Hi all

​First post. I have recently purchased a 970 panamera and have been doing as much reading as possible but have not been able to find a definitive answer.

The vehicle pulls to the left, I have matched up the air pressures in all 4 wheels and have a lap had the car aligned however this was not done at a porsche specialist.

The toe and thrust angle seem to be better now on the readings compared to before but the camber appears to be out. The shop said they were not able to adjust the camber on the panamera.. Is it possible for the camber angle to be changed, it appears one front tyre has negative camber, the other has positive.. This is probably why the car drags.

​​​​​​I hope someone can help

Thanks

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That is because your upper control arm bushings and or a combination of bushings are Done for.... you gotta take care of that before getting the alignment dialed in. This is quite common on the panameras

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply, it is honestly appreciated.

Do you know the best way to test which bushings may need replacing? Would you recommend replacing the whole arm or just having the bushings replaced?

Thanks in advance to you or anyone else willing to help

 

Here's a good article that will help you out:

http://www.insanegarage.com/panamera...nter-bushings/

It's a very common issue w/ these cars but not difficult to fix - good luck!

 

The other issue could be that a previous owner already took care of either upper and lower control arm issues and did not do a good job re-assembling.
Especially when putting back the lower control arm one has to be very careful and put it back 'ball park' where all the alignment adjustment bolts used to be.
If not, the person going in for the alignment might be limited as to how much toe etc... can be adjusted.
When I addressed my front suspension issues I marked most of my bolts and pieces so I could re-assemble in line with previous specs. Then I drove it to the alignment shop.

The fix for the above issue is simple : some of the main bolts holding the lower control arm and carrier need to be loosened and repositioned, allowing for more flexibility in the alignment. A good alignment shop with Porsche and/or race car experience should be able to do this for you.

First you need to assess whether you have any issues with your control arm bushings. There's several post about the symptoms (creaking & squealing when taking sharp turns or driving over bumps). Once you can confirm there are no issues, I would try the above route.
Good luck.

 

Thanks for your replies.

I dont recall hearing the noises mentioned above but I think I am going to take the car out for drive, somewhere where there are speed bumps, will try some sharp turns in a car park and see if I can hear anything.

Does anyone know if it is possible to replace the upper control arm without removing the strut from the car? It appears that the ball joint can be removed but the bit I am unsure about is whether to two bolts securing the control arm to the vehicle can be removed whilst the strut is still on the vehicle.

Is it recommended to replace the control arm or can i get a Bushing press and replace the bushings on the current arms?

Thanks

 

I do beleive you can, however you need to disconnect them (struts) from the top of the wheel well and you might as well just remove them all the way as they will still be getting in the way of removing the arm and you've already done about 95% of the work.