Hi all, this is my first time to the forum, don't even have a pic to show , yet... will after I get to lower my C4S - 04'.
Are the H&R springs to lower by one inch the best out there?
Can anyone show some before & after pics to truly convince me of the effect.

 

I dont have before pics, but the drop was around an inch and a quarter, rides better now and handles like a champ, taking on and off ramps here in so cal at close to 50mph at the really tight ones and 100mph from 133 on to 405 north

 

don't just buy springs. i went that route the first time around. they're pretty good for a while, then eventually (rather quickly) the stock shocks wear out and go to crap resulting in uneven handling that is worse than stock. since it is so expensive to have the springs and an alingment done, save your money and get some coilovers. figure around $600 for install and alignment for springs and coilovers. figure around $300-400 for a decent set of springs. figure around $1800 for a set of bilstein PS9's. when you eventually become disasitified, you'll have wasted around a thousand dollars on the springs. "spring" for the bilstein's i know it's an extra $1400, but it will be worth it in the long run.

the springs are a good temporary cheap quick fix for improved looks though.

 

I agree with DeputyDog...I did that on my Boxster and the ride was worse and handling suffered EXCEPT on smooth roads...It had a Pogo effect on bumps and was very unsettled. I did PSS9 coilovers on my Carrera and its a night and day difference. If you wanna go with H&R springs, you should also get shocks designed for shorter springs, like the Bilstein sport shocks, but when you add the price for springs and shocks, you are a few hundred from the PSS9's and there you get a matched set of springs and shocks, adjustable ride height and adjustable dampening. My ride on 19" rims is smoother and more comfortable than stock with 18" rims....and the handling is WAY better.....

 

Thanks guys for your input. I don't have the resources for the "complete makeover" yet, so I'll wait until I'm ready, unless there is any benefit and zero disadvantages to the quik fix of just springs. I live in rough road NYC and need to make sure I don't damage anything in the suspension - so I'll hold off, I guess.

 

With the Bilstein PSS9's, is the adjustable height something I control within the cockpit myself, or an auto feature of the shocks itself? Wiith these shocks, will I feel a stiffer and smoother ride by far from the stock ones? If so, I may go this route especially since I'd eventually get 19" rims in about a year or two and thus wouldn't want to compromise the smoothness of the ride.Thanks in advance for your input.

 

I just had my H&Rs installed yesterday. I bought them on e-bay for $275 and I paid $320 for the install and the alignment. $595 total. Aesthetically, the new ride height is perfect – the distance from the top of the tire (on 18” rims) to the bottom of the fender well is even all the way until the well’s bottom curves increase their radius. The profile is jut gorgeous now.

Performance wise, I have no idea – yet. The ride seems maybe 20% stiffer than stock and I’m not feeling any of the po-going mentioned. It might be because of that radical laser alignment, but the car does seem more sucked down to the road, tracks phenomenally, and the sensation of hard accelerating is enhanced because it’s harder to load up the suspension with the stiffer springs. More torque gets directed forward.

Installing shocks designed for shorter springs sounds like something I wish I had discovered before last Thursday!! I would have had them done at the same time and saved some money.

The cost of the PSS-9s is about $1,800. But don’t you also need camber plates, drop links, sway bars, etc to install and dial everything in properly? I was told that a proper conversion to PSS-9s would be close to $3,000 out the door, installed, dialed in and ready to race. And if racing is what you want to do, then I couldn’t imagine not doing PSS-9s with all the trimmings.

But for less than $600 plus whatever the cost of new shocks will be, plus installation (which could have been avoided grrrrrrr….) Maybe $1000 done right the first time?

Assuming I never track the car, is paying three times more for PSS-9s worth it?

 

$320 for install and alignment is the deal of the century. that's about half price my friend. you got a deal. hopefully it's not one of those get what you pay for circumstances and the installer really knew what he doing and just decided to hook you up.

to install the pss9's, you don't need any "extras". purely optional. i did the pss9's first, then the sway bars second. you are required to do new drop links if you use the GT3 sway bars.

here's what happens when you use lowering springs with stock shocks. essentially you compress the shock way lower than what it is desinged to be set at. right off the bat, this will kind of mess with your handling because the rebound and damping get a little screwed up. in the begining, the lower ride height kind of compensates and you get away with it for a little while.

then what will eventually happen is that the shocks being forced to remain in that compressed state, will completely smoke them. then your handling will turn to complete **** and the pogo'ing with start. it's mostly high speed stuff and you'll have to load the suspension up to notice it. i've used just spring on other cars and gotten away with it. not so on the porsche. wish i had just done the coilovers first instead of wasting my money on the springs.

you should have seen my shocks when we took them off to do the pss9's. the rears could be compressed by hand they were so badly worn after about 6K miles.

oh well. live and learn

 

Hi, can you explain if the control of the height is within the car with the pss9 given that the height is adjustable, and if the feel of the suspension is that much more tighter and smoother than stock, thanks

 

hmmmmmm...... makes sense. So, what shocks to replace the stock shocks? How much should they run me? Even with just the PSS-9s and install we're talking about $2500. Will new shocks and fix the problem that's not yet a problem?

 

John, the pogoing I got was on high speed corners....I can almost guarantee its there....my boxster did it from day 1 with just springs. The feeleng is when cornering at high speed and you hit a bump, the front end rebounds so hard that it feels like the front end lightens mid way through the corner which makes the car feel unsettled. For normal driving you probably wont feel it, but how many of us are always driving normally in our cars...lol...PSS9's are all you need unless you are going to track it and then by all means get the other things, but you don,t need them, I didnt. I am thinking about the GT3 sway bars though.

 

the height is adjustable from underneath the car. it is a one-time sort of deal though. once you adjust it you don't want to move it again as you'll need to re align it. you can move it often as you like if you want to keep getting alignments. i find the ride to be smoother than stock with less bottoming out. it is slightly firmer. certainly not bone jarring like some of the more track oriented suspensions.

 

go to shox.com they usally have some smoking prices. i got my pss9's there and they had the best price out of anyone i contacted. it was around $1800. it's kind of weird how different people price them. i've seen them range from $1700 to $3K. i guess it depends on how much margin the retailer wants to build in.

if you want to keep your springs, which i would just put on ebay and get rid of them, go with the bilstein "sport" shocks, not the HD's. the sports' have smaller shock bodies to compensate for the lowering springs. if i remember right, they're around $250 each or something like.

 

If you're not going to track your car regularly, or if you're not going to be changing the ride height, then stick with just swapping the springs and shocks. Sure, it's just a few hundred bucks more to get the coil over suspension, but why not put that money towards a SSK or something similar instead of spending extra money where it's not needed? A few hundred bucks is a few hundred bucks and 99.9% of people are never going to utilize the additional potential of the coilovers versus the separate spring/shock combo.

When changing the shocks, keep in mind that the Bilstein Sport shocks are not intended to change the ride characteristics of the car versus stock. They're valved to maintain the same ride. You're just going to get a car that's lower with less body roll. The HD shocks are valved stiffer, but are designed to work with the stock springs, so using them with the shorter H&R springs will shorten their life. I know of many, many people that run the H&R/HD setup for many miles though without any problems.

 

this is exactly why buying a matched set of springs/shocks makes sense. it's expensive for a reason