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Suspension Upgrade for 944 S2

herbie75

New member
Anyone fitted a Koni Coil & Damper Kit or reccommend a similar product?

If the koni is the best option any reccommendations of where to find the best price would be great too.

Many thanks.
 
I've been told the common options are : KW V3, Koni, Gaz and Leda.

All but the Koni's seem to be close to £1500 which is too much for me- I don't intend to track just road use. Any experiences of the konis or something similar would be very useful to know. I'm just looking for a firmer ride and slight lowering.
 
It's been a much discussed topic recently. A quick search for koni in the 944 forum in the past 30 days brings up the following threads:

http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/searchpro.asp?phrase=koni&author=&forumid=15&topicreply=both&message=body&timeframe=%3E&timefilter=-30&language=single&top=300&criteria=AND&submitbutton=+OK+

Just replacing the standard units with the same will be a world of difference as I did to my S2 a few years ago. These units may not leak when old but will be well past their best. The M030 Konis are much stiffer than the standard units and also much stiffer than the Koni coilover kits that places like Porscheshop sell for a lot of money. The M030 also has the advantage of being ride height adjustable as well as an easy way to adjust the rebound damping

If you can find genuine M030 used then they are rebuildable by Koni agents for around £100 each.

The other option is to buy a Koni insert from places like www.motorsportworld.co.uk for around £100 and fit them to your original S2 strut and spring.

By far the best option is KW V3 but it costs a lot more.
 
So is this anopther item to add to my list??[;)] No 234. Replace worn shocks at 168,000miles with new standard inserts??

Do the springs wear too?
 
Diver944 - thanks for the tip, I have read through the links.

I have found a pair of front M030 which i may buy. My question is would i then have to find another set of M030 rear shocks or are there any other options for the rear?
 
I did a full suspension change about this time last year, and used the Koni bits. It came to around £800 all in (4x shocks, steering joints, alignment) and I did the work myself.

Yes, it was a dramatic change - the old units were about 122,000 miles old. The car really, really inspires confidence on the road now. The biggest change was that there was a fair amount of fore-aft 'pitching' before the change, and that was completely cured.

I am told that the KW V3's are the better bet (as Paul said above), and they are certainly raved about on here, but I only use my car on the road (yet to get it on a track - :shame:!) and couldn't afford the £1500 or so that it would have cost.

John - springs. I had this debate and went to some lengths to get some replacement springs when I did the suspension refresh on mine. I ended up finding that very very few people make aftermarket springs for an S2 (although a lot did for the Lux's - take care about what you are being sold) and therefore I would be looking at replacement original parts (which I didn't want - I was after some progressively wound items.) I think I did track down a set made by one company - can't remember who - but was advised that they were not worth the money and certainly not up to the quality of the rest of the car.

I ended up talking to someone at (I think) K300 performance who was very helpful and said that for day-to-day use there would be no percievable loss of performance in the old springs after 122,000 miles, and when he did the same job on his 968 (same parts) he refitted the old springs and recommended that I did likewise. Which impressed me - I had my credit card in my hand ready to buy some expensive bits of kit from him and he talked me out of it.


Oli.
 
Oli,

thanks for the very useful answer. Vicky at K300 has been in touch and suggested
2 x front shocks at £129+Vat and 2 x rear shocks at £138+Vat. To lower the car I would need lowering springs (£95+vat) for the front, the rear suspension would need to be lowered either on the torsion bars or on the spring plates.

I would then need a geometry reset which is around £200+Vat.

But as you say I could just stick with the current springs, the car has only done 94K.

My dilenma is i can pick up a pair of M030 front struts for circa £150......but i think this will mean i have to also have M030 shocks on the rear which could be very expensive unless i can find a used pair.
 
Herbie,

Those prices look expensive - I used Proven Products to supply mine as they were the cheapest a year ago. I don't know what they cost from PP now, but they were £86 front / £91 rear last year (plus VAT and carriage.) I also bought some suspension bushes from the same people (made by Powerflex) and suspect that they stiffened things up a little too - if you have it all up in the air, it's another mod worth doing at the same time.

FWIW, look here:

http://pistonheads.com/members/showServiceHistory.asp?carId=35695

... and scroll down to 23rd July 2007 for the full price breakdown.


Oli.
 
Last time I checked (which was admittedly a few years ago) the genuine 944 M030 koni adjustable rear shocks were under £100 from the OPC - Call Chris at Exeter OPC to double check.

If you buy used M030 front struts to be rebuilt then be aware that you will also need springs. The S2 springs will not fit an M030 strut
 
On this subject I'm interested in what you guys think about lowering an S2 and the best way to do it? A few years back I lowered a lux just by fitting lowering springs on the front (I notice there are G-max ones on ebay at the moment for an S2, about £70) and I lowered the rear by adusting the spring plates. I'm quite happy with the handling, don't want to track it but just asthetically I think it could do with sitting down a bit, any advice??
 
