Just got my ROW M030 suspension installed

I wanted to have my suspension available to me for use on my car during an autocross this upcoming Sunday. So I paid a shop to do the installation instead of taking it on myself. The good news is the suspension doesn't ride much different than my old suspension but makes the car feel more solid. I've only driven it about 5 miles since the installation so I still need to go and try it on some more curvy roads. The bad news, or at least to me it is, is that it didn't lower the car at all. I previously measured the middle of the wheel to the bottom of the fender lip at 26.5" all the way around. Just measured when I got home and got the exact same measurement. Does this suspension take some time to settle into the 20mm drop I anticipated? Or does this kit vary somewhat and you never know what you get until you install it? I'm pretty sure I have the right parts, see the pics below:

I've noticed sag after a couple weeks with every car I've lowered. Let us know how it feels on the track!

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How about some before and after photos of your car I'd love to see the difference.

I would imagine that after roughly 10 years (and how many miles) that your factory M032 touring suspension was sagging a bit. That combined with the fact that the new setup still has to settle in are most likely the reasons for no drop at this point. How much did the shop charge you? Best price I've gotten so far is $1049 for installation, 4 wheel alignment and a 4 wheel corner balance.

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That's encouraging. This weekend is just an autocross but then April 28th-29th is a DE which will give my car two days of track duty to get it all settled in! I'm having the new tires installed tomorrow morning so I'll take photos then. But frankly you won't see any difference now because I measured and it's identical to how it was before. I thought maybe that was the case too but in all of my reading it appears that the measurement of 26.5" is about normal. As for the cost, well it was more than I wanted to spend. I called the dealer and they wanted $1500 and 2 days with the car. So I called an independent garage that isn't Porsche specific (but works on several high end cars) and they got me done in 6 hours at a cost of $900 including alignment. Again a lot more than I wanted to spend and I really wanted to do this myself but given my schedule I didn't have time. Plus I was worried that I would screw something up and have to skip out on my autocross on Sunday.

I know the US M030 sits higher than the ROW M030, but I'll bet you'll notice a drop soon. I don't recall the paint dots on my US suspension. Which tires are going on?

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Sumitomo HTR Z III tires. Good bang for the buck considering I have to replace the rears every year.

Did the $1,500 include an alignment? Even if it did it is pretty outrageous. With the right tools and equipment, and some experience it should only take 3-4 hours plus the alignment. I am basing this on my installing my PPS10's with jack stands and no power tools. Sometimes it just amazes me what dealers charge.

+1

My god do it yourself, its bloody easy, and there must be a tonne of write ups around...

Interesting thread, I have a RoW M030 suspension on it's way for my 03 C2. I just measured my stock suspension to the fender lip and it is 26.5" I was hoping to get a little drop in the front as it visually looks high. The specs say I should see almost 1 inch drop, but maybe not...

If you have a Row M030 kit, it should have a ride height at least like this. This is factory on 18" wheels.

This will give you an idea of how the Cab sits on a RoW M030 http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/memberupload.php http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/memberupload.php

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It did include the alignment so at least I'll give them credit for that. I'm an advocate of doing work myself but I just didn't have the time and I didn't want this suspension to sit around for weeks waiting for me to install it myself. I'd say mine has to be the exception rather than the rule. Everything I've seen from others has shown a slight drop so I'm not sure what the problem with mine is. That's what I was hoping for, but see below for how my car looks now. Your photos didn't show up. Well here are the photos of my current stance with the new tires. I measured and it dropped maybe 1/16" on the rear but the front stayed at 26.5". Is it possible something is wrong with the installation? The car feels very planted and secure as I went out for a short drive today. And I can absolutely feel the new sway bar when pulling into my driveway at an angle. Based on the markings on the springs I'd say I have the right kit so all signs point to everything being ok except for the ride height. Here are the pics:

Please give us your impression of the changes after your autocross event.

Drive it for a bit Fernando and let it settle. Also don't be surprised if it needs an alignment again after it settles.

Did the entire kit come prepacked from germany? That is how they developed the part number for the various retrofits. I would be suspect of your setup if it came as individual pieces in the carnewal shipping box.

