Ohlins R&T Set up Question

[Muskoka Minute]

Hi guys.

I want to install these (Ohlins R&T) on my 2004 SE Boxster street driver.
(Not looking for a track set up at this point, just a really nice street set up.)

From what I understand is when you install the Ohlin's it will lower the car and you will not be able to get the correct Camber/Caster etc out of the stock set up!

I have a 2 part question.

1) What parts will I have to replace to accommodate the above.
2) If/when I want to get a more aggressive set up what should I do?

I'm hearing different things and I will be honest I just don't know enough about it.
Here are some thing I have been told..

Camber plates, adjustable tie rod ends, upgrade sway bars, adjustable control arms.


Hope you guys can give me the straight story on what is the minimum that I need to do.

Thanks in advance.

[maytag]

The beauty of a coilover (especially a high quality one like the ohlins) is the adjustability.
When I installed them, I was also lowering the car and going for a track setup, so I can't tell you if there's enough adjustability to retain stock ride height. But I'd be willing to bet lots of donuts that there is. In fact, I don't see how there couldn't be.

So the short answer is simply, set the ride height at the same place as stock and don't worry about it.

If you want more specific help, contact forum member pcarferher. He bought my ohlins from me when I dismantled the car. He's also the guy building the most beautiful suspension parts you'll ever see.... from cad to production. He can give you measurements and such, since he's got his hands on the parts.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[edc]

Do the Ohlins come with adjustable top mounts? If so that should be sufficient for the front. For the rear you may need adjustable toe links.

[Muskoka Minute]

Originally Posted by edc

Do the Ohlins come with adjustable top mounts? If so that should be sufficient for the front. For the rear you may need adjustable toe links.

I don't think they come with adjustable mounts.
I believe I would have to go with an aftermarket like Tarett..

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by maytag

The beauty of a coilover (especially a high quality one like the ohlins) is the adjustability.

Not sure about the Ohlins.. but I am on my second set of KW-V3's and they have a minimum and maximum height to keep the struts from getting damaged, and I found out that their maximum height (the minimum amount you can lower the car still was about 1" lower than the OEM suspension.. this left my car scratching the front on the speed bumps or whenever you enter a driveway the car looked awesome but you was kind of annoying..

What worked for me, was adding a thicker OEM spacer on top of the spring (between the bearing and the bottom of the top mounting plate, for the 987 chassis Porsche offered different thickness spacers but for some reason thet don't do it for 981's therefore I simply used two spacers, does not seem a lot but it drastically reduced the amount of scrapping of the front and at the same time keeping the struts within the recommended settings.

I can dig up the P/N of the spacer I am talking about if you need it, PLMK thanks!

PS: If your car end being about 1" lowered or so, you will need a set of rear toe links to get the rear toe back to speck

[Muskoka Minute]

Thanks for the input guys...

I'm going with camber plates up front and adjustable links in the rear.

Cheers!

[bcrdukes]

Muskoka Minute,

At one point in time, I considered the Ohlins R&T and wanted the full meal deal with camber plates and all. In the end, I ended up getting the Koni Special Active shocks lowered on H&R sport springs. I am running a set of Vorshlag Motorsports adjustable camber and caster plates up front.

After dialing in a semi-street/track alignment with our mutual shop in town (you know which one I am talking about) and after driving around for a bit, I felt that it was too aggressive and absolutely unnecessary. To be fair, they did caution me, and I knew what I was getting myself into as the original plan was to hit the track with the regional PCA club, then COVID lockdowns happened so that never materialized.

I went back to a much more milder street setting and quite happy with it. If your car is only going to be for the street, lowering it may not be all the bees knees as its made out to be. My biggest regret was lowering the car - the car scrapes on parking lot speed bumps here in the city. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the car.

[Muskoka Minute]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

Muskoka Minute,

At one point in time, I considered the Ohlins R&T and wanted the full meal deal with camber plates and all. In the end, I ended up getting the Koni Special Active shocks lowered on H&R sport springs. I am running a set of Vorshlag Motorsports adjustable camber and caster plates up front.

After dialing in a semi-street/track alignment with our mutual shop in town (you know which one I am talking about) and after driving around for a bit, I felt that it was too aggressive and absolutely unnecessary. To be fair, they did caution me, and I knew what I was getting myself into as the original plan was to hit the track with the regional PCA club, then COVID lockdowns happened so that never materialized.

