Suspension boots need replacement. To lower or not to lower
 

Hi all, while cleaning out my radiators on the 996TT today (surprisingly not that dirty), I noticed the suspension boots need replacement. The car handles fine and is currently fully stock. I've been considering lowering it 1"-1.5" and eventually going to 19" rims but want to avoid a large drop due to concerns about entering my driveway (I'm good if coming in on an angle) and some speedbumps that I go over every day. Soooo, I'm looking for thoughts from the all knowing forum on the following

1. Just replace the boots and go on down the road. Most economical option.
2. Replace the shocks and install new boots. How can I tell if the shocks need replacement? I don't care to stiffen the ride so is OEM the best choice?
3. Lower it. What would be required to do this and what brand(s) would offer an OEM-comfort ride and no more than 1.5" drop?

Thanks in advance! Blair

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Kind of matters what your budget is. If you’re going to go through all that trouble to just replace those things I would at least do the shocks. If you want to have full adjustability and comfort I’d suggest pss10 coilovers. If you’re interested I have a set of pss10 coilovers with low miles for sale for $2000 as I went on to jrz rs pros.

Thanks for the response LapDancer996. I'd like to eventually go to PSS9's or 10's as I've head good stuff about them but I (read my wife) wasn't prepared for the price of the coilovers at this time. What're you asking for them? If I'm not interested, someone else may be.

i'm not sure you understand how significantly lowered a 1.5 drop would be. let alone an inch, which is below gt2 height.

plus 19's will not like that at all. i'd suggest a set of lowering springs before you do anything about larger wheels. this gives you a chance to see what lowering by an inch does for ride height and quality without spending much at all.

there's no such thing as an "oem comfort ride + a 1.5 inch drop". everything is a "trade" off.

You're right that I haven't got a good feeling about the right lowering amount. I was thinking it would be nice to make the wheels fill the wells more evenly with a driveable amount of clearance, mostly to get rid of that North American stock appearance, specifically at the front. The European cars seem to have a better stance. Do you have a suggestion about lowering springs brand and how much of a drop would be reasonable? What drop would match GT2 height? I read one long thread about how lowering springs can wear your shocks/struts more quickly, though I'm not sure how that makes sense. Seemed to be mostly conjecture and experience, more than scientific evidence based. Also, would an alignment be required after the lowering springs are installed?

FYI. In case it makes a different, the car has 58K miles and I put <2K on it per year at the moment. The car is not tracked and I would assume these are the original shocks/struts. I'm in Houston and the roads here are fantastic. My F150 has 150,000 highway miles and the suspension is nearly perfect. Much different from my home in Newfoundland, Canada, where you could destroy a pair of shocks in a single winter..

European cars have different suspension, including shock absorbers designed for the different spring rates of the euro springs... you could try to find euro market suspension, which sounds like would be more in line with what you're looking for regarding keeping things as close to stock comfort as possible- it's still going to firm up some with the euro suspension though, but considering it is still OEM spec I doubt it would be harsh.

You will need to re-align the car after making any suspension changes. Porsche even has a different alignment spec for euro market cars vs US market cars.

You actually can go lower than stock and have better ride quality than stock, but it gets very expensive to do that and I wouldn't spend that much money on suspension if I wasn't planning on tracking the car a lot.

i use the H&R reds ( sports ) springs. have for a decade or so. it's about an 1.25-1.5 inch drop and fills the wheel well perfectly for my taste. http://www.hrsprings.com/application...ts/31/552/2003

IIRC(?) the gt2 height is about -40mm below US spec. ( while ROW height is -20mm.. same as the US x73 suspension option ). i'm going from memory, so someone can correct me if i'm "off" by a few mm lol.

the h&r reds will drop about an inch plus, just below gt2. i wouldnt worry about excess wear on the dampers. it's a "non" issue. theyre like 400 a set. try 'em, it's a decent "compromise" from fully adjustable and relatively more expensive coilovers. it is however, a compromise. they work for me, and my car has been tracked with this setup many times. i paired the springs with bilstein MO30's ( think B8 ). you will as noted above need to 're-align" and lowered cars tend to increase inner tread wear on the rear tires. ( too much toe on WOT "squat" kills inners ) so you might want to pair them with some http://www.torquesolution.com/product-p/ts-por-003.htm this will mitigate the toe issues ( somewhat )

GL it's a time honored solution if you dont want to replace everything with coilovers. etc.