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Will do! They shop suggested I come back after my track events anyway to re-align so that's a good idea and one that I'll take them up on. A box wrapped in "Genuine Porsche" tape was inside of Gert's box so I don't think I received the wrong parts. Plus all of the dots on the springs and shocks match the guides I referenced below. Based on the entries for the 2002 Cabrio with ROW M030 I have all of the right identifying marks on my springs (a bit difficult to read but they show green/red as the match for my car which my springs are). So aside from installing incorrectly I don't think anything is wrong with it. I'm crossing my fingers that a little bit of thrashing around the track this weekend will settle things down a bit.

I see that there is a "compensation spacer" listed in the front spring stacks. It is either 3 or 6.5 mm depending on one of the color code dots on the spring. Not much difference between the two spacers but still that may be contributing. Also not sure if that spacer is to be used on the RoW setup. Does anyone have any info on that?

Lets try this again. My car seems to sit a good amount lowers than yours looks too in your photos. http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/996_copy8.jpg http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/car_copy11.jpg

I had installed RoW Last year and I have to say that the ride height changes are minimum, I could barely see any difference. The car did not settle down much over time as well. I bought my row030 at suncoast and I thought at the time that may be older row030 were different, lower. I did check all my part number and they were correct but no lower ride height. Now that I have the PSS9, I do have much lower rider height. To finish it up, I'd say that it is for the best because with the PSS9, you need a bunch of new hardware to keep the alignment within OEM specs, it gets expensive quickly.

I went with the X74 suspension. Nice drop in ride height, firm ride but very streetable and amazing improvement for DE events.

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Did yours sit like this right after the suspension was installed? Or did it take some time to get to that level? See that appears to be my issue here as well. The part numbers and colored dots all match, the suspension appears to be installed and aligned correctly, but just no change in ride height. It's performing well but a bit of a disappointment because I wanted it slightly lower than stock. I considered the PSS9 and the X74. I had my heart set on the X74 but couldn't find a new one for sale so I started looking at alternatives. I researched PSS9s but figured I'd still need new sway bars plus thought that perhaps all of the adjustments would leave me with too many choices and therefore screwing something up. So although I knew ROW M030 wouldn't be that aggressive I figured it would be a step in the right direction. Speaking of which, I have my feedback regarding the suspension after my first autocross with it... This was actually a good test because the event was held in Greensboro, NC which is about 85 miles from my home in Charlotte. I was able to test the suspension over a 1+ hour long ride plus the autocross event itself. First let me tell everyone I had three different opinions of the suspension on the drive to the event: 1) On smooth roads - this suspension is too mild, I should have gone with something more aggressive 2) On marginal roads - wow I can feel it's stiffer but it's still not too bad 3) On awful roads - holy crap someone transplanted my mountain bike's suspension on to my car! There was construction along the way and I tell you on some of the roads the change was quite noticable. Not that my car was ever a luxury ride to begin with but you can tell the change. Once I got to the event I took the car out and did my thing. I'll tell you from the driver's seat I didn't feel it was too much different. Then again an autocross happens so fast that you don't have time to really study the car from behind the wheel. In terms of how I did, I ended up in 2nd place in my class with a little over 1 second behind the leader. However once we got to the last run the person running the event thought I wasn't pushing my car enough so he asked if I wanted the course designer to take my car out for a spin. I sat in the passenger seat and was amazed by what he did with my car. He took over 3 seconds off my time and did so without any experience behind the wheel of a water cooled 911. He praised the car's stability and how quick it transitioned in the slalom plus how flat it stayed during cornering. In other words, my placement in 2nd was no fault of my car's capabilities but my own driving. Bottom line - the suspension is a good move on my part even if it didn't make my car appear to be any more capable. Sure it rides rougher on awful roads but aside from that it feels more planted and secure as a car of this pedigree should. I'll have additional observations in two weeks after I go to my first DE with the new setup. So I'll offer my thoughts after that as well.

That is about how the car sat right after I installed the suspension, I would say it came down slightly once it settled after a few hundred miles.

Where did you purchase your kit? the Florida guys say they can order, but cannot give me a delviery date - seems it can be 3-5 weeks I understood that you bought yours from Germany.

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I ordered it from Gert at http://www.carnewal.com I originally wanted to order it from either SunCoast or Sunset Porsche but neither one could give me a delivery date either and told me the same timeframe you heard. So I called Gert and he had it to me in about a week. You'll end up paying about $100 more between the difference in Euro pricing and the duty fee that gets tacked on after you receive the shipment. But to me it was worth it since I didn't have to wait for my suspension to be delivered.

