Hello all, just wanted to share my experiences from installing KW V3 on my 996 turbo yesterday.

I have a background in modified cars and have installed 6 or 7 coilover kits through the years, including Bilstein PSS10 (E46 M3) and KW V3 with linear Swift springs (Subaru STI). I would rate this one about 6 out of 10 in terms of difficulty compared to other cars I have done. If you have never installed suspension components before then I would enlist the help of an experienced friend, because even though this installation is not overly complex, it does involve a lot of tasks. If you have access to a lift, it really helps, but I would add 1 to 2 hours of extra time if you do it with jackstands.

First, assembling KW V3 notes:

I was removing a set of JIC Cross which have integrated pillowball camber plates, so I needed to buy my own set of mounts to work with the KW V3. I considered reinforced mounts such as Tarrett but since I am softening the car so that it can be a daily driver, I wanted compliance, so I went with new OEM turbo mounts. Here is what I bought:

(2) rear upper strut mounts
(1) front left upper strut mount
(1) front right upper strut mount
(2) front upper stop plates (these are silver/gold in color and goes under the strut shaft nut and captures the OEM mount. KW supplies a bottom stop plate on each coilover so you don't need to buy any)
(2) rear upper stop plates (these are black and function the same way as the front)

I bought everything from ECS tuning as I found they had the best price I could find online when I compared to Pelican, et al. Screenshot with their part numbers is attached or you can find these parts easily on the OEM catalog.

Front assembly

If you are familiar with the OEM design, the front struts use a fixed lower spring perch and a thrust bearing on top to permit the front struts to move when you steer the car. This as we all know is a bad design and the thrust bearings fail on our cars causing poor steering feel, crunchy sounds, and the like. KW does away with this design and uses a fixed upper spring seat instead, and uses a sealed ball bearing articulating lower spring perch (the part that you can adjust up and down to change ride height). So, you don't need new OEM Porsche thrust bearings. KW instructions are very clear but suffer from some strange translation issues so I will attempt to give my spin. From the top down, the front struts are assembled as follows:

KW supplied nylon locking nut
Porsche OEM stop plate (concave side facing up)
Porsche OEM top mount (make sure you use the correct mount for whichever side you're assembling, "Re" stamped on the mount for right hand side, "Li" for left)
KW supplied upper spring seat (make sure you line up the notch in this part with the bump in the top mount, the instructions make this clear)

Now just press down on the mount until you can thread the nut on the strut shaft. KW and every manufacturer says not to use an impact wrench, I would probably agree that a 1/2" air impact is a bad idea, however an electric impact is what I have always used. I like to screw the nut down by hand using two combination wrenches, then when it bottoms out, I give it a quick blast with an electric impact. I have never torqued a strut nut, I just go off feel. They only need to be snug, you are only trying to capture the upper mount and the nylon locking nut will not back off. Note that these are only meant to be used once, so once it's down, try not to take them off again.

Initial ride height setting was 1.25" from the bottom of the locking collar to the end of the threads. This is not how KW tells you to measure the ride height but it's the way I have always done it. According to KW USA these are "pre-set" and should be run this way initially so I went with their advice. Both sides were set to the same height so I didn't do anything differently. It's a good idea to position the lower spring seat/locking ring so that the set screw is facing out, and when you make adjustments, always leave it facing outward, so you don't have to fumble around with the 2mm allen wrench trying to make adjustments. This setting produced a distance of 12.75" from the center of the hub to the fender arch, which is too low for my tastes (more on that later).

Rear assembly

The rears are very simple. This is the assembly order:

KW supplied nylon locking strut nut
Porsche OEM upper stop plate (concave side facing upwards)
Porsche OEM mount

Drop these components directly onto the KW coilover and ensure that the black plastic ring sits securely between the OEM top mount and the purple aluminum upper spring seat on the KW. Then press down and thread the nut by hand until it engages. I used the 2x combination wrench approach to tighten them down until all the slack was taken up, then a quick blast of the electric impact to secure.