I went back to a much more milder street setting and quite happy with it. If your car is only going to be for the street, lowering it may not be all the bees knees as its made out to be. My biggest regret was lowering the car - the car scrapes on parking lot speed bumps here in the city. Otherwise, I'm enjoying the car.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

So as of right now you are running a mild street set up with the car being lowered with the Koni's & springs.

How much did you end up lowering the car?
I think the Ohlins lower the car by approx 24mm
Do you know what the specs are for the current set up you have.
(If not I wonder if our mutual friends would have it on record)
What made you shy away from the Ohlins besides the price.

Appreciate any further input you can share.

Cheers! Bart

[Gilles]

Originally Posted by Muskoka Minute

(If not I wonder if our mutual friends would have it on record) Cheers! Bart

Muskota, with roughly 1" drop and the adjustable rear toe links you should be able to get close to the OEM specs on the rear (1.5mm toe and between -1.5 to -2 degrees of camber), on the front you should not have any issues..
and your car will look really nice :-)

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by Muskoka Minute

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it.

So as of right now you are running a mild street set up with the car being lowered with the Koni's & springs.

How much did you end up lowering the car?
I think the Ohlins lower the car by approx 24mm
Do you know what the specs are for the current set up you have.
(If not I wonder if our mutual friends would have it on record)
What made you shy away from the Ohlins besides the price.

Appreciate any further input you can share.

Cheers! Bart

Hi Bart,

The H&R Springs I'm running are a 1" drop as per their specifications. I've seen a few Boxsters in the city that are likely 2"+ dropped and scrape when going over speed bumps to getting in to shopping plazas. Even with a 1" drop, certain speed bumps will result in a scrape of the underbody. Wasn't worth the heartache in my personal opinion.

I ended up going to Brett Hunter at Hunter Motorsports for the final alignment because he was available next day to slot me on to his schedule. Our mutual friend was 3+ weeks out and I didn't want to wait.

I'll post my specs and his notes, where the values are as follows:

Front Left / Front Right
Camber: -1.81 / -1.85
Toe: 0.02 / 0.01

Rear Left / Front Right
Camber: -2.50 / -2.50
Toe: 0.13 / 0.14

Notes on the alignment left by Brett: 986/987 call for more negative camber in the rear than the front. This alignment reflects that.

Due to limitations of factory adjustment, the rear is as close as possible to factory settings. The car cannot have less negative camber, and toe can not be closer to perfect (0.09.) Toe front and rear is within spec.

Previously, I was running some specs that some of the guys here on the forum known for tracking their cars heavily and it was too much for the street in my opinion. -2.5 camber in front and -1.9 in back, zero toe front and .016 degree total toe in rear. Unless this was a dedicated track car running high speeds, I would never do this on the street again.

As for the Ohlins, ultimately it was the price, and if I was going to commit to the Ohlins, I wanted the full meal deal, which meant a lot of expensive parts and labour, it was going to be a point of diminishing returns.

There are days where I wish I had the Ohlins, but I still am very happy with my Koni FSD setup. I just got a software tune on it and it's scary fast now.

[Muskoka Minute]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

Hi Bart,

The H&R Springs I'm running are a 1" drop as per their specifications. I've seen a few Boxsters in the city that are likely 2"+ dropped and scrape when going over speed bumps to getting in to shopping plazas. Even with a 1" drop, certain speed bumps will result in a scrape of the underbody. Wasn't worth the heartache in my personal opinion.

I ended up going to Brett Hunter at Hunter Motorsports for the final alignment because he was available next day to slot me on to his schedule. Our mutual friend was 3+ weeks out and I didn't want to wait.

I'll post my specs and his notes, where the values are as follows:

Front Left / Front Right
Camber: -1.81 / -1.85
Toe: 0.02 / 0.01

Rear Left / Front Right
Camber: -2.50 / -2.50
Toe: 0.13 / 0.14

Notes on the alignment left by Brett: 986/987 call for more negative camber in the rear than the front. This alignment reflects that.

Due to limitations of factory adjustment, the rear is as close as possible to factory settings. The car cannot have less negative camber, and toe can not be closer to perfect (0.09.) Toe front and rear is within spec.

Previously, I was running some specs that some of the guys here on the forum known for tracking their cars heavily and it was too much for the street in my opinion. -2.5 camber in front and -1.9 in back, zero toe front and .016 degree total toe in rear. Unless this was a dedicated track car running high speeds, I would never do this on the street again.