Checked with proven products and so far they are the cheapest at £118 for front shocks and £126 for rears all including VAT. Seems about £20 each more than you paid last year....found them on europerformance for £113 and £121 so i'll try to get proven to better this. I'll look at getting bushes too.

I think if i go the M030 route i'll end up paying more as i'll need thte used fronts rebuilt and new springs, but i'll look into this before making a decision.

Thanks for all the advice.

 
Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe the 968 Clubsport springs are 20mm shorter than the standard 968 and S2 and fit straight on to the struts .

Note that I am not talking about 968 M030 struts which are a different kettle of fish
 
If that is the case then koni shocks all round and 968 Clubsport springs on the front could be an option.
Or these from porscheshop.co.uk:
Lowering Spring Kit 944 Turbo / S2 /968Lowers car by 30mm Set of 2 £110 plus VAT
Anyone tried these or tell me where i could get the 968 Clubsport springs? Provided of course that Diver944 is indeed correct in his statement.
 
Have a look for my old (few years now) write up about replacing my suspension for Konis. I went M474 fronts, 968cs front springs and M030 rears on a '90 S2. Paul is right, 968cs springs lower by 20-30mm. M474 front dampers are the same shape and accept the same springs as the standard Boge units. 968cs springs will fit either of these front dampers. IIRC, all the parts (dampers F+R, springs and all new bolts) from Exeter was just under £800. I think they had a surplus of M030 rears at the time and I got a very good price of about £70 each. I see Type911 have these at almost 3 times that now!

Transformed the car and ride was great. Well worth doing. Both of these dampers are only adjustable off the car, so if you are going for konis thinking you can play with them you can't easily. Fronts are pretty much a once only option, unless pulling your front end apart appeals, you hev to get the spring off to adjust. Setting is a pain too. Left all mine as they came out the box, supposedly slightly off softest setting. This was firmer than stock but not much.
 

ORIGINAL: richthomas

Have a look for my old (few years now) write up about replacing my suspension for Konis. I went M474 fronts, 968cs front springs and M030 rears on a '90 S2. Paul is right, 968cs springs lower by 20-30mm. M474 front dampers are the same shape and accept the same springs as the standard Boge units. 968cs springs will fit either of these front dampers. IIRC, all the parts (dampers F+R, springs and all new bolts) from Exeter was just under £800. I think they had a surplus of M030 rears at the time and I got a very good price of about £70 each. I see Type911 have these at almost 3 times that now!

I wanted M474 a couple of years back and the only place I could find that had any was Pelicanparts in the US, however whilst they had them listed on the website they also couldn't get hold of any. I went for the inserts instead at ISTR £115 each and no regrets because they work great on a road car and are good enough make the car work OK on the track whereas the stock sachs shocks are way to soft for track use.

If I was doing my car again I would start by asking myself what the car will be used for, because if the answer is lots of track days, sprints etc then my advice is to bite the bullet and do either KW or Bilstein cup in all one go. For a road car I would stick pretty close to what Oli has done, and try like mad to avoid having to pull apart the rear torsion bar setup because once you get in there the cost mounts up very rapidly. Perhaps koni inserts and 968 M030 anti-roll bars, 968 caster mounts and any worn bushes and that is it.

My own setup is rare here but is popular in the US. However the labour costs where enormous, ISTR £600, so unless you are doing all the work yourself replacing the torsion bars with 27mm ones or bigger is not really cost effective.
 
Forgot to add that the 968 CS springs in addition to my road setup because ISTR they are only 175 lb/inch so only a small increase on stock S2 springs which are ISTR 145 lb/inch. My own springs are a H&R special made rising rate set 190 to 220 lb/inch which you can't get any more. The increase in lb/inch is to much to work with such soft rear torsion bars hence why I upgraded to 27mm bars at the same time, alternatively 968 M030 rear shocks and springs would have worked well to.
 
Neil,

Interesting - I didn't actually know what you were running on your car, although seemed to remember that Koni inserts featured there somewhere.

Rear torsion bar - 'tis a nightmare. I'd agree with your sentiment; unless you are serious, don't go near dismantling it. I have read the pages on Clarkes Garage and looked at the way it is screwed together and I don't want to go anywhere near it (and I consider myself pretty gung-ho when it comes to tackling practical jobs on the car.)

968CS springs, eh? Hmmm. Maybe I should have done that as well. One for next time, maybe.

I will add that the Koni inserts appear to be infinitely-adjustable for stiffness, but actually they are not - there are three settings. (If you don't believe me, play around with them before putting them on the car. Compress them all the way - it's difficult - and then time how long they take to come back to full extension. You will find that there are only three settings - soft, medium and hard.) My rears are on medium and the fronts on hard, and that seems to work pretty well. Adjusting the rears is an off-the-car job, but the fronts are done with a knob which fits the top of the shocks under the bonnet.


Oli.
 

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