2005
Boxster base
manual. 92k miles on the factory original struts.
This is just a post to pass on what I learned replacing my struts.
Pelican
has a good how to article for the full procedure.
General-
If your struts, lower control arms, or steering tie rods have more than maybe 50,000 miles on them then you are missing a big chunk of the Porsche magic. If you’re pushing 100,000 miles on the original parts then you may as well drive a Camry. I bought my car with 92,000 miles on it with everything original. The front lower control arms had obvious wear to the point where the steering wheel vibrated above 60 mph. It’s a different car now.
I thought my Struts were okay, but after removing them they were clearly toast. I could easily compress them by hand and they made grinding noises.
Factory struts are Bilstein B4’s, but get the B6’s. Better, more rigid design (mono tube) (see picture for comparison) and internal bump stops so you don’t need to replace the factory external ones. B8’s only if you going with lowering springs.
Be careful installing small steel bolts into aluminum parts, very easy to cross thread or strip. I suggest using a tap to carefully clean up the aluminum threads and don’t over torque.
Use a ball joint removal tool, nothing that involves a hammer. Harbor freight has one.
Mark the top nut location on the front struts now (I mean get a sharpie and go do it now) so you don’t forget and lose your alignment.
Use an impact wrench to remove and install the top nuts on the struts. It’s might seem like the shaft is just spinning, but the nut is moving. The pelican article shows an impact wrench on the nut with the strut installed on the car, DO NOT DO THIS. I don’t think pelican is suggesting this, but that picture could lead someone down a dark path. Remove the nut on the work bench with spring compressors installed to take the load off the nut.
There is no need to use spring compressors to install or remove parts from the car. You only need to use them on the bench.
I suggest leaving the center caps off the wheels and retorquing the axle nuts once you‘re done and the car is back on the ground.
Rear Strut Replacement-
Do not remove the axle nut since you’d still have to press the axle out of the hub.
Instead, Remove the axle from the transmission side. 12mm triple square spline bolts on my 5 speed (see picture). Buy a set of triple square spline bits since there are others on the car. It’s a weird bolt, but zero chance of stripping them. Use the parking brake to remove two at a time, rotate the axle to access each set of two. It’s easy, but you need a lot of extensions (See picture). Mark each bolt with torque seal when you reinstall them since it is easy to lose track of which ones you torqued as you rotate the axle. Torque in an X pattern when you re-install.
Completely remove the lower control arm and disconnect the tie rod. This will allow the carrier to drop down low enough to easily remove the strut/spring without spring compressors. Be sure to mark the alignment washers. Don’t bother figuring out if you really need to do all this disassembly, just do it. (Advise to past self)
Take a few minutes to clean the exhaust heat shield. Use Extra fine steel wool And maybe some metal polish. You can see it through the wheel and it looks cool when it’s all shiny back in there.
I ordered the HT upper strut mount replacement kit from Pelican, but the rears were not the correct part. My originals cleaned up to looking like new, so I just reused them.
Line up the stud with the alignment plate on the strut as shown in the picture on the work bench before you remove the spring compressors. The studs only line up with the car one way so look at it so you chose the right stud.
Clean the brake rotors with Acetone and reinstall them without touching the braking surface. Clean the parking brake side too.
Front Struts Replacement-
Mark the location of the top nuts to keep you alignment!
I reused the upper strut mount and steering bearing parts. They all cleaned up nice so I just greased and reused them. Fully disassemble and clean the steering bearing parts until they are perfectly clean before re-greasing them.
You only need to loosen the lower control arm bolt to allow it to move a little lower and you’ll have space to carefully rotate the strut/spring out. Also remove the two torx screws from the under body to panel so it is free to move with the control arm.
If your front lower control arms or steering tie rods (inner and outer) have more than 30,000 miles or so on them I would replace them. Harbor fright sells a kit to remove the inner tie rods.
Check if your car came with the black steel tubes that connect the strut tower to the firewall. If not these parts are available from Porsche. Not expensive and easy to install. All 911’s got them but most 987’s did not.
Anyhow, it’s not a bad job. It just takes some time, probably 20 hours for me but I work slow and clean things. And I didn’t have this write up! ;-)
Cheers,
Scott
Attached is a picture of the black steel tubes I mentioned in my first post. You can also see I installed an Oddessy
AGM battery
which saves about 30 pounds.
Yep, I'm tackling this
next
weekend, I did the fronts last weekend but I'm apprehensive about dealing with the rears. Drive shafts scare me! Thanks for the write up.
Do all of them! You don’t want new struts on the front and old ones in the back.
I was apprehensive about unbolting the drive shafts, but it’s just six bolts and they are off. Nothing magic. Loosen the bolts before you take the brake
rotor
off so you can use the parking brake. You just need the proper bit and a lot of extensions.
