996TT - How hard should it ride?

OK, had my TT for 2 weeks now. Despite having a fairly long test drive, it was down fast sweeping A roads. On the bumpy rutted roads near my house I'm very surprised just how uncomprimising the ride is. The car bangs and shudders far more than my mates C4. Should it be that extreme? Any thoughts? :thumb:

I found the ride on mine to be rather harsh and bang/crash on bumpy roads. It would be badly affected by bumps at speed, causing constant steering correction, and a very 'nervous' feel. Changing tyres from Contis to Yokohamas made a big difference, but I still felt it wasn't right. Yesterday, I collected my car from Chris Franklin at Center Gravity who has refurbished the suspension and fitted new Bilstein B6 dampers. (Factory fit is B4's - as Chris says, "the accountant's choice") He found several things which needed attention. All the springs had sagged, but the rears had sagged 19mm - 10mm more than the fronts. This made it nose-up. There were some minor geometry inaccuracies, but nothing horrendous. One rear wishbone was creaking, and one rear forked arm had excessive play in the bearing. One inner track rod end joint was tight, and the other one loose. Chris is absolutely meticulous, going way above and beyond the call of duty to get everyting set up perfectly. And I do mean perfectly. The result is a ride which is much more compliant, due to the better damper performance, and the restoration of ride height, giving additional damper travel. On bumpy roads it now steers straight and true - power on, or braking. Far more confidence inspiring. Really poor broken surfaces, bad repairs, and potholes are still uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Overall it is a massive improvement, and it feels like it probably did when it left the factory - or better. If you are going anywhere near Chris (Atherstone, Warks) then go see him, or if you are near me, I'd be happy to take you for a ride in mine.

The Turbo does have standard M030 Sports Chassis (10mm drop), a C4 doesn't. But as Richard points out, time and tide wait for no man, or suspension components.

Richard, how many miles are you on? I've already changed front coffin arms, forked control arms, top mounts and bearings, drop links and arb bushes. Not done the rears but I'll be down at Chris in a couple of weeks and I'm probably going to pick up rear arms and swap them over down there. Just wondering if I should prepare myself for shocks too!!! No biggie but nice to be prepared to get the crowbar out and prise open the wallet

Mine has done 71,000. 996T's tend to suffer from saggy backsides, but Chris will no doubt check ride heights. He has a neat solution to bring it back to standard by machining another groove in the damper to raise the spring platform to bring the car back to level.

Dare I ask a price for all this...?

YHPM

Could I have a pm of the cost too as i feel my rear end could do with a bit of help. No jokes intended! Thanks

I was thinking the same, doesn't sound cheap but it's basically a complete and utter overhaul of the entire suspension set-up; I bet it feels fantastic now, Richard! :thumb: At my last service, Malton made an 'advisory' that it's set-up fairly aggressively at the rear and I might not need that amount of camber if I'm not tracking it. I keep meaning to get down to Center Gravity myself; nothing feels 'wrong' with it and it's only on 45,000 miles but I'm intrigued to see if improvements could be made...

PM for me too please... going there on the 25th.

Hi all, I just picked up a TT last weekend and noticed that the rear bangs and crashes over bumps much more so than the front. It has done 62,000 miles and I'm guessing the shocks haven't been changed in it's life time by looking at them. As the fronts are ok, whats the opinion on just changing the rears for B6's and leaving the fronts? Given that B6's aren't standard. I'm also going to be looking to refreshing all the bushes too (front and rear). Cheers, Doug

You'll probably find you have a saggy rear end too. I think a major part of the improvement on mine was restoring the ride height, giving the shockers more travel and increasing their effectiveness. It also brings the car back to level fore-and-aft, making the front end more positive and 'pointy'. I would get the ride heights checked first. Personally, I don't think it would be a good idea to mix dampers.

Here is my rear, is it sagged, it seems good to me! But I do feel mine also to be very crashy at the rear. I doubt I can afford right now to get a full suspension refurb so where do you think the best place to start would be. Bushes?? Which ones or go straight for shocks??

This is mine just after I bought it two years ago at 58000 miles. I will try to take a photo of it tomorrow in the same spot as a comparison. The only way to know for sure is to get it measured. Edit: Photo added.

ok, hard to tell from your pics above comparing to my car. I'm taking my car into Jaz next week so I'll get them to have a look at the ride height. I'm not keen on the idea to mix dampers either - just need to reach deeper into my pockets when the time comes for new dampers lol.