I found a lightly used set of
Cayman
R dampers, which will be replacing the stockers in my 2009 base
Cayman
. They didn't come with any top mounts. My stock top mounts have 60K miles on them. Should I plan to re-use them or should I just splash out with new ones at this mileage, considering everything will be apart? Obviously I can examine the condition of the existing top mounts when I remove them, but wondering what the consensus is... Thanks.
I installed
Cayman
R (
X73
) suspension on my 2010
Cayman
Base and reused existing mounts. The car had around 50K miles on it. No issues whatsoever.
You may consider replacing LCAs if you care about camber adjust-ability.
X73
also comes with thicker sway bars, so you may want to look into that as well.
I'm thinking of changing my 2012
Cayman
Base to the
Cayman R suspension
. Can you share your experience with ride height and performance vs comfort on the street?
I am very happy with
X73
. Car sits about an inch lower, which to me looks so much better! This car is just as awful on bumpy roads but it corners better and seems less bouncy.
Thanks for the real would review!
Thanks for the pic - the ride-height is perfect to me and I'm looking forward to installing them! What wheel and tire dimensions are you running in that pic, please?
I'm aware of the subtle difference in the rear swaybar of the R (slightly stiffer) and don't think it's worth the investment. If I start doing trackdays, I may consider an adjustable rear, but my understanding is that the additional stiffness is there to balance out the LSD, which I don't have.
18 inch rims and stock tire sizes (235/40/18, 265/40/18)
Thanks. I'm moving up to 18s from 17s at the same time (albeit with aftermarket wheels) and I'm planning to buy tires in the same size as OEM. So I have a good idea of how it will look now I've seen your setup
Here is another photo, wearing track shoes, also 18 inch but with slightly larger tires (245/40/18, 275/40/18)
The top mounts have a bushing that needs replacing, so for the amount of time you will invest in changing your suspension, I would recommend new top mounts. You will need an alignment as well as you have changed your ride height, so more negative camber front -1.0 and rear -1.2, 0 toe front, caster around 8 , rear toe in 1/32 on each side should keep your inside tire tread from wearing out.
The negative camber will allow the full face of your tires to grip the road in the corners and prevent the outside of the tire shoulder from wearing. With 0 toe in front and just a little toe in in the rear, you should get about 17 - 20 k miles out of your tires unless they are very soft. I have 17k on my 3 year old Michelins PSS's with 5 autocross events and the tread is still above the wear bars. I have -1.6 camber in front and -2.1 in the rear, but am not using these any longer for racing.
Does the
Cayman
R come with any sort of bump-steer parts to compensate for the 20mm drop? I haven't heard of any, but just checking there aren't any shims or different tie rods on the R compared to the base/S?
My car is dropped 36 mm do to Tarett LCA's shims pushing out the tract to gain camber and Ohlins. So, I installed Elephant toe and bumpsteer adjustable links f&r to correct the arc of two different length link/arms at this dropped ride height.
