I finished installing a set of PSS10 on my car, but something does not seem right with the front ride height. Right now the rear spring perches are about halfway in the adjustment range which made the rear of the car actually lower than I wanted at about 25" from ground to fender. That I can adjust and is as expected. But the problem is the fronts. I have the spring perches adjusted as low as they can possible go, but the front ride height is 25 and 3/4". It doesn't seem right to be at the end of the adjustment range and still be this high. I purchased the coilovers used, so the tops were already assembled with thrust washers. Am I missing something? The only thing I can think of is if there is something in the top assembly that is directional and I somehow put them on the wrong sides? I'm not sure if that is even possible. They did not appear directional to me (i.e. Left vs Right). Any suggestions? FYI, the car is on 19" wheels.

 

I just recently did mine. Front height is 25 1/4 and rear is just less than 25 3/4, both approx and riding on stock turbo twists with stock rubber sizes (Sumitomo).

Unfortunately I can't post pics from my ipad but your setup looks similar to pics of mine. Due note there is a faily limited range that bilstein specs for height adjustment. I followed that, basically highest in rear and lowest in front.

 

Btw, did your pss10s come assembled with the strut mounting hats already (the piece with the 3 bolts that go through the body)? Those are directional and, if already assembled, you'd need them on the correct sides. Not sure you could put them on backwards though.

 

ok, so most people run the fronts at their lowest setting? Seems like that would mean losing a lot of shock travel and I want to avoid running on the bump stops.

Yes, the strut mounting hats came assembled. They mounted up flush to the top of the fender body, which I would not expect to be possible if they were on backwards.

 

In order to avoid any bump stop issues, why don't you just set it at the height specified in the PSS10 instructions? Simple...

 

I followed the guidelines by Bilstein but set the fronts to the lowest in the range and the rears to the highest. I think it looks great. Note that it's about an inch lower than stock and I scrape on a lot of driveways that I previously didn't scrape.

On the hats - there is an R and I think Le to indicate right & left. I doubt they would install properly if backwards but not sure.

I've attached pics of my install. You can see how I've adjusted these. BTW - they did settle a bit (maybe 1/4 inch) over a couple of days and driving.

 

The 10's sit much lower than the 9's. Don't mind the rusts, its from washing the car.

 

I think I will try raising the rears all the way up and see if that transfers enough weight to the front to lower the front more and balance everything out. Right now the car looks like it's *** is dragging a bit.

 

I tried raising the rears really high and now I'm 25.5" in the back, but still 25.75" in the front. It seems weird to me that these would be designed to allow you to drop the backs so much lower than the fronts. I even tried raising the front spring perches a bunch, but as expected that just brought the front up to around 26". Wrong direction as expected.

 

Did you verify on your strut tops that they are R and L on the correct side? I keep looking at your picture and it makes me wonder if they are turned wrong and could be binding.

If you were to remove the tender springs you could get a little lower as the stacking height of the spacer and tenders will give you some drop; but it will likely result in you bouncing off the bump stops.

Chris.

 

As other have pointed out, you need to make sure that you have the right position and orientation for the strut mounts. There is a L/R indication and a forward arrow stamped on the top. You should be able to remove the 3 top nuts and then push down on the wheel far enough so that you can see the marking on the strut tops. From the shop manual:

· The installation side "RE" (right) or "LI" (left) −arrow− is stamped on the spring strut mount!
· Note the installed position of the spring strut mount!
· The arrow markings must point in the direction of travel!

I recently did a PSS10 install on my car and followed the height adjustments specified by Bilstein. Final ride height is fine.

 

I found the L/Re markings on the factory suspension. After studying them, I'm about 95% sure that it is not possible for them to be installed backwards. Does anyone actually run PSS10 with the helper springs removed?

Hi mdd, what is the distance from fender to ground of your fronts, where do you have the coil heigh set, and what size wheels do you have?

 

My front fender height is 25.5". Spring adjustment is the low end of the allowable range in the instructions. I don't remember the treads left but it for sure was not all the way down. Tire and rims are stock GT2 size.

 

Redliner,

I am the one who sold you these PSS10s and I had them on my 2003 996TT. I had them professionally installed, and eventually replaced them with Motons given that I track the car a lot now, the ride height was noticibly lower than stock, both in the front and the rear.

Here are a few photos of my car with these PSS10s installed on my car.