26 captured repliesDiscussion pagination complete · Source accounts, not a confirmed diagnosis
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Discussion summary
YOUR RESEARCHC4S suspension refresh
Leading reported evidence
Install sport actives
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Leading evidence: 'Install sport actives' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, The most frequently discussed action is 'Adjust damping' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Suggestion
Before installing, make sure all of the valves for adjusting the damping on top actually work.
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Suggestion
After installing I discovered one of my rears did not move - Gert was great and sent me a new one but wish I would�ve checked before installing.
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Suggestion
Good idea, checking the damping, but I was concerned about the possibility that doing so uninstalled might screw something up so I didn't try.
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Suggestion
Love the way the car handles and definitely recommend then.
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Suggestion
What you win in body control going B6 (less heave, dive and roll) you sacrifice in comfort over expansion joints, repair patches and potholes compared to B4.
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Hi.
Have an 02 C4S. Looking at a a suspension refresh, shocks are making some noise and it�s just not as sharp as it should be.
Typical local driving, some road trips, no track duty, don�t want it lowered.
I�ve read that the Bilstein B4 are the closest to OEM.
but.
My question is would that be the closest to OEM for the standard Carrera vs. the C4S? I was looking at the B6, as well for maybe a slightly better handling, but don�t want to harsh a ride.
I just did my suspension on my C4S and there�s a lot of misinformation out there.
Yes, Bilstein B4 would be the OEM replacement. They are intended for stock springs. B6 are physically the same size as a B4, just valved different. Again, I�d only use stock springs on these.
B8 are physically shorter than B4/B6 and are compatible with lowering springs.
Koni Sports would also work as a replacement for the B4 but also have adjustable damping. They are dimensionally the same as the B4/B6. I have them on my C4S right now and, I�d probably go with the B4 if I had to do it again.
Did a complete refresh on my C4S over the winter. B4s are supposed to be the closest to OEM, B6s slightly firmer.
I went with Koni Special Actives. From my research they slot between B4 - B6. YMMV
For an OEM ride I�d suggest whichever you can get the best deal on between B4s and Special Actives. I really doubt your butt dyno could tell the difference. Again, just my experience.
What you win in body control going B6 (less heave, dive and roll) you sacrifice in comfort over expansion joints, repair patches and potholes compared to B4.
Koni Special actives provide B6 level of body control and B4 level of absorbing expansion joints etc. So Koni Special Active provides best of both worlds, really .
As I'm finding out, not all C4S are the same either.
Mine is a German model (RoW if you will) an apparently the B6 will not work because the springs on European models are different from US models, while still not being M030 suspension. It's making me rather uncertain about what to order in the end... As a US national stationed here, and having access to all US suppliers, it kinda complicates things trying to order the right parts.
Easy, order from a european parts supplier like carnewal, rosepassion.com, partworks.de or autodoc.com.
The
dampers
for RoW springs (the ones without an option code) and M032 'touring suspension' (i.e. the slightly higher/greater ground clearance springs that the US models get) have the same length fully extended, so no issues of too little preload at full droop, when fitting RoW standard springs.
(But M030 springs, be it US or RoW version, on dampers intended for above springs would leave you with too little preload.)
Koni sport and Koni special actives are different in more than one way. the latter are the more modern ones.
I surfed around and bought from Paragon, FCP and Pelican based on the best price I could find. Everybody has free shipping on big orders and, Paragon doesn�t charge sales tax. All parts are Myele or Original Porsche (where the Porsche Tax was minimal).
I just got an exploded parts diagram and picked everything off.
Installation was not difficult if you have the tools and the time. You will need a lift or some way to get the car in the air. Basic tools - wrenches and a torque wrench at a minimum. An impact gun will help removing hardware. Unless you�ve done this all before plan plenty of time to take things slow and methodical. My car was in the air from December - February, I just worked on it when I had time & motivation.
Im not a mechanical guy and I made it through petty well. Certainly worth the ~$5K you�ll save in labor (and, you get to know your car better).
Installed the sport actives on my 996 c2s too. Refreshed the suspension at the same time. 0 regrets. Love the way the car handles and definitely recommend then.
Here's my shopping cart of sorts (picture as attachment). Some of the parts are kits (like the bellows and bump stops, but end result is the total amount is accurate). I could have lowered the price by shopping for some arms/coffin kits on eBay, but I feared the old "go cheap and pay twice". In the end, I rationalized that going with Meyle is the right way forward.
Neither Pelican nor FCP ship free to APO AE addresses, so that was an extra cost.
Add the Koni Sports from Carnewal (about �915 delivered).
Questions?!
