Suspension questions

[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.