you can get to them but not easily with an "L" shaped hex wrench. If you grind a little off the short side it's a little easier. The guy who did my alignment was cursing like a sailor the whole time but he was able to get it all dialed in perfectly.

Great old thread, I just read the whole thing. What is the max front camber possible with the k sports set at the maximum position? Can I get at least 3° without gt3 lower control arms?

OK Ksport fans.

I think my coilover top mounts or worn bushings are creaking/rattling on our crappy Houston roads. Anyone else with a couple of years on their Ksports experience this? If so, what was the cause?

This is driving me crazy and I don't want to disassemble my entire suspension on a witch hunt...

Hey Randall-

My Ksports are still going strong. I have had to replace a couple of the hydraulic pistons but they are pretty cheap and not too difficult to do with an impact wrench. Make sure that you haven't blown a seal they'll make a racket when you hit a bump if they have.The pillow ball mounts are still in great shape and I average about 4 DE's per year and those are pretty tough on them. Plus the Ohio roads gotta be worse than whatever you have in Houston.

I get some creaking from the springs but I don't think there is much you can do about that. I replaced the nylon washers and that did help a bit but I will still get an occasional pop on a combo incline/extreme turn like when pulling in my driveway. If you have lowered it take into account that will stress the hydraulics quite a bit more. Less piston travel and more pressure. Replacement parts are pretty cheap though and the guys at Ksport on Phoenix are very helpful. I would recommend that you give them a call and discuss the problems you are having, I'm sure that they can help you pinpoint it. If it's a loud "thunk" when you hit a bump or dip the piston is probably bottoming out and will need to be replaced. I think new ones are about $100.00 each. They have redesigned them and the newer black ones are much better than the ones I originally got.

Happy New Year Randall

Edit-
I forgot to mention that you might want to check your lower control arms as well. I just replaced mine with the Vertex rebuilt ones. Very happy with them and they have replaceable ball joints. I also did all the sway bar links. Best price was on Amazon. That surprised me.

Lee,
I'm at -3.4 up front and -3.2 rear. The rears are about maxed out, but the fronts could go a lot farther.

quick question - you folks getting an adequate track alignment on a lowered csr with these things without using adjustable rear toe control arms? thanks.

Your answer depends on ride height :)

Sounds like I can avoid buying GT3 lower control arms this autoX season. Thanks

I dont plan to go very low at all, maybe 1/2"-3/4" lower than stock. I prefer to sacrifice the benefits of a lower ride height for tires that stick out of the fenders, in this case, 275s on 17X9s on all four corners (Im running old cup1 rims).

It looks like the installation PDFs Insite attached back in 2008 have disappeared.
Does anyone have copies that they can re-post?

I did have to get adjustable rear toe control arms. The front worked out fine. I'm about 1.5" lower than stock, riding on 275 35 18 rear and 245 35 18 front NT01 tires. The car was aligned using Smart Strings with zero toe up front and maybe 1 mm total toe in the rear. Have a look at my solution for front adjustability...
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1388771342.jpg
I should probably be concerned with how OK I am with using a die grinder on my car, but I'm not.:)

Hahaha, you're nuts! :cheers: I did the same thing on a friends VW MKV GTI, it looks like the only way to adjust camber.

Got this response from Ksport about my rattle/clunk when I asked how to best troubleshoot the source of the noise.

The boxster has a pillowball upper mount on front and back. The biggest chance for noise would come from the pillowball center bearing, a loose camber adjustment bolt, or sticking spring sliders. Look at your springs and see if they are covered in junk or crusty grease or dirt. Take them out and see if the pillowball top hat moves easily or is really firm to rotate and move around.

I should probably be concerned with how OK I am with using a die grinder on my car, but I'm not.:)[/QUOTE]

+1!:cheers:

how do i upload a PDF? i only see gif/jpg option. i will repost the files if someone can tell me how. i think we had a mod do it before?

Any cost in rigidity here?

just picked up an S for my drive to the track car.

Looking for economical improvements without getting too radical.

thx,

Mike

Greetings everybody who knows me. I've been back in Finland since fall 09 and got a update on this posting. No Porsche nowadays, but I'm working on it :)

Take care buddies!

from somebody who looks for a new used 986S :cheers:

Tower integrity did not change from the cuts. The KSport hat is a pretty thick piece of aluminum, and all of the stress is distributed away from the cuts.

I contacted K-sport and they refused to give me a 5.3 spring.


