Installing ROW-M030 - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

jacabean · 06-23-2011, 04:07 AM

i would like to install the kit myself . the front looks fairly straight forward but the rear makes me a little nervous with all the disassembly. tips and must replace parts on this project would be great.

brp987 · 06-23-2011, 06:35 AM

I'm about to tackle this myself. From looking at rennsport.org there is something called a compensating ring that needs to be changed out - replace with 986.333.504.02. This piece is 3mm thick vs the 6mm on the rear of the car now. You'll need a spring compressor. I have both the "100 boxster projects" from Pelican and the Bentley manual. The procedure seems less difficult in the Pelican book. All I know at this point.

blue2000s · 06-23-2011, 07:03 AM

Wayne's instructions in Pelican's book and on their site is great. The rear instructions are a little more brief than I'd have liked though.

jacabean · 06-23-2011, 08:04 AM

i have been looking over the pelican directions. they seem to be straight to the point . i picked up a spring compressor and pneumatic impact driver from harbor freight . i will order the comp ring . i did hear mention of that somewhere . i would like that extra 3 mm of drop too.

jacabean · 06-23-2011, 08:24 AM

will you guys be keeping your existing drop links if they are in good condition
?

mmontfort · 06-23-2011, 03:47 PM

Don't take any short cuts and just disconnect everything except the brake lines and it makes it a whole lot easier.

brp987 · 07-18-2011, 07:29 PM

From the front lines...

Calling it a day. This is day 2 in the M030 battle. Currently 3 corners are complete. The remaining rear strut is removed and in mounted in my bench vise ready for tear down.

The first problem was that the ball joint separator I got off amazon needed dremeling to get it wide enough, deep enough, and thin enough to use for a boxster.

The next problem is these "compensating rings" - spacers at the top of the strut. A renntech thread mentioned a 986 part # that is to be used. However, when I finally received them, the part had been superseded by a 987 part that was not 3mm, but 13mm! This in addition to the orange mark on the top of the front row m030 spring which is not of this world as far as my Bentley manual is concerned. A call to Sunset was not very helpful. They will order row m030 kits, but they do not install them and could not provide specs. Needing to finish this, I decided to just use my existing F/R 6mm spacers.

The next was my mistake. After assembling a rear strut I realized the top mount and bottom are clocked a certain way. It is futile to try to rectify this w/o taking apart the strut and aligning the center mount stud with the strut clamp seam. If you have el cheapo spring compressors this results in

The next concerns the rear struts. The Bentley manual calls for more disassembly than is required, and the "101 Projects" description for the rear only amounts to a caption in one photo. But the rear is much more involved than the front.

You need alot of tools to do this job efficiently. And it would be nice to know if a row m030 kit really contains all you need or not.

jacabean · 07-19-2011, 06:08 AM

Holy crap ! I am waiting for those 3mm rings to get started, on my kit. Not as straight forward as you would think. was it difficult to separate the ball joints ! Did you need to replace any other parts or damage anything ?

brp987 · 07-19-2011, 07:27 AM

For my separator I needed to jack up the suspension although the car is already in the air. This I believe allows a little extra room to insert the tool. My T40 bit just flew off into space so I'll need another. But, you need a low profile one to fit under the control arm. Might need to hack off one and hold its shank with a small crecent wrench. My front joints popped off with a bang, but the rears came apart easily, probably cuz they had been removed before to install a lowering kit by previous owner. Lube the bottom of the separator fork before you whack the separator into position with a rubber mallet so that it won't tear the boot. If I had it to do again (and I don't think I would) I'd get new strut/chassis seals.

You'll be needing 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 21mm wrenches and sockets, adaptors, extensions, torque wrench. 8mm and 10mm hex key sockets. Blue loctite. Hollow jack handle to use as cheater bar. Somehow the strut is not metric - need 1/4" hex key and 13/16 wrench. Thick wire to hang the caliper. Assorted chunks o' wood and boxes to support carrier/axle. My car is 2 feet in the air on a scissor lift - can't let the hub/axle hang by the emergency brake cable. I used a 1/2" electric impact wrench to undo the strut clamp cuz you sort of need 1 hand to counter hold a wrench, 1 to hold the impact and 1 or 2 more to handle the carrier/axle.