Updated the FVD price. The won't do VAT forms (if you know, you know. If you don't, doesn't apply to you) but they do a discount that amounts to roughly the same result
I have an extra set of rear Koni Special Active shocks if anyone needs it for their project. They are brand new. I put them on my 1999 and they have been a great upgrade over the worn out old suspension, would recommend.
He's from Europe, so I'm not sure how that works with shipping and taxes, but I bought mine here:
https://www.carnewal.com/products/98...-Active-shocks
The owner is also a very reputable and friendly guy.
Carnewal happens to be where I got my shocks/struts from. They arrived today, and like Gert said, they come painted in OE black. Not sure why people asked for that, other than maybe to fool safety inspectors (assuming they aren't TuV compliant, maybe?)
And yes, Gert was also very helpful in figuring out what would work on my German spec C4S. In fact, that kind of sealed the deal for me, even if I had to pay VAT that I might have otherwise saved; but then, having a hard finding the right bits and pieces, I might have had to search so much harder for them. Worth it in the end.
BTW, I am American (albeit originally from Europe), stationed in Germany at the time.
I'll spare you pics of the parts unless you insist.
These are the ones I�m probably going to go with. My 2001 C4 uses a different front struts from what I�ve read compared to C2. I�m not sure what
Bilstein shocks/struts are on there now, but the car is lowered some and the ride is a little harsh. When I push down on a corner of the car, almost no movement at all.
I�m pretty mechanically inclined, but don�t know much about suspension at all, any advice is much appreciated. I was thinking softer springs and shocks then use stiffer sway bars to keep the car flat. Thoughts?
Can't comment much on the spring and swaybar options, mine was ROW suspension, not lowered. I kept it that way with the same springs and swaybars, just dampers, new coffin arms all round and a lot of other things. It drives great and I can still take speed bumps without much of an issue. You have to realise that simply refreshing the old bushes etc. and doing a proper alignment, already tightens things up significantly.
The job itself is not hard, it's just a bit of work. I tackled it 1 corner at a time. Took me about 1 to 2 evenings (each 2-3h) per corner. Make sure the car is lifted and just take everything off. It gets annoying when you find a seized bolt, but I found none. )The previous owner had already had the alignment and some suspension items replaced, that might've helped. I put everything back with a layer of ceramic grease.Then I also spent some time cleaning everything; Purchased myself a Karcher SC5 steam cleaner with some brass brushes for the aluminum and nylon ones for the wheel arches.
Main issues I encountered were the ABS sensor that I wanted to take off to clean, then sheared the bolt. In the end I took off the hub, drilled out/destroyed the sensor and placed a new one. (Don't even bother taking them off to clean unless they are broken, they are probably seized in place.) The other issue is that the threads of one of the brake caliper bolts up front stripped when I torqued the bolt. Put in a helicoil (3d printed a small jig to drill square)l and all is fine.
I�m not sure if the springs on the car now are marked to see how much lower the car is from stock. I�m going to pull the rear wheels and look this weekend. Is there a set ride height for stock c4 with 18� wheels? At this point, I�m willing to raise the car a little to get some comfort back into the ride.
Thanks!
Couple of lessons learned from my install a month ago. Purchased from Gert.
His most recent order of Koni Sports, Koni painted yellow and then painted black for his shop. This caused the diameter of the struts in the front to be .010� too thick to fit into the wheel hub - I did a lot of sanding and repainted with spray paint.
Before installing, make sure all of the valves for adjusting the damping on top actually work. Rotate them throughout the entire range of motion. After installing I discovered one of my rears did not move - Gert was great and sent me a new one but wish I would�ve checked before installing.
I bought his kit for my US spec C4S and the RoW springs in the front have zero preload under full droop. Not super happy about it but it doesn�t really have an effect on my driving.
Good idea, checking the damping, but I was concerned about the possibility that doing so uninstalled might screw something up so I didn't try. What could it screw up? Heck if I know, but mechanical things do have quirks, and since I don't know what the internals look like...
Do you remember if they come fully "hard" or "soft" from factory? I really hate screwing things up before even installing, and the few times it has happened, it came from lack of knowledge that in hindsight (with knowledge) became obvious.
And I thought I was done...
The grand total is at the very top. Yikes. $3910.50 and �1794.03. And now I still need to put these in, and while I intend to do the work myself, the location turned into a question mark after my original plan fell through. Anyone near Boblingen have a nice garage to rent?
The green light cells are the parts I went with. The funny numbers after the part name (e.g. Steel washer 8) is the number on the Porsche exploded diagram in the parts catalog(ue).
I believe they ship fully soft.
You won�t hurt anything. Just hold the shaft in place with one hand and use the plastic tool Koni provides to make sure the adjustment **** moves, pretty easy.
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