"Regarding spring rates, they advised that a 5.3kg up front isn't doable as they don't offer any springs in this design with that rate. "

"They did mention that is only a very small difference from the 6kg that the kit comes with. Regarding the rear, they said they could do the 7.5kg rather than the 8.7 if you'd like. They did warn that the warranty on the struts portion of the coilovers would be voided due to this. They advised that they spring rates offered on this kit were chosen for a specific reason and that by going softer on the spring rate, you do risk possibly damaging the struts that are included. If you'd like to proceed, it is an extra $12 per corner to change to a different spring rate. "


Should I go with 6kg front and 7.5kg rear? and void the warranty or go with the 8.7 rear?

i don't want the ride so rough that my teeth gets rattled out or destroy my wheels.

I'm not so sure. Round holes are much more structually efficient than square due to stress concentrations at the corners of square holes, not to mention the corresponding reduction in material. Bolt holes should have a minimum of 1.5 times bolt diameter to edge distance for similar reasons. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for owner inspired redesign, I've drilled holes in my intermediate shaft, but the modification should take into account engineering principles. So +1 on stepping out and making the mod. Just the same, the big square hole with the limited bolt hole to edge dimension is outside my comfort zone. I do give seningen props for making the mod. I hope it works well.

Question, I just got a set of Ksports from Ebay.

I dont plan to lower my car much, maybe 0.5". Can I max out the camber in the rear without needing adjustable toe control arms?

I had to go with adjustable toe arms, but I also went 1.5" or so lower.

No props to me - I grabbed the photo from the forums.
A set of camber plates "fell into my lap" -- so that is the route I will be going :-)

Good comments on the square vs round too.

Mike

All I can offer is my experience. I cut those squares about three years ago. Our AX lot is far from smooth... On Saturday we had to alter the course because a pothole opened up. All that debris on top of the strut came from that event. Nevertheless, after all of the abuse, no cracks. Like I said before, though, I should probably be concerned with how OK I am with using a die grinder on my car, but I'm not. Roll on, little race car!
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1395742526.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1395742551.jpg

instead of cutting out large pieces like the photos above, i drilled a row of holes over the fasteners. this allows me to change the settings but still leaves the structure largely in tact.

to the guy wanting to lower his car by 1/2" - you will have no problems. no correction arms required.

Thanks guys. Im running wide wheels with the wrong offset... so I cant exactly go too low.

Hello, I just bought a set of kSport coil overs and wanted to know if the instructions that onsite posted is still available? Thanks

Here are the guides I used:
Boxster Hacks and Instructions

Changing struts/shocks on a Porsche Boxster - YouTube

For the rear, I marked the eccentric bolts with a sharpie & un-bolted the pickup points at the chasis, which was pretty easy. Bolting it back up, I got the sharpie marks as close as possible and drove straight to an alignment shop.

A couple tips with the k-sports -
* Measure the base to bottom collar distance and set it equally on each. Start high, as the first strut I installed was set to 'slammed'
* Make sure the camber plate bolts are TIGHT. Mine were not.
* I used the out-of-the-box camber plate settings and set the strut top bolts all the way inboard, which was a good starting point & required little adjustment during alignment to get me to 2* of front camber.

Thanks for the tips and link,

Can someone clarify by these photo's on what is the best setting before installing them.
Also, is the factory ball pivot settings pre adjusted?

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1406916421.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1406916452.jpg

For the rear, make sure you choose the adjustment closest to the center of the car.

As for the front, you need to cut the strut towers open, like J.fro and I have...there are way too many variables to give you a cut and dry answer. All I can tell you is that it needs to be completely accessible for your wheel alignment techhttp://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1406928766.jpg

in my case there was absolutely no need to cut any bodywork. first, however, you need to know what alignment setting you are going for. I was looking for max front camber, which with these struts is -2 in the front and achieved with the mounts fully inboard.

I was able to achieve -1.5 in the rear in the middle setting WITH adjustable rear toe control arms. uncertain what the rear setting would be without the added adjustability at the rear. ride height also plays a role.

there is a tool that comes with the coilovers for adjusting the shock settings (a really long thin allan key). it is difficult to get it in to adjust the shocks once installed. if you pull the plastic end off and bend the end of the key you can get it in and out, however.

During install on the rear struts, put the adjustment key/knob Radium is talking about and leave it in place. You cannot get it in after they're installed.

Btw, they rattle a bit in place so put a piece of duct tape over them after you set them. They still remain adjustable.

"Thank you" everyone for all the help and advise. I've completed this install today.

During reassembly of the passenger rear axle I noticed grease was all over the bolt holes and surrounding connection points. (attached photo) Can someone confirm if this is normal or if I have to now purchase a cv joint replacement kit.