As for the Ohlins, ultimately it was the price, and if I was going to commit to the Ohlins, I wanted the full meal deal, which meant a lot of expensive parts and labour, it was going to be a point of diminishing returns.

There are days where I wish I had the Ohlins, but I still am very happy with my Koni FSD setup. I just got a software tune on it and it's scary fast now.

Thanks much for that.

So is your car still lowered the 1" or did you raise it back up?

When did you decide to go with the tune? did our friend do it or did you do it yourself ?

Appreciate your help..

[bcrdukes]

My car is still lowered 1". I don't think I will invest anymore time/money into raising it back up; I've decided to live with it and know where to avoid and how to best drive over speed bumps like the kids in Southern California with slammed vehicles entering parking lots haha

I bought the tune just a bit under a month ago. FVD Brombacher had seemed to have an economical header for the Boxster made by a reputable manufacturer in Germany, and the cherry on top was the cost of the tune where they will allow you to re-flash your ECU when you change the bolt-on pieces. I tried to do a comparison with Softronic etc. but FVD worked best for me and my situation.

I did the tune myself - it was very easy. They send you the tuning module, follow their instructions on their website, you send them your stock file pulled from the tuning device along with list of mods and VIN#, and they send you the tuned flash file within a day or two (it was less than 12 hours for me.)

Once you receive the tune, upload the flash file onto the handheld tuner (again, very easy) and follow the instructions on their website again to flash your ECU/DME. Flash procedure took less than 5 minutes? No check engine lights, no flashing dashboard, no problems. Literally just fired up the car, went for a drive up the 403 / 401 / 427, QEW and back home and enjoyed every minute of it.

The hardest part of procedure was setting the software up, doing the tuning device's update/registration, and pulling the original ECU/DME file onto the device. After that, it was easy peasy. All you need is a Windows-based laptop, a USB port, and an aptitude for following instructions. Ronda at FVD Brombacher was awesome to work with over e-mail including answering all my questions and guiding me in the right direction. I didn't get that with the other vendors.

Because I know you're doing something special to your engine, you may want to ask our mutual friend and FVD Brombacher both separately about tuning since your engine isn't your run-of-the-mill Boxster. Hope that helps!

[Muskoka Minute]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

My car is still lowered 1". I don't think I will invest anymore time/money into raising it back up; I've decided to live with it and know where to avoid and how to best drive over speed bumps like the kids in Southern California with slammed vehicles entering parking lots haha

I bought the tune just a bit under a month ago. FVD Brombacher had seemed to have an economical header for the Boxster made by a reputable manufacturer in Germany, and the cherry on top was the cost of the tune where they will allow you to re-flash your ECU when you change the bolt-on pieces. I tried to do a comparison with Softronic etc. but FVD worked best for me and my situation.

I did the tune myself - it was very easy. They send you the tuning module, follow their instructions on their website, you send them your stock file pulled from the tuning device along with list of mods and VIN#, and they send you the tuned flash file within a day or two (it was less than 12 hours for me.)

Once you receive the tune, upload the flash file onto the handheld tuner (again, very easy) and follow the instructions on their website again to flash your ECU/DME. Flash procedure took less than 5 minutes? No check engine lights, no flashing dashboard, no problems. Literally just fired up the car, went for a drive up the 403 / 401 / 427, QEW and back home and enjoyed every minute of it.

The hardest part of procedure was setting the software up, doing the tuning device's update/registration, and pulling the original ECU/DME file onto the device. After that, it was easy peasy. All you need is a Windows-based laptop, a USB port, and an aptitude for following instructions. Ronda at FVD Brombacher was awesome to work with over e-mail including answering all my questions and guiding me in the right direction. I didn't get that with the other vendors.

Because I know you're doing something special to your engine, you may want to ask our mutual friend and FVD Brombacher both separately about tuning since your engine isn't your run-of-the-mill Boxster. Hope that helps!

Thats awesome my friend.
Much appreciated.
When I come to pick her up I will let you know and maybe do coffee.

Cheers!

[edc]

You don't have to run more negative camber on the rear than the front. The original set up has this balance but the whole point of having aftermarket suspension with adjustments at that is so you can optimise for what you want. You can steer away from the understeer led balance of more negative camber on the rear and square it up for a more neutral balance for example. If you have Ohlins or other height adjustable coilovers you can also play with the rake.

[Robert986]

Boys, I just ordered the Öhlins R&T, please see my question on the "Boxster racing forum". I guess there is a bit less traffic in there.. The question is about what Sways I should go for when using the Öhlins.