1996 996 C2 front shocks - safe to mix Bilstein and OEM?
Discussion
I need to do my front shocks. Front of car getting a bit jiggly on my 86K mile car and there are no bills in the history for them ever being done.
Rears were replaced a few years ago by previous owner with OEM, but as I'm trying to refresh the entire front suspension (excluding coffin arms, did them last year), I'd rather not spend OEM money on the shocks and put the cash into the droplinks etc.
Bilstein B4 are half the price of OEM and are listed as "OEM replacement"
I am not confident on things like shocks and damper rates - would it be safe to put them on the front, or am I potentially causing a conflict with the rear shocks and will upset the handling?
Cheers - finding great advice here on suspension refresh parts, from previous threads
Rears were replaced a few years ago by previous owner with OEM, but as I'm trying to refresh the entire front suspension (excluding coffin arms, did them last year), I'd rather not spend OEM money on the shocks and put the cash into the droplinks etc.
Bilstein B4 are half the price of OEM and are listed as "OEM replacement"
I am not confident on things like shocks and damper rates - would it be safe to put them on the front, or am I potentially causing a conflict with the rear shocks and will upset the handling?
Cheers - finding great advice here on suspension refresh parts, from previous threads
I have replaced all of the shocks on my car with new Bilsteins.
Bilstein sell the exact specification required for each model.
This is not a coincidence as Porsche dont make shock absorbers - they buy them from Bilstein!
Its also worth checking that your springs have not been damaged by corrosion on a car that is more than 15 years old.
Bilstein sell the exact specification required for each model.
This is not a coincidence as Porsche dont make shock absorbers - they buy them from Bilstein!
Its also worth checking that your springs have not been damaged by corrosion on a car that is more than 15 years old.
I am aware that Porsche shocks are made by bilstein but I am not so sure that the bilstein branded shocks are exactly the same damping as Oem.
The reason I say this is that when I purchased my MO30 kit for my 996 I found out that as well as Spring variations the dampers varied depending on whether the car was a 996.1 or a 996.2 even though they can be fitted to either model. If bilstein sell different b4 shocks for the 996.1 and the 996.2 then they may be the same damping as Oem, but I suspect they do not.
I should add that I doubt that there is much of a difference in reality and it is not something I would worry about.
The reason I say this is that when I purchased my MO30 kit for my 996 I found out that as well as Spring variations the dampers varied depending on whether the car was a 996.1 or a 996.2 even though they can be fitted to either model. If bilstein sell different b4 shocks for the 996.1 and the 996.2 then they may be the same damping as Oem, but I suspect they do not.
I should add that I doubt that there is much of a difference in reality and it is not something I would worry about.
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