Excellent thread, thanks for the resurrection Hampi...
There is clearly something wrong with your setup, I am sure that someone will chime in soon.

Just for the record, my pocket rocket smart brabus needed new suspension, and I got a great deal on the bilsteins PSS6. Same principal basically, adjustable springs, but no pasm capability of course. I have to concur with Alex's findings, although I respect Can's educated opinion especially since he insisted so much, that raising the car softens the suspension, as a matter of fact... Went from a tooth jarring ride to comfortable (for a smart car - nightstand on wheels) with an increase in hight of 20mm. Mind you I realize that within steps of 5mm the difference may be significantly subtler, but with a 20-25mm step the difference was huge...

 

Did your installer reconnect all the electronics properly? There still should be a big different between sport on and off. And are you sure you got damptonics and not just pss10s?

 

Sorry I never got back to you on this. Rather dropped that ball.

In recent months I have changed my HRE wheels to a lesser rear offset, changed all dog-bone and toe-steer rod ends to NMB F1-quality, fitted Michelin PSS tires, set both front and back GMG sways to full soft (still stiffer than stock) and had everything realigned.

RESULT: ....WOW!!! I have never driven anything so planted and compliant over UK (broken/uneven) roads. It's simply mental how glued/quick the car is over any surface. It blows my mind every time I drive it now. Totally in love all over again

 

Yes, its the damptronic with pasm. Guess I have to bring my car back to the tuner...

 

Alex, care to elaborate on this? Previous and current offsets and wheel widths?
Thanks

 

Hampi, what you are feeling, no difference between Firm and Normal settings of Bilstein, could be "normal," because of the simple reason that you are not used to it. I had the exact same concern when I first had Bilstein in my car; I couldn't tell either if there was a difference.
You might want to drive the car for a few weeks, get used to the system, then see if you could then notice it. *If* everything is working right, once you've had some time with it, the difference - while much more subtle than stock - will be as clear as night and day.

There is an explanation - but first remember that 2 things cause stiffness in the suspension: the spring rate and the dampening rate. How PASM works is that dampening rate is increased between the Normal and the Firm setting.
1. In the stock Turbo PASM 1 (first version): HUGE difference between Normal and Firm. On a scale of 1 to 10 for stiffness, if Normal feels like, say 2, then Firm would feel like 9. Very jittery and so firm as to be almost un-usable on streets. This was a major criticism of PASM1 and the system was revised for all 997.2. (997.2 Turbo has much more supple PASM system and 997.1's was more or less a first attempt with some design flaw; Porsche of course didn't mention any of this until the 997.2 system comes out.)
2. In the Bilstein Turbo PASM: much more subtle increase of dampening rate between Normal and Firm. On the same 1-10 scale, Bilstein Normal is say 5-6, Bilstein firm 7-8 or so, *approximately*. This is why at first users have a difficult time telling them apart.

You could bring back for an inspection - never hurt. But from what I've read, if they forget to connect any wire the system will give you all sorts of alarm and won't work at all (extremely stiff). I could be wrong but I doubt very much that is the case here.
Lastly in case you haven't done so yet, confirm that your tire pressures are around 30/36 or so "cold," 33/39 hot for street tires. Dealers always over-inflate tires because they blindly follow the door's panel chart, which is not correct.

 

Did anybody else with Damptronic B16 made the same experience?
Regards, Hampi
_____________________________________
Bilstein B16 Damptronic, FVD Sway Bars,
Split Second Turbo Tuner

 

I seem to be alone in this observation. But I stick by it.

Also, setting both front and rear GMG sways to softest settings (still stiffer than stock) makes the car insanely compliant - just grips and grips over any road surface.

 

No difference whatsoever in my case between around 12 and around 20. FWIW, such huge stiffness difference has never been reported in the several hundreds of old posts I've read, from several installs. Bilstein's USA will tell you the same thing: Within specs and especially only 5mm, if there is such a huge difference between 15 and 20 then there is something wrong with the setup.

In other words, I trust Alex's observation, but just want to point out that the cause of this observation is not simple, and extremely unlikely to be a result of changing the damper height *directly* (something *else* is going on). We have plenty of evidence to suggest that this is not the case. Not for Bilstein, not for KW, not for JRZ, if used within specs of course.

Alex's car has several after-market links with metallic joints, and sway bar, installed - that is one source of my suspicion. Alteration in geometric relationship, frozen joints in that altered geometry (that become un-frozen with the height change), etc.; any number of reasons could cause unusual suspension stiffness. (In my car one time the sway bar bushing was not lubricated and became frozen.) The fact that Alex had to change several of these joints later could be "normal," or could be another red flag; we will never know. The change occured, but it is not from the change in dampening force as a result of height change; this does not make sense at all, at least not in a fully functional damper.

 

You all must not completely understand the height adjustment. the main spring is NOT compressed with changing height. the weight of the car changes the resting spring height. Stiffness has nothing to to with compressing the spring it shoud be the same at all heights otherwise you have a shock problem