944 Suspenion upgrades, any recomendations?

[interloper]

I think my dampers have seen better days, seems like a good excuse to overhaul the suspenion. The cars used mainly on the public roads, bumpy knackered B roads are my favourite haunt. So any sugestions would be aprieciated.

Cheers Steve.

[Thom]

Original adjustable Koni yellow, not the expensive M030 but the M474 ones *.
They are excellent.

What model is your 944 ?

* edited to add:
For an S2 the refs for the fronts are:
951.343.031.11
951.343.032.11

>> Edited by Thom on Monday 14th April 10:03

[dontlift]

I have recently fitted Track Day Leda Dampers and springs to my 944 and they ROCK!!!!!!

Not 2 harsh for road use at all.......

have lowered 20mm on the front and 15mmm on the rear - so still plenty of clearance for spead humps etc.

got 1.25 degrees cambers on the front and 1 on the back, and it hangs on like it's on rails, the are more money (although i know where to get a good discount on them.

Also we did not need to reindex the rear torsion bars to do it.

[interloper]

Its a 1984 2.5 8v if that makes any odds? I'll look into both these options, one of my concerns is that the car has a few squeaks and rattles (well it is coming up to its 19th bithday). I dont want rock hard suspension otherwise the car might rattle apart at the seams!

Cheers

Steve

[dontlift]

interloper said: Its a 1984 2.5 8v if that makes any odds? I'll look into both these options, one of my concerns is that the car has a few squeaks and rattles (well it is coming up to its 19th bithday). I dont want rock hard suspension otherwise the car might rattle apart at the seams!

Cheers

Steve

Same as mine, and the leda's although hard give a very good ride, where r u, why not give mine a try and see what you think, i am in leicestershire

[dontlift]

interloper said: Its a 1984 2.5 8v if that makes any odds? I'll look into both these options, one of my concerns is that the car has a few squeaks and rattles (well it is coming up to its 19th bithday). I dont want rock hard suspension otherwise the car might rattle apart at the seams!

Cheers

Steve

One thing you have to watch for with the older 944's - pre 85 is that they do not use the standard 944 suspension, you can put koni or billstien inserts into the front, and adjustable rears, BUT changing the torsion bars is possible not an option as if your is like mine the casings will be siezed solid.

i would seriously recommend the LEDA's as they are complete units NOT inserts which means you can throw away the old front struts all together, and also they are coil over rears - which make the back end ride loads better - I also know a garage which will fit them and reset everything - camber etc for around 150 notes.


LEDA also do a Fast Road version of the same units, a little softer on the springs

>> Edited by dontlift on Monday 14th April 21:20

[AndyS2]

Anybody tried the Koni kit that PorscheShop sell ( see cataloge free with last months 911 & Porsche world )I dont want anything that is too hard for road use I just want to restore the car to standard as the original are getting a little soft now. The Koni kit they advertise is adjustable and costs £475 , I think that is +VAT.
Also are the rears adjustable on the car as I know some of them you have to remove the dampers to adjust them? and is it just the springs that determine ride height on the front? or are the dampers shorter as I dont want to lose any ride height.

Sorry for all the questions!!

Andy

[interloper]

I'm based in Reading which isnt a million miles from you. But Leicester is a bit of a trek just to check out your suspenion. Thanks for the offer anyway.

I must admit I much prefer the idea of replacing the whole damper unit and not faff about with inserts, so the Leda sounds like a good idea.

It wouldnt suprise me if the torsion bars are seized into the casing I suspect they havent been touched since the car was originaly manufactured.

Right time to look for a leda website.

Cheers

Steve

[dontlift]

interloper said: I'm based in Reading which isnt a million miles from you. But Leicester is a bit of a trek just to check out your suspenion. Thanks for the offer anyway.

I must admit I much prefer the idea of replacing the whole damper unit and not faff about with inserts, so the Leda sounds like a good idea.

It wouldnt suprise me if the torsion bars are seized into the casing I suspect they havent been touched since the car was originaly manufactured.

Right time to look for a leda website.

Cheers

Steve

I spent best part of 2 months researching before doing mine, and couldnt match the LEDA's for practicallity - even if they were the most expensive option - just dont try and fit them yourself - the rears are a bitch to fit - I know leda will fit them for you with corner weighting etc for abotu 250

[interloper]

Can I assume the difficulty lies in replacing the rears (and sorting the geometry front and back is obviously a profesional job aswell). The front end looks like a very ordinary macpherson strut arrangement, I'm pretty confident I can tackle that myself.

At the end of the day this is only a £2k car and it was supposed to be a bit of cheap fun. I dont want this to start getting to serious, money wise at least.

[dontlift]

interloper said: Can I assume the difficulty lies in replacing the rears (and sorting the geometry front and back is obviously a profesional job aswell). The front end looks like a very ordinary macpherson strut arrangement, I'm pretty confident I can tackle that myself.

At the end of the day this is only a £2k car and it was supposed to be a bit of cheap fun. I dont want this to start getting to serious, money wise at least.

The rears are just a pain because they only just fit in the space provided - coil overs in place of just dampers.....

As for geometry - this is more a case of needing the right tools - camber guage - alignment tools, ride height guages etc, the fronts are an absolute doddle to fit. like i say - local garage (who i know fairly well) charged me 150 notes to fit mine was about 5 hours work for them to do it all.


>> Edited by dontlift on Tuesday 15th April 08:20

[Thom]

AndyS2 said:Also are the rears adjustable on the car as I know some of them you have to remove the dampers to adjust them? and is it just the springs that determine ride height on the front? or are the dampers shorter as I dont want to lose any ride height.

I believe any given yellow Koni is adjustable, both fronts and rears.
Only springs indeed determine front ride height: since I have had my new Koni the front is higher as I kept the stock strings believing the specific M474 strings were the same length, but they actually are shorter - the pistons seem to be longer on the Koni than on the Sachs original units.

>> Edited by Thom on Tuesday 15th April 09:54

[AJLintern]

This looks interesting...
www.porsche968.co.uk/mods-suspension/index.html