Suspension question

i recently acquired a lightly modded c4s without records. So I am sorting through the car and trying to figure out what i have. Last piece of the puzzle is the suspension. Help me identify the springs and lets talk about other suspension options. the car is lowered and I was hoping to find coil overs there since the rest of the modifications are top shelf. Unfortunately the part numbers on the shocks are OEM 996 shocks. That leaves me with some aftermarket springs. I know they have been done in the last 15k miles (third owner bought the car at 41k and it was ALL stock at that time.) Now the car has 56k. Here are pictures of the springs. There aren't any marking on them. they lower the ca pretty aggressively. It looks great. Ride is OK but too low. I scrape more often than I would like.

Welcome to the c4s family Not sure what those springs are though. As for suspension I have been having debating for months on what to do. I have finally decided on kw v3 coilovers, arriving tomorrow so will throw up a review once they are put in. Do you have aftermarket dogbones and drop links to keep your alignment in check?

Have you tried cleaning the springs and rotating them to see if there are any other marks on the other side?

i tried looking at the back with a small mirror and did not see anything. did not see logo or part numbers. the part number on the front strut is 996-343-043-27. I did notice that there are rub marks on the front springs. Which tells me that the car is quite often riding fully comnpressed springs. Is that normal?

Look like stock springs and height to me. More/other shots might help. Don't know of any other aftermarket springs witht he same cone shaped coils as stock.

Quotes source post: 9937884

Thanks to google I was able to get in contact with the previous owner. He told me that the suspension is all stock including springs. But somehow his mechanic lowered the car. I asked if they cut factory springs he said simply lowered it. Factory system is not height adjustable is it?

Are you sure it's lowered? Any photos of the car from a side view so we can see?

Does the bump stop seem cut? Look under the hood for the options sticker and see if you got the sport package. Could be that PO put on ROW Euro springs as well. Does your ride seem bouncy at all? This might indicate heated springs to lower the car(hope not).

I will post pics tonight when I am on front of a computer. The ride seem bouncy a little. Not horrible. The springs on the car (let's assume stock) have contact marks especially on the lower coils. As if the coils frequently rest on each other.

I don't think the the coils have "rested" on each other. I would suggest that they have been fully compressed "with great vigor" over an extremely short moment in time. In other words they were jammed together going over a speed bump too fast, or perhaps potholes in the road well travelled. I had TechArt lowering springs on my car for a few years, and they were waaay too low, unless you were a "tuner" type who enjoys a flashy lowrider. Several folks here measure the lowness of their cars by measuring the distance from the ground to the top of the wheel well arch, directly in line with the center cap of each wheel. Measure both fronts and both rears. You may be surprised to find out that they may not even match side-to-side. I used a yardstick that also had mm measurements. Post your results here. There will be many here who run out to the garage right away, measure their heights, and then post back here with the results, including any known suspension mods they have. That may give you a better idea of what seems normal vs modified.

Thank you for the suggestion. Here are the measurement taken to the top of the wheels arch over the center cap: Driver front 25 1/8 Driver rear 25 1/8 Passenger rear 25 1/4 Passenger front 25 1/4 Based on pictures, comments about the shape of coils resembling factory coils and the previous owner stating that his mechanic just lowered the car (scary) I am thinking either a cut job or heat/shrink. What do you think?

Your measurements indicate lower than stock ride height for that car.

cut stocker springs?

Quotes source post: 9969828

Or they were replaced with something!!!!!

1999 996 C2 coupe, 6-sp manual, 91,500 miles M030 RoW full suspension kit installed 08/2010 at 58,500 miles 4 new Michelin Pilot Sport 2 N3 Spec & full 4-whl align 09/2012, 89,500 miles 225/40x18 on 7 1/2 x 18 fr 265/35x18 on 9 x 18 rr Measurments 11/06/2012 with full tank of gas and no passengers or miscellaneous items in the the car: Left Front 25 5/8 Right Front 25 7/8 Left Rear 25 7/8 Right Rear 25 7/8

Remaining tire tread, tire pressure, tire size, tire sidewall design, ambient air tempreature, and a host of other items can make a difference in your ground clearance measurements. You have a C4S so you weigh about 250 pounds more than my C2, etc, etc. However, a half inch less than my measurements definitely indicates non-stock springs on your car. I guess you just need to decide how high you want to go from here. Perhaps someone here has a set of stock C4S springs that they took off their car.

mystery solved. The springs are H&R sports over OEM shocks. I am not very happy about how low the car is for Denver driving and it is a bit chopppy especially over the rear. Let me know if anyone here has factory springs or PSS9's to sell. Thank you everyone for your advice.

Quotes source post: 9983433

Great to hear. How did you find this out? H&R's usually have markings on the springs and IIRC, you said there were no markings.

google is a great tool and a little scary. I as able to find the previous owner of the car and get in touch with him today. Apparently they installed the HR's over the factory struts at 35k, it now has 56k. I am going to inspect everything more closely this weekend. Especially looking for leaky shocks. It is bouncy in the back. I am starting to think about HR performance streets but hard to justify the cost.

Your bouncy ride is because the H&R springs are overwhelming your OE shocks. They have a spring rate that is about 20% stronger than stock and its this rate is stronger than the rebound of the shock can dampen. Not to mention at 56K the shocks are probably worn too. Your best bet to cure this problem at the lowest cost is to get some new shock such as Bilstein or Koni. If you think the height is too low for your taste then you have to find OE springs to put back in or find a M030 kit for the C4S. M030 kits will raise the car about 1/2inch over what you have now and the OE should raise the car about an inch compared to the H&R. Hope this helps, good luck.

jetskied0that is very helpful. i read that all c4s came with row030. A phone call to sunset confirmed that there is part number for m030 for c4s cars. I am starting to lean more on the pss9 or hr coilovers at this point. Only because i dont want to do the labor twice to change the springs back to OEM just to find out the shocks are blown as well.

I have the H&R coilvers on my 4S. BIG improvement over the old stockers. You can find them for $1400+-. Install/corner weight balance/alignment was another $1000. I wouldn't spend the $ to swap springs again with old/tired shocks. Just my opinion and also my reasoning to upgrade to coilovers. You will be able to modify ride height if you choose to or you can keep the factory 4x4 look.

Quotes source post: 9983733

I don't really understand why you would get coilovers if you thought your car was already too low. Yes you can vary the height with coilovers but most of the ones I've seen, you can't raise it above or even to the same point as factory height. Plus a lot of coilovers work the best in a sweet spot within a predefined range even though they will go lower or higher sometimes. Bilstein for example, recommends you stay within a certain range for their coilovers. Why not just get some M030 springs and shocks and be done with it?

Most coilover system lowers the car about 1 inch lower than stock you can't raise them as far as I know. So that will not help you if ride height is a concern. I really don't think you will gain much from a coilover system compared to the H&R springs you have and put in some new shcoks. The H&R street coilover spring rates are about the same as the sport springs. 200-220 in the front 260-290 in the rear. PSS 9 would give some improvement as the rates are about 230 front 500 rear. Remember they all lower the car about an inch and I doubt the ride of the coilover would be an improvement over the sport springs and new shocks. The only way to get a ride improvement and height is to go back to the stock set up. I am under the beleif that if you are looking for more handling than the sport springs and shock you have to go big or go home. PSS9, X74 will be some what of an improvement but small IMO. If you're really a track junkie go get some H&R RSS Clubsport, Ohlins, JRZ, MCS coilover as they have spring rate in the 400-800 range. Of course ride will suffer some.

I want to get the car at or just a little under factory height. To do that with factory springs and shocks is about 1350 parts. Hr streets are about 1900 in parts. Not terribly far apart. But I completely see your point as well.

Replacement shocks (koni, Bilstein) should be less than $1000 and you can use your existing springs. so that is an option.

If I think I'm understanding your needs correctly, I would trade the h&r springs for some m030 or ROW factory springs and get factory shocks. If you want more sporty ride, I would get the stiffer valved Bilstein HD shocks. If you want more comfort for the streets, Koni FSD shocks. I know there's members on here that would gladly trade their stock springs for the H&Rs that you have. This scenario, you can probably do easily for under $1k(under $800 if you shop around) as others have said.

[QUOTE=alpine003;9984283]If I think I'm understanding your needs correctly, I would trade the h&r springs for some m030 or ROW factory springs and get factory shocks. If you want more sporty ride, I would get the stiffer valved Bilstein HD shocks. If you want more comfort for the streets, Koni FSD shocks. I greatly appreciate the feedback folks. It may seem like I am going in circles. It's simply an attempt to measure twice and cut once. Also there is a lot of confusing info. Here is my summation: c4s already came from the factory with the sport suspension m030. Simply getting mo30 springs to replace my hr's are short term solution. The struts have been taxed with the hr's and they have 56k on them. I will need to repeat labor again sooner than later. But Most importantly I don't like how low it is right now. Getting new factory springs and struts are not cheap. I will search for a low mile factory kit from members or my local pca then sell the hr's