Of all the people on this forum, I think eclou is the only one who did the Bilstein himself and live to tell about it. But then, eclou is not exactly a "normal" customer either. Kidding aside, unless you are a seasoned pro (pardon me if you are), I think it's a job best left for the pro installer. That way, anything goes wrong, it's between the installer and Bilstein, you are out of the loop.

And yes, warranty is THE reason why you should only buy Bilstein brand new from an authorized dealer. If there is *any* problem, the complicated trouble-shoot becomes their problem, not yours. Remarkably, the warranty is lifetime - I don't know how they do it.

 

Is it that different than doing for example coil-overs on an e46 M3 or the suspension on an e92 M3 with electronic dampening? I have done numerous suspension work on those vehicles but not a P-car. I can't imagine it could be that different...

 

Car looks awesome ,great job.

 

Sorry I thought you have the same skill level as myself. I tend to be conservative because of the many suspension related problems that I've read about, whether Bilstein, or KW, Moton, etc., 99% of the time it seems to be installer's error, in particular first timers. My concern is that unlike engine problem - which when it blows up at least slows the car down LOL - suspension problem if occuring at speed could be quite dangerous.

A while ago someone here had a Porsche tech install his Bilstein. The tech forgot to install a cone washer, and that caused the shaft to break. Only happened once in so many kits, making me think the tech not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but enough for me to become even more careful with my recommendation. The second problem that I've seen is that if you don't install the drop link correctly (I've seen seasoned veterans drop the ball on this one - I posted a picture somewhere.), it tends to pop out. FWIW, I have my Bilstein 3 years now, installed by a very well known shop in LA (Lucent Motors), not a single problem.

G21aek: thanks. I posted some new pictures with Techart lip on first page.

 

Can you are absolutely right about importance of proper installation of coil-overs on Porsche, and even if someone would install them by himself, I think the final checkup and alignment must be done by professional Porsche shop that specialize in suspension work.

 

Just an fyi....Bilstein has recently released a redesigned front drop link with the Damptronic coilover. This should reduce some of the 'clunking" noises some have reported. My personal opinion is that while it is an improvement, they missed the actual problem which is a mounting bracket that gets in the way. The good news is that it can be bent out of the way with a pliers........The other alternative is to purchase a good aftermarket drop link like Tarret. Much more robust.....Best

 

Excellent post, just subscribed for future reference.
Thanks Fdorn for the PM and link to this write up.
Frank

 

Thanks and you're welcome. Go for it - it feels fantastic and transforms the car. Much more precise and responsive.

 

Good pics thx

 

hi cannga ,my bilstein damptronic feel really hard cuz here in my country the road is really bad , most of the road in indonesia are bumpy ,there's barely smooth road (pot hole everywhere)

since my car has PASM is there any way to soften the suspension a bit?
or maybe like manual setting to adjust the bound and reboud for the unit

thanks

 

I found the only thing to soften B16's is to raise the ride height of the car. Mine is at -15mm which is the minimum drop that Bilstein recommend.

 

i did raise my ride height ,cant tell the different with stock suspension
but compare to stock shock absorber ,it feels twice as hard as stock

im trying to post some pic , but uploader never work (always fail)

 

Unfortunately, I have only one answer for you: Stop driving it on bad roads. Or go back to stock suspension. This is a classic case of ride vs. handling: If you want nice smooth ride, the handling is going to be lousy; if you want sharp and precise handling, the ride is going to suck. No car has ever escaped from this trade-off of ride vs. handling; not Ferrari, not Lexus, not Bugatti, and your Porsche won't either.

That said, I have one key question to ask you please: what are your tire pressures? Did you set your TPMS to partial load, and run the differential reading at -1 or -2? (TPMS tends to over-read pressure by 1 to 2.5 psi.)
Second, give it a few days and let your derriere adjust - you do get used, to a small degree, to the stiffness. Third, you are not using the Sport setting of PASM, are you?
BTW, I have not found ride height to affect stiffness. This is a key design parameter of both springs and dampers: spring rate and damping factors should not change when used within specs. In other words, used within designed specs, there is nothing to suggest stiffness should change with height, if it is set up correctly.

 

thanks for the replay can,
yea i better get used to it , and i noticed that my sunroof rattle more than before.
i never set the PASM to sport setting

tomorow i will set my tire press to 33PSI front and 36PSI rear, is that enough?
cuz if i run lower than that ,Im afraid that my rims will bend more easy

 

What is the best tire pressure for the Turbo on street tires? This topic has been discussed several times on this board, so here are some info and my humble opinions for those new to this car:

1. The "correct" tire pressures for the Turbo are NOT those numbers on the door panel. These numbers (37/44) are not just high, they are way too high and represent the **maximum allowed** tire pressure for a fully loaded car. The correct pressure recommendation is in the manual page 289: 33 front , 39 rear, at 20 degrees ambient temp.

2. The best way to adjust the Turbo tire pressure? For regular street driving, use the on-board computer - instruction on page 114 of the manual. Set the tire to Summer, set the load to Partial Load (this is the key). Then check the differential reading: maintain this at 0 throughout. The car's OEM tire pressure monitor tends to over-read by 1 to 2 psi (for example, when it reads 30, the real pressure is 32) so I actually run mine at minus1 or so, but that's another story. For most people new to this car, 0 throughout is a good start. In Southern California weather, my car typically starts out around 30/36 in the morning, then becomes 33/39 after a few minutes of driving.

3. If you find yourself over-inflating the tires to make it feel right: it's quite possible you are unconsciously stiffening the tires to compensate for the very very soft spring rates of the stock Turbo. The stock car has too much body roll and lazy steering response and one way to improve and stabilize this defect is stiffening the tires - that's why it feels "better" with over-inflated tires. This of course is not the right way to do things; for one, tire traction is not good when tires are over-inflated. If you think you fit in this category, the proper correction is in that Bilstein thread in my signature LOL.

4. I use a digital pressure gauge like this one http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Longacre-Digital-Pressure-Gauge/dp/B004BOH7CU (there are cheaper versions) as a reference to make sure the car's system is correct. As mentioned, I've found that the car over-reads by 1 to 2 psi, and I believe others on this board in general have observed the same.

5. Remember tire is part of the suspension system, and tire pressure could be adjusted, **within reasons**, to influence both comfort understeer/oversteer behavior. Soft front tires promote oversteeer, stiff front tires promote understeer. I wrote "within reasons" because tire pressure of course also affects traction, so I don't think it's a good idea to over-use this feature. FWIW I run my differential reading about -1 in the front, and 0 in the rear, for all the reasons I mentioned in 1 to 4 above.

6. Whether that tire pressure is correct depends on the ambient temperature of where you are. For every increase of roughly 10 degrees F/5 degrees C, the tire pressure goes up 1 psi. The TPMS's differential reading in the car takes car of this, and this is why I recommend using that reading for street driving.