and the stock shocks were toast at that point.

There are quite a few cheap eBay coilover manufacturers. Some people have a good experience, others have horrible experiences. The racing folks will say that they're crap because the shock performance will be fairly poor. But if you're just driving around town with a canyon run every once in awhile, you may not notice (or need) true coilover performance - maybe all you want is to be able to adjust your ride height.

There doesn't seem to be any real consensus on cheap coilovers - for every positive result there is an equal and opposite negative result. Its kind of a situation of taking your chances and hoping for the best.

If you want good performance, reliability, and longevity, then go with a known brand as Johnny Danger recommended. You'll pay more up front but you'll get very good performance and not have to worry about having to replace them in 2 years.

[sb01box]

I just "replaced" shocks on my 01 base boxster with RoW M030 kit from Suncoast. for your "S", it's $1345.
highly recommend that you replace "bearing with housing" PN 996-343-515-05 per 986 parts catalog. Suncoast calls this "front shock mounts. These are two plates with roller bearing nested in it and allows the entire shock/spring assembly to rotate about the shock shaft while carrying the front end weight.
Also there are "adjustment plates" which are rubber "seats" for the top of the coil. They come in two thicknesses; 3mm or 6mm.
I replaced the lower control arms before shock/spring change and that made the 135K mile old car feels solid. the springs/shock/swaybar made the car "flat" minimal side-to-side and very little "dive" under hard braking.

for my car, I replaced
shocks and spring RoW M030
bearing with housing
adjustable plates (used the thicker size)
all rubber pieces (bellows stoppers)
all four shock mounts
all four lower control arms
and then alignment.