I ordered my kit from Suncoast on June 15 and it is now on the big brown truck somewhere between FL and CO.

"However once we got to the last run the person running the event thought I wasn't pushing my car enough so he asked if I wanted the course designer to take my car out for a spin. I sat in the passenger seat and was amazed by what he did with my car. He took over 3 seconds off my time and did so without any experience behind the wheel of a water cooled 911. He praised the car's stability and how quick it transitioned in the slalom plus how flat it stayed during cornering. In other words, my placement in 2nd was no fault of my car's capabilities but my own driving. " Always humbling, but good to know.

I installed the M030 ROW on my '02 Cab about 18 months ago, replacing the stock parts that had 9 years and nearly 50K miles on them. Ride height didn't change much when I dropped the car off the jack stands, but after several weeks of driving I measured approximately 15 mm drop in the front (specs suggest 20 mm) and maybe 5 mm in the rear (specs suggest 10 mm). I certainly notice the difference in that the clearance for my floor jack under the car is considerably less than before. As others have said, the old stuff does start sagging a bit over time; I'd bet an adult beverage that Porsche sets their specs based on brand new parts, just installed (or, more likely, engineering calcuations). My use of the car is weekend blasts and long touring trips, and I'm very happy with the transformation the M030 kit has made. One last thing: I ordered mine from Suncoast and "lucked out" that they had one kit in their warehouse. They gave me a definitive ship date and I received the kit within a week. The parts "ship loose", but every part had a factory part sticker and I verified each one as being part of the M030 ROW kit--no problems. Enjoy.

There is no corner balancing on X74 or M030, so if anyone got charged for that... The Compensator spacer is used in any suspension setup. It is simply a thick rubber ring between the spring and lower race of the upper strut bearing. When I went to PSS9s, I knew, because of my steep driveway/road interface, I may be limited to how low I could go, and I was also installing stiffer X74 upper strut mounts, so I went with the thicker compensator, and all new rubber, to be on the safe side, and no regrets. I'm as low as I can go, and have plenty of room to go lower in the front, but stopped at X74 height, and it is as stiff as I could want without being harsh at a "4". Of course 3mm difference is only a about 1/8" so it''s of little consequence here. The lack of adjustability is why I went with PSS9 instead of M030 or X74. I ended up with about a 33-34 mm drop, and installed a "fix" on my driveway. I doubt you'll see a 10mm drop over time, as mine was maybe 3mm total with all new rubber. That's a LOT for springs to settle, especially if you reused your rubber. I've got to dig up my before photos..

It's been a few months now and there's been no drop. Also I ran into a guy at an autocross who just had the same suspension installed on his and he also told me there was no drop for his 2003 Cab. So maybe something has changed but if you're looking to lower the car search elsewhere. It's a great suspension choice for those who want the combination of street and performance but it won't look any more aggressive than stock.

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Big +1 on all of this. My coupe M030 suspension hasn't dropped either after 2 months. It is a great suspension though. Nothing like freshening a tired suspension system with a brand new one.

My fronts dropped about 3/8", the rears not much at all. Looks better with the front down a little from stock.

Very interesting to read. I just acquired an '02 Cabriolet and had two mods in mind: springs (likely Eibach) to lower it (I don't anticipate tracking the car so aesthetics is the real driver here vs. performance) and an exhaust (Afterhours) because my motto is if you cannot drive fast, at least sound fast. p-) While it's positive to hear it feels better, I will be interested to hear if it settles after a bit. (side note: I have a Yamaha Road Star Warrior 1700cc with some engine work (112-ft pounds of torque) and a Rinehart Exhaust and it sounds like a caged wildebeest when you grab a hand full of throttle, at which point I cannot stop grinning for ~120 minutes thereafter --- this is the PRIMARY reason I'm considering an exhaust).

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See this thread for the exhaust I have on my car now: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...installed.html

FYI, I put this suspension on my 2001 Cab and had a similar result. What I did was cut the tab stop off from the strut housing mounting plate on the front so that it could drop a little lower in the collar. The through bolt would then become the stop for the strut into the collar. If you want more drop you could lengthen the hole for the bolt at the top of the mount plate on the strut. Once the bolt is tightened it will hold the strut securely in place. I did this to mine and it has held up fine. David