One thing I might add. I've started the car and move it to "D" and now when I put it in park it makes a grinding sound. :(

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1409522560.jpg

KSport... not a good experience
 

My two cents...
KSport shocks are NOT worth the time or money. I got 8 months on them before one of them crapped out. Strictly road driving, too! What's more, after having them installed, the car never felt predictable or comfortable. Way too much rebound. My mechanic was not impressed either; "Something not right with those" was his description.

Eight months on the car, and I came out to a puddle of fluid and a blown shock. No hard driving, honestly! The overnight temperatures were around 10 degrees, so my guess is there things were never designed for cold temperatures. Very poor design, very poor engineering - whatever, I am not a fan.

Called the company I bought them from, and they were happy to get that shock replaced. (Also said these shocks should last 3 to 4 years... Shouldn't a shock last longer then that?) To their merit, sounds like KSport would warranty them for 1 year. But would you go to the expense to install along with the downtime to remove, ship back and forth, and reinstall? And then expect the same to happen to another one... Not me. Take my loss, and going with PSS10, or something like that.

Spend a little extra, get something with real quality.

FWIW, So far I have been pretty underwhelmed by k-sport equipped Boxsters on the race track. Maybe it was just their setup or alignment settings but they just never felt solid and planted like the M030 and PSS9 cars. One of the reasons owners choose K-sport is low cost so maybe they are reluctant to spend another $600 getting them really set-up and dialed in, corner balanced and aligned. If you are going to use them, I suggest working with an experienced shop to make sure you get the most out of them.

I put the street/track version in my car halfway through this past summer and have no issues so far. installed, aligned (-2 front, -1.5 rear camber) and corner balanced by the local race shop, and gt3 front sway/tarett rear sway, pedro bar, front and rear strut braces and topspeed rear toe arms done at the same time. lowered over 1". I run it at 2 clicks from full hard (and getting the tool in is not such a big deal).

fine on the street and solid on the track (3 track days and about 5k kms since install). I have nothing to compare it to, however, and not enough time to comment on longevity. otherwise, with the lowering, some of the tolerances in the back are pretty tight. and bump steer is now an issue (this is not the fault of ksport, but rather a symptom of the new geometry).

less $ than pss9? sure. AND, the built-in camber plate on the front struts allows you to get an aggressive alignment without having to cough-up an additional $500 for camber plates or $750 for adjustable front control arms. more vendors should figure that out.

my street car is pretty much built, and now i'm working on the race car - will I use ksport again? dunno.

Well boys, I am going back to stock. I've had my K Sports for what, 4 years? They're amazing at the track, btw. No body roll to speak of.

One of the rear units needs work. It's allowing my subframe to whack my driveshaft and something's not right with it. I only experience this when I go over speed humps or hit potholes, but it needs to be addressed. Must be the shock itself that's gone out.

I'm on the hunt for a good used set of factory struts and springs for a base 97-99 boxster if anyone has them lying around their garage after upgrading to Ksports.

And yes, I'll be happy to sell my K Sports to someone who might want to repair the one that needs work and save some money.

Im pretty happy with my Ksports. No blown shocks so far... and I autoX every weekend possible. If I did have a complaint, it would be the spring rates, which I feel are astronomically high in the rear. I ended up disconnecting the rear sway bar to dial out some oversteer. But again, that could be because im running a square setup.

I wouldnt mind going down 50lbs per inch front and rear.

Some of you guys are crazy, expecting performance you can only get from a $5000 system with remote resevoirs out of a $1400 set of coilovers.

And as The Radium King already mentioned, it comes with camber plates for that price... what a great deal.

OK Ksport Kontrol Fans...

I am taking a set of lightly used Ksports off my boxster to sell. They were on the car for four years and 5 DE's in green and blue and about 6k miles in total.

I took someone's excellent advice here and swapped out the factory issued springs for better spring rates for the track, which I cannot remember for the life of me so don't ask.

Just saw a new set on eBay for $1,450... What do you think this set is worth?

I'll back out anything I find on them that needs replacement after removal. I'm looking for what I should sell them for used if they're all in good shape. Ideas?

Here is the most excellent installation guide by insite, thank you!

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=87DEE47565AEC1EA!6808&authkey=!APAOaRS GAdVXA1E&ithint=file%2czip

If the link doesn't work, holler at me, I am sharing it from my One Drive.

Thanks,

Steve

For the two documents that show a picture of the top plates:

Fronts:

Backs: