2004 Boxster S - About to have 19's put on.

What's the best bang for buck to lower her a bit without changing the ride too much. Can you simply have the springs cut/modified?
I am happy with the handling for a daily driver.

Any techno education on this topic will be much appreciated.

 

Please don't cut your springs... you are driving a porsche not a honda. Look into lowering springs from either H&R, eibach, or ruf... if lowering springs are not what your looking for your next step up would be matching those to some bilstein dampers. Past that are coilovers.

 

Try the Eibach ERS lowering springs, snugs the car up nicely; I used mine for a whole couple of months before swapping out for Motons. Be advised that installing springs on a Cayman is no fun due to the configuration of the rear suspension, so you'll run up some labor costs and you will have to do a four-wheel alignment.

 

Just get coilovers, its more money but you will realize that you get what you pay for!

 

Appreciate the feedback so far guys and don't worry I'm not cutting anything
I take it coilovers are a complete suspension upgrade yeah!
It's like anything though, you can always go more and sure it's better ,but is it neccessary just o make the car look better after a wheel upgrade, cause that's the main goal?
Sure I wouldn't mind it to handle a little better but it's not the main criteria of this excercise.

 

Then you should honestly just go with lowering springs. Your present dampers are not matched for them, and will eventually have more wear because of that.... but springs are considerably cheaper than coilovers... for your 986 boxster coilover wise you could go from $2000 US dollar PSS9's to 5000+ moton systems... but if you are just looking for a lowered stance then go with some H&R lowering springs... you will still have 5+ hours of labor plus an alignment to get them on, but you can buy four sets of springs for the price of a set of coilovers.

 

Dude, go with H&R's. Forget the coil overs as they aren't what your after and are $$$ compared with a set of simple springs.

LOL at cutting the springs! Your going to have a hard time living that one down Charlie

 

I think this is a decent price;
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/97-04...spagenameZWD1V

But to be honest,I wouldn't just install springs only just cause the strut has to be taken apart,might as well change everything else out cause install is $$$ on these cars. Better to get it all done at once instead of taking it all apart now,realizing you want more later.

 

Thanks dude. I'll let you know if i need to borrow a hacksaw!! Now that the M3 has coilovers do you think you can keep my number plate in view around the twisty bits????

 

Agree and Will do. Good advice. Thanks.

 

LOL. Anytime you want another run around Galston Gorge give me a yell! 150k+ on the road is way to quick for my blood

 

I run Eibach springs only and the ride quality is fantastic! Very cost effective as well.

 

how much does it sually cost to get the springs installed?
AND, is this hard to do yourself if all the tools are there, i know about the spring compressor as i rented one to lower my other car, but ran into some problems and never lowered it.

 

The usual answer is that you will be quoted around 6 hours. So you are looking at around 600 at a good porsche shop. Thing is that if you don't want to lose tires like its your job then you will need an alignment too.

 

Not hard to do yourself if you have some patience and a little time. I did my springs in a weekend (987S) roughly following this procedure:

http://gwl.rmsolo.org/hacks/suspension/

I wasn't in any rush so I took my time to get it right.

I also did my alignment in the process using the strings and tape measure method. I did buy a smart level to set the camber. Here's a link to smart racing products - I bought the cheap protractor on this page:

http://www.smartracingproducts.com/alignment.htm

I also built a t-square out of aluminum angle and aluminum square tubing I bought at Home Depot (probably $20 US in materials). The purpose of the t-square is to provide a way to place the smart level parallel to the wheel so I could get an accurate camber measurement. Basically the same idea as the black frame on the link above.

I enjoy working on my car so it's easy for me to justify the expense on tools. You may have a different take on that.

Enjoy,

Nestor