Initial ride height was 1.25" from the bottom of the locking collar to the end of the threads and this produced a ride height of 13.25" from the center of the hub to the top of the fender which is perfect ride height and lots of tire clearance. (more on this later)


Front struts removal/installation

1) Loosen wheel bolts but do not remove
2) Lift front of car and place securely on jack stands or appropriate lift device
3) Remove front wheels
4) Open hood and remove battery cover and side covers, exposing the struts
5) Remove front under tray (this will give us access to reinstall front driveshafts later). Use two flat head screwdrivers to pry these odd clips off.
6) Disconnect sway bar end link aka drop link. Remove the 10mm nut and 10mm bolt holding the brake hoses and ABS sensor to the wheel carrier, this will give you more room to swing out the strut.
7) Using a breaker bar or impact wrench, stabilize the big pinch bolt going through the hub/knuckle/upright/carrier and loosen the nut but don't remove it yet. Now go up top and remove the 13mm nuts holding the top of the strut to the chassis. Don't lose these nuts. The strut may drop a bit but it will not "fall out" at this point.
8) Put blue painters tape all over your fender arches, a few layers thick, you will be working in this area and it will prevent an accidental bump from touching your paint
9) If you have OEM struts and springs I have heard about the method of twisting the spring until it "threads into" the lower spring perch, this sounds perfect and I would advise it. What this does it "shorten" the height of the factory coilover and allow you to remove it without much fanfare. I was removing JIC coilovers so I simply removed the top hat before I pulled the strut out of the wheel well.
10) with your OEM coilover shortened as much as possible, remove the large pinch bolt, and begin pulling out the old strut assembly. Pull the top down and towards you, being mindful of your fenders. Remember that blue painters tape!
11) It helps to turn the steering wheel a bit to give you a better angle and more room to work, I don't remember which direction for which side but it will be obvious.
12) As you are pulling out the strut assembly, the driveshaft will pop out of the transfer case, this is OK. You don't need to remove those green allen bolts!!!! (Thanks MrWhite for this tip). When it pulls out, it will allow you to remove the strut. Pull the strut up and out of the car. Use a small pry bar or large flathead screwdriver to pry the ears apart on the carrier, twist out the old strut. Watch the brake hose to make sure it's not getting stretched, but it should be OK. Clean out the inside of your carrier/hub with brake cleaner and some mild scotchbrite or shop towels. Remove as much grit as you possibly can.
13) Grab your new KW assembly and measure the ride height of the strut, because we are going to fully lower it to make installation easier. Loosen the set screw (2mm allen wrench) and twist the lower spring seat until it is all the way at the bottom of the strut assembly.
14) making sure you're installing the correct side (KW has L and R after the part number on the strut to indicate this) drop the strut into the hub/carrier. The gas expansion tube must face forwards (KW instructions make this clear). Make sure the flat tang of the KW strut goes into the slot between the ears.
15) being careful not to touch your fenders, lightly twist the KW and it should drop into the carrier. There is a small tang that will prevent it drop dropping any further than it needs to. Once it is fully seated, swing it underneath the fender and into the wheel well.
16) insert the large pinch bolt and thread the nut on snug but do not torque it down yet.
17) guide the driveshaft back into the transfer case while another person moves the strut top into its final location. Make sure that you orient the upper mount correctly, the Porsche OEM mounts have an arrow that must be facing the front of the car!
18) the driveshaft will slide almost all of the way in, but stop. You can check this by grabbing the brake disc and turning it, and looking to see if the other side spins. If so, your splines are engaged, and all you need to do now is press it all the way in to the transfer case. I did this in half a second with a large pry bar, and with very gentle effort, it will pop back in with a very resounding "click".
19) secure the three upper nuts on the mount to the chassis snug and torque down.
20) torque the lower pinch bolt. Using the KW supplied sway bar end link (drop link) and your OEM fasteners, install the new drop link to the sway bar. Keep the bolts hand tight, you always want to do final torque on sway bars with the wheels loaded. You can do this at the end on a set of ramps or a drive-on lift.
21) reinstall the ABS sensor and brake hose with the 10mm bolt and 10mm nut.
22) repeat for other side
23) reattach undertray, upper covers, wheels
24) lower front, torque wheel bolts.


rear installation (much simpler)

