New to the site..... Picking up a set of PSS9s for my 2000 996. Anyone have any tips on installation? I've done a lot of suspension work on other cars but never a Porsche. Have Techart springs on the car now but it's a little too low in the rear. Looking forward to a little adjustability plus performance. Thanks for reading.

 

My only suggestion is to let someone else do it. You will need the car corner balanced and re-aligned. Those two items are generally outside the scope of the do-it-yourself just because of the equipment required.

 

you can install them yourself and then take the car to be aligned.

corner balancing is only needed if you are racing. i would be surprised if any new cars are perfectly corner balanced from the factory, so you can live without that.

if all you want to do is raise the rear, porsche themselves used spacers for the springs to raise the car, if needed. you could save yourself a lot of cost and headache if that's you're only goal.

oh, and for DIY info, goto to rennlist. this site is not really oriented to that stuff.

 

Yea, it is a pretty straight forward DIY. No need to corner balance unless you are racing as said before. Obviously you will need to get an alignment afterwards like previously mentioned.

 

Yes, there are DIY guides on Renntech.org and Rennlist.com. It is a misconception that PSS9/10s are height adjustable. They are not. They are adjustable within the design range that Bilstein specifies as correct for the application in order to compensate for rake and corner balancing. They are not like true adjustables, such as Motons or JICs at all. You have a whopping 5mm total (+ 2.5 mm) in the rear, and 20mm (+10mm) front of adjustability. You start at about 30mm lower than stock, and then adjust your car for rake and balance within those ranges. Counting threads will get you closer than the corner balance of a stock suspension. You cannot say, "Oh, I'd like to lower my car 1 /3/4 inches, so I'll adjust the PSS9s to do that" Doesn't work that way. They lower your car within a narrow range, and that range is not know exactly until they are mounted on your car. If you are going to DIY (and it is no more difficult than struts on any German car IMHO), then buy the slip rings from Bilstein that go between the springs and perches and prevent the common PSS9 clunk in advance. Do a search here on 6speed for "PSS9 clunk" for part numbers. They're cheap, like $1.25 each.

 

I installed PSS9's on my 2000 C4; its not that bad if you have some previous experience. On the C4 its worse because the front drive forces more disassembly, but its still a straight forward process. However, if I was doing this again I'd track down the noise isolation washers from Bilstein (or others). These are relatively new items that reportedly help reduce spring noises related to wind-up.