I’ll also add that the original
Porsche
front steering bearing assembly was noticeably higher quality than the German aftermarket parts I got thinking I would replace them. I ended up cleaning up, greasing, and reusing the original
Porsche
parts. If you’re going to replace them I would recommend
Porsche
factory parts here. Mine cleaned up to like new even after 92,000 miles and nearly 20 years, but my car has also never left southern California.
I‘ve only done a short trip around the block to settle the suspension, but the steering feels much tighter now. I can’t wait to get it on the back roads, but I’m still working through my “while I’m in there“ list.
Also, consider ordering some extra brake
rotor
hold down screws. Cheap and my car was missing one.
Oh, and buy a couple wheel guide studs to make putting the wheels back on easy. eBay.
I’ll add this to my past self too. There should be zero play in the steering of these cars. No on center dead spot. Tight and precise. If it’s not then it needs the
Bilstein B6
’s, lower control arms, and/or steering tie rods. Probably all of them.
@sstearns2
Excellent post and information. Congrats on the Technical Excellence Award!
Ok so after doing the rears:
To get the rear struts out, it's a two stage process.
First up if the top of the drop link pinch bolt is giving you trouble do not hesitate to get destructive. Cut off the ball joint, expose the 17mm hex by grinding off the flange, get an impact gun on it and back and forth it until it frees up and spins. You can then hammer it out backwards. Heat and penetrating oil may help. Clean this hole up once it's out.
Remove the caliper and hang out of the way.
Undo the 6 gearbox side bolts of the driveshaft so it's free.
Undo the inner bolt of the coffin arm and removed it (mark alignment position first).
Split the rear toe arm ball joint at the hub.
Loosen the top mount bolts inside the car but do not undo them.
You can now pull the inner end of the coffin arm out and move it under the sub frame rail.
From that position you can hammer the hub downwards off of the strut leg. Undo the rest of the top mount inside the car and the strut will come out.
Took about 1 hour per side in an equipped garage with air and impact tools. Imo, don't attempt this job without a good impact gun, a new drop link, some good friends and perhaps a beer.
That's interesting. Doesn't look like I have those braces on my 08.
Have a part number for them?
One last thing. You‘ll need a wheel alignment for sure after replacing the struts. I thought if I lined everything up just the way it was it would be okay. Nope.
In the middle of this now. Full replacement of every single part. going back with
koni sport
and
R springs
. 110000 on the car.
I went with
Spyder
Performance UK for the majority of the parts,
FCP Euro
for tie rods and other wear items and
Carnewal
for the Konis, bump stops and boots. SO easy to deal with, fast shipping to the usa and priced right.
If you choose to R&R struts order bump stops, boots and rear spring pads at minimum. The foam parts simply disappear over time. The front spring pads are rubber and looked fine but got replaced anyways. Don't try to separate control arms as you will destroy the boots.
I found my strut mounts all looked ok. But I am sure I can barely load them up to see any cracks so they got replaced.
I am going to clean up the old front bearings and inspect before I install the after market parts based on comments above.
The most worn parts I found were front control arms ball joints followed by tie rods. None had play you could feel by hand but they were very floppy which means they were long overdue. None of the rubber parts were torn but most had surface cracking.
I pulled the axle from the hub. Used a three jaw
puller
and made short work of it. Much easier than 12 bolts and doing the handbrake/ rotate dance.
big strong ball joint separator is mandatory. Even had to apply some heat to get one to pop. You are not beating these out...no way. And you are likely not getting the control arms out without destroying the boots. The rear tie links did pop easily with no damage. Tie rods came out intact too. Not that I was saving them.
Waiting on rear spring pads to arrive tuesday then the reinstall begins.
Going to pull all the fender liners and pressure wash everything under there today and super detail the wheel insides and backs.
ONE LAST TIP....always leave mounts to the car from the control arms loose until they are loaded at ride hight or you will rip them apart.
@Ric_in_RVA
- pictures! We need pictures! Great work, it would be wonderful to see what you've found and done.
New parts waiting on spring pads.
Hover car
Shiny!
Everything that came off....110000 miles. fairly clean car that was always a southern east coast car.
Nothing frozen rusted stuck....You brits have itrough over there....what a mess...
The front tuning forks have play you can feel by hand. Those would be an easy thing to change out on a high mileage car. Not sure but I think you could remove them without touching anything else. And no alignment needed.
The sway bar links were also floppy and they are also easy to replace.
The front control arms had way more ball joint wear than the rears, probably due to turning more. If budget was a concern doing all the fronts and the tie rods would be a pretty big bang for the buck. And get that porsche steering back.
Rear parts. Only the rear tie rod did not get replaced. I will probably go to an adjustable one with fixed ends.
Crunchy foam spring pads. Same stuff as bump stops which also were gone!!