1) remove the subwoofer and fold down the back seats exposing the strut tops.
2) loosen wheel bolts but do not remove yet
3) raise and support rear of car. Place blocks of wood under the front wheels
4) go inside the car and remove the 6 nuts on the struts, 3 on each side. do not lose these nuts.
5) remove the sway bar end link (drop link). remove the large bolt on the bottom of the strut. Support the bottom of the strut with a floor jack and drive the bolt out with a punch/screwdriver and light taps of a hammer.
6) lower the jack and the strut is now free. It may come loose from the ears on the carrier but if not, pry it loose. Feed the assembly down and out, we had the most luck bringing it down and towards the inside of the car, instead of outward, like the fronts.
7) No need to shorten the ride height on the rear, just grab the KW strut assembly and push it up through from underneath the car. The driveshaft will get in your way, but make sure you are using the correct side (designated L and R on the KW strut label) and that the gas expansion tube is situated facing forwards, directly over the driveshaft (KW instructions make this clear). Make sure the gas expansion tube is correctly oriented before proceeding to the next step. If it isn't, you won't be able to rotate it into place as the driveshaft will block you.
8) push upward and reattach the top three nuts and torque down. The rear upper mounts do not have a front/back orientation so put them in however.
9) using a floor jack raise the carrier up to meet the strut. Use a screwdriver or 1/4" socket extension to align the holes in the carrier to the hole in the strut. Double check that the drop link mount and expansion tube are in the proper location and slide in the bottom bolt and torque the nut down. Reattach sway bar end link snug, hand tight, we will tighten these when the wheels are both loaded.
10) Repeat for other side

Now either put the front/rear on rhino ramps or drive-on lift and torque the end links/drop links.


Ride height notes

First off according to my research, if the floor to fender measurement is the same F&R, on the 996 turbo this will produce a 10mm rake (rear is higher than the front). With that in mind my goal is to have good tire clearance and not slam the car, for ultimate compliance and ability to drive over large bumps without hitting the bump stops.

With the KW V3 out of the box my ride height is perfect in the rear, 13.5" from center of hub to fender arch and the fronts are too low 12.75" from center of wheel hub to fender arch. I noticed this right away when my chin splitter scraped in a couple places it normally did not before. So my plan is to raise the front a good margin until I achieve my target ride height, let it settle a few days, and once everything is golden, go get an alignment.


damper settings

I left these "out of the box" and they aren't terrible. However our roads are, so I will be adjusting these much softer. On a smooth road these settings are firm and confidence inspring. At speed, they are better too, which leads me to believe that rebound is a bit firm and I could probably stand to lower the bump a bit too. But that's a topic for another day.

Hope this helps!

 

Setting the front ride height at 4.25 inches from the front spoiler to the ground seemed to work for me. Low enough, but not too low to scrape on most driveway exits/entrances.

 

I measured my front splitter last night and it is only 3.5 inches off the ground, so that's about right. I want to raise the front about 3/4 of an inch. KW sets these pretty low!

 

I would highly recommend that you get adjustable drop links for the front and rear.

In my case there was so much preload on the DLs that one of the ***** popped out of the socket.

 

that's good info, I have adjustable droplinks in the rear (the same ones as you). in the front I am running the supplied KW drop links and prior to that on the JICs I had the OEM drop link.

 

Great info benw. Thanks for the write up.

 

What he said. The DL that come with the shocks suck. Way too much preload on the sways.

 

speaking specifically about the KW front drop links?

 

Yes, the shocks come with those long DL. Im sure you re used the rears.
Both had significant preload. they are fixed.

You really want to zero preload for your car. the only way to do that is with adjustable DL. I used TRG in the front and Tarett in the rear.

Oh and get the boots if you drive on the street and dont want to clean them all the time.

 

thanks for mentioning that. I found that the rears went straight in with no preload, I must have gotten very lucky on the mounting point on the strut being in the same position as before. In the front there was a little preload, not much, but that may account for my low speed popping I have heard twice, when the bar receives pressure from turning into an elevated incline.

 

Same combo used. High quality parts.

 

I'd love to stick with Tarett in the front as well, but from what I've skimmed, the non-curved Tarett may contact the driveshafts.

Thanks for all your input.

 

The extended Tarett DLs make me drool

 

Wow, what a great comprehensive for all the DIYers out there - thanks for the contribution to the forum - it's what makes this place great!

 

Do the Tarett extended front DLs. Expensive at $500 but well worth the money. They mount very high up which helps relieve the binding that the shorter versions (adjustable or not) experience while turning. Unfortunately the extended versions have to be installed with the shock out of the car.