Good luck

jacabean · 07-19-2011, 06:42 PM

sounds like you got it under control . where you able to use the impact driver on a lot of the harder nuts and bolts ? i also picked up a pneumatic ratchet to help with disassembly. i figured 2.5 days to do it all . seems like you are right there. please let me know how you like the new set up once you get it all settled in . my parts will be here on friday but it's going to be 100 out this weekend so i'm planning for the following weekend.

brp987 · 07-20-2011, 05:47 AM

My impact driver is kinda big and is off or full on, probably unlike your pneumatic. So I didn't use it much. I took a couple hours last nite after work to assemble the remaining rear side. I found it easier to mount the strut to the chassis, then lift the carrier/axle onto the strut. The whole package is rather heavy.

I'll do a quickie alignment and should be able to a test drive Friday. Will report back then.

brp987 · 07-22-2011, 05:29 PM

Verdict: ROW m030 is not harsh. This is how I would expect a boxster to come from the factory. This isn't like how you might expect a race car to be at all - it is totally suitable for daily driving. It's nice not scraping on speed bumps like I was with the eibach/bilsteins. Hitting speed bumps isn't jarring now either.

If you have awful roads in your locale, possibly no sports car would be suitable. The m030 does not pertain to that. Granted, I haven't put on the m030 bars yet. I want to make a comparison between the two.

I actually can't tell much difference between the firmness of the m030 and the eibach/bils. In cornering at speed the m030 feels better than the eibach/bil; possibly due to bump steer due to the latters unnatural geometry imposed on the suspension. The eibach/bil kind of wallowed and shimmyed. I never drove a boxster with stock suspension, unfortunately.

jacabean · 07-22-2011, 06:49 PM

i am glad you like your set up i can't wait to get mine fitted i hope it gets rid of the loose feeling ride i have been having . i got started on mine even with the crazy heat we are having. got my kit from suncoast and the front springs were the wrong ones. so the front is all ready to be assembled . they shipped the correct ones today , lot's of drama getting that sorted out .
i started on the rear . lot's of disassembly and i did'nt break anything (yet) , i got one corner complete and most of the other side broken down. hope to finish the rears tomorrow. the air powered ratchet was worth its weight in gold .

brp987 · 07-22-2011, 07:12 PM

How do you know they were the wrong ones? My m030 front springs were orange top, red/ylw bottom. The rears were white top, silver/red bottom. How about yours?

How about those spacer things?

jacabean · 07-23-2011, 10:54 AM

they did not even fit into the strut housing , the part number was wrong and the color markings were wrong also. Sun coast said they buy it complete from porsche , so who ever packaged the kit make a mistake. it was like one number off the correct part number.

jacabean · 07-23-2011, 11:09 AM

the spacers i bought were good up front . i also got new upper bearings too. the rears were the wrong parts like you got but the originals were already a 3mm part and they were in good condition so i just re used them.
just finishing up the rears now , i am almost at 2 full days and starting to really not like doing this anymore , it really is a crappy job to do . i just got the braces and that under tray to put back on. i put on the sway bars i got with the kit even though they are the same size as the 03S bars.
it really sucks that i have to wait til tuesday to put the front back together but what can you do.

blue2000s · 07-23-2011, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacabean

the spacers i bought were good up front . i also got new upper bearings too. the rears were the wrong parts like you got but the originals were already a 3mm part and they were in good condition so i just re used them.
just finishing up the rears now , i am almost at 2 full days and starting to really not like doing this anymore , it really is a crappy job to do . i just got the braces and that under tray to put back on. i put on the sway bars i got with the kit even though they are the same size as the 03S bars.
it really sucks that i have to wait til tuesday to put the front back together but what can you do.

Your car has the same rear bar as the M030 but the front isn't as stiff as the M030 (M030 is a little larger and thicker, 10% stiffer). You could also have substituted the non-S rear bar, which is about 10% stiffer than the S version.

jacabean · 07-24-2011, 07:48 AM

that's funny , i checked the thickness with a caliper out of curiosity and the front and rear of the row set up were thicker. i just thought it was the paint , it looked thicker on the new bars.

blue2000s · 07-24-2011, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacabean

that's funny , i checked the thickness with a caliper out of curiosity and the front and rear of the row set up were thicker. i just thought it was the paint , it looked thicker on the new bars.

All the bars are hollow as well, thicker wall material will result in a stiffer bar even if the outer diameter is the same.

jacabean · 07-26-2011, 03:00 PM

All I can say is , The ROW was a hoe. it was well worth it but glad it is over. Got everything aligned today.
my first impressions are that my original front shocks were toast. the dribbling tires up front is gone , the loose feeling in the steering is gone also. the car fells taught. i need to hit my favorite back road to see how well the handling has improve.