boomboomthump

"Haters will say it's Photoshopped..."


That's unbelievable. Also echo the other comments around poking around... watch your fingers/limbs. Curious what Andreas recommendation is via PM. My next step personally would be removing the coilover from the car for further inspection. Agree with your comment that even if you were to suddenly get it to lower, who would trust driving that thing around? I'd be wondering if a pothole would suddenly lock it up after it extends suddenly.

JEllis

For clarification... Just making sure that after you lowered the car back to the ground, you released the parking brake and put the car in neutral. Additionally, you would then need to rock the car or move it a little to get it to settle properly. That ground is significantly uneven and could be compounding the pre-load from jacking the car if the brakes and tranny have not be released. I doubt this is the issue but I tend to work through the simple solutions first.

EDIT: That rear wheel is on ground 6-8" (guessing) higher than the rest of the wheels. I bet it looks tucked compared to the other side. I would definitely get it on more even ground before investigating the hard stuff.

IainM

Yes, I think this may have been my mistake. I was rushing to get stuff done and shortcut the working surface. It's actually only a couple inches but enough that the front of the car only sits on the one jack (these chassis are stiff). Talking with Andreas, the rubber in the stock control arms are forcing the strut assy up and with the overextended piston it's all jammed up.
Either way, its got to come out.

Anyone have a number for Bilstein repair?
The 1-800-537-1085 number is an infinite wait and I tried talking to Elephant but they didn't know of PSS10 repair service.

JEllis:
that was my first thought but once on the ground and rolling back & forth the (my) shock set in....

aam993

When I reached out to Bilstein service center in San Diego last summer regarding H&R rebuild they said they don't do actual work anymore and redirected me to Performance Shocks, Inc in Sonoma, CA (https://performanceshock.com)
You might have seen my recent thread where I described quite-not-an-ideal experience with PSI, but they got the job done in the end.

JEllis

I will add in that my experience with having Bilstein coilovers refurbished was also not good. My turnaround time was around 10 months. I think part of the problem is that the Bilstein product is not like JRZ or Moton etc.... individual parts are not easy to come by, especially now. I did not use Bilstein in Poway CA since I was in TX at the time. And, I was having a full set of Bilstein Cup Coilovers refurbished which exacerbated the problem because they are somewhat rare these days.

I say all that to say that it might be easier for you, OP, to find a used shock/strut vice going the refurbishment route. Especially if you are hoping to get the car on the road soon.

71-3.0-911

Before you jump into the rebuild/replace process, I'd advise to make sure the top nut is properly in place on the assembly. Then make sure the spring is properly settled in the perch. After that, try putting the vehicles weight on it.

Stepping on it and applying downward pressure with your weight when unladen likely overextended the piston in the assembly enough to allow the spring to slip out of the perch. Now it's stuck. Fix that and this will likely all go away.

-Scott

JEllis

Concur, I would absolutely get it back on level ground with the spring on the perch and the cars weight on it before doing anything costly.

IainM

Don’t have time to work on this in earnest til the weekend but working a few angles to ensure success.

as I mentioned earlier, it’s not a problem with the top spring not sitting correctly, the piston (upper) is not sliding into the cylinder (lower) Even with full weight on the strut it will not compress. With the car on stands, the right hub is clearly lower than left as seen in sway bar heights.

Andreas shared with me a procedure to remove the damper without disturbing the alignment. The first step of which is to disconnect the sway bar. