Coilovers or OEM m030? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi, I haven't posted here in quite a while, but there's something on my mind. I've spent the summer upgrading my brakes (996 front brakes) and replacing the wheel bearings on my -99 2.5 with factory m030 (Europe) and I've realized that my dampers are done. After 25 years, they just don't work the way they should. The springs are still fine, though. I could spend some money buying OEM spec Bilstein dampers with some additional parts (bellows and such). OR I could spend about the same amount of money on a complete set of adjustable BC Racing BR coilovers with adjustable camber plates in the front and rubber top mounts in the rear. From what I can see online, there seems to be a lot of opinions on the BC Racing coilovers. Especially from people who haven't actually tried tried them. Of course, I could spend a lot more money and get the Bilstein B16 kit, but I don't really like the idea of spending that amount of money on such a cheap car. I also would have to settle for the original 25 y o top mounts... I'm not that interested in getting the car lower. The m030 kit puts it at a perfect ride height, and I'd still like to be able to drive over speed bumps. Any thoughts? If you have experience of the BC Racing coils, I'd really like to know.

…..What kind of driving? Street? Track? Both? Cross-country trips? Autocross? Cars & Coffee only? As the owner of the ROW M030, it’s perfect for ME, an old guy who drives the car really fast on twisty roads, but loads up luggage and takes the wife to Colorado and back to the gulf coast on the regular. Just slap some OEM M030 struts on her and call it good. Or Bilstein B6.

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All of the above... I drive it on holidays in Sweden (where I live) and the rest of Europe. I also drive on track days and some autocross. So I guess I'm looking for something versatile and preferrably adjustable. Last year I drove to Italy and back (I live in Sweden), which was a trip of around 5400 km (>3350 miles). I would keep the original ROW m030 sway bars. (I realize that ROW means everything outside of the US. Which makes perfect sense, since the car was built in Germany... )

In that case, it’s simple-just install the Porsche OEM ROW struts and strut mounts and bump stops and you will be very happy. Cheers!

I would go with the M030 especially if you already have the sway bars and springs. My car came lowered on H&R springs with completely worn out dampers. I ended up going with bilstein pss9s because I needed new springs and new struts. But after going through all that trouble and corner balancing it, I don’t think it was worth it. The car is so well balanced that the adjustments to each corner were pretty minor. I doubt you’ll notice that 1/4 inch difference front to rear or side to side. But I have never tracked it, so who knows! At least I have corner balance bragging rights 😂

……the juice is not worth the squeeze.

10/10 respectfully, I disagree as the biggest benefit from the coilovers is the adjustability, not only the ride height, but most important, the compression and rebound. I am on my second set of coilovers (KW-V3's) and really like how much the driving dynamics change when you adjust the compression and rebound. However, the bad part of the coilovers is the fact that the 'minimum' ride drop it's about 1" where I believe the ride drop of the OEM sport suspension it's between 1/2" to 3/4" I have mine adjusted to the maximum height and still have to be careful not to park too close to the cement bars on the parking lot so I don't scratch the bottom of the spoiler.

…..For his application, coilovers are not worth it. He drives that car cross-country with a friend. If he was tracking her on the regular, and looking for trophies, then coilovers might be worth it. For a dual use car that is primarily street driven, no freaking way. FWIW, I have owned adjustable suspensions. I have adjusted ride height, high speed compression, low speed compression, rebound, all of it. I have changed spring rates between track runs. I LIVED that life. He’s halfway to ROW M030 now, all he needs is new struts and strut mounts and bump stops and he’s there. Now I’m done. Enjoy the drive.

I appreciate your comments and suggestions. I would like to mention, though, that when I said "some autocross", I really meant that I'm competing in the Slalom (autocross) cup run by Porsche Club Sweden, and I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of road comfort in order to be more competitive. It's not easy keeping up with the 996 turbos and 987s... I also have a habit of hunting down 997s on track. If I'm not misinformed, the BC Racing BR series would let me set the dampers to a softer setting for road use and then a bit harder for the track. When looking at the cost, it would be about the same as keeping the ROW M030 setup.

It turned out that BC Racing stopped making coilovers for the 986. So I found a set of H&R coilovers where only the height is adjustable. They were very reasonably priced though, since they had been mounted once.