Hi All,

I've been lurking for a bit, but just officially joined the forums as I purchased a 2012 Panamera 4 with 57K miles last month. After a couple weeks of ownership I had a set of H&R springs installed to fill up the wheel gap a bit more, but no other mechanical changes and still the stock wheels.

Since installing the springs I notice a pretty serious clunk over large dips or speed bumps. I'm in FL, so potholes aren't a big issue, but a dip in the road, RR crossing, or speed bump creates a very noticeable issue, and it doesn't take a severe obstacle to do it. I just had the installing shop check it today to verify that nothing is loose or shifting, and to go through all bushings, control arms, and tie rods. They found no issues. Their suggestion is that either the springs are short enough to move when the suspension fully unloads, or it's the shocks bottoming out against the stops. I'm aware of the problematic creak that plagues the front end, but this seems to be a different issue and not just worn bushings.

I know that many other users have installed the H&Rs, and I've seen no other reports of similar problems. Is there something that I/the shop could be missing? Should there be any change to spring seat or perch? I really like the change in stance and don't really want to go back to the stock springs, but this is way too nice a car to be clunking like a 200K mile junker over every significant bump.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Man that stinks...I have H&R on my Panamera (did the install myself) and don't have the issue you mention.

Did they take apart the rear end to verify they did the install well or did they just eye ball it? Its not hard to miss anything on a suspension install...in this case I would look at the human perspective as the area that went left instead of right.

 

Yeah, now I'm wishing that I had just done this myself. I've done all my own spring swaps in the past, but had very little free time for a while and thought that having them do it would be the easy solution.

When they looked it over the second time they did put the car up on the rack and said they checked everything over to make sure all was tight, and even looked over the parts that aren't removed during the install. They're a small private shop that specializes in German cars, and seem to be quite willing to try and help (they spent over an hour test driving it and looking at it today), and they offered to look again if the work today didn't fix it (it didn't), but they aren't finding anything.

Since I didn't see the original setup, does anyone have a picture, diagram, or good description of the rear spring setup? Are there rubber cups on top and bottom? Anything that they could have installed wrong or missed with regards to how the spring sits in the perch?

This shouldn't be rocket science, but clearly something is off, and most shops point to the "it was fine before, clearly it's the too short spring with an incorrect spec" answer.

Thanks!

 

I understand...I'm always fearful of folks touching my car in general.

As you know checking the car statically can be misleading at times. I'd want them to take the rear apart to redo it.

I wish I took pictures during my install but I simply followed all steps I've done on suspension installs in the past.



RIGHT!...meanwhile we all know that's never the appropriate answer.

 

I've been looking into H&R springs myself, so have been reading up on these. Found this post which might be relevant to your problem:

https://www.renntech.org/forums/topic/50319-hr-spring-installation/

HTH

 

I've been researching H&R springs also and came across this post that might be relevant to your problem:

https://www.renntech.org/forums/topic/50319-hr-spring-installation/

 

Thanks ih82lose, that info is much appreciated.

I've been working with H&R directly, but their technical contact has gone quiet and has quit responding to me. The shop that installed the springs originally says that they don't know what else to do/check, so my next option is to pay another specialist shop to look it over. That's where the car is headed next.

It's encouraging to know that someone else had the same issue and corrected it with a simple re-seat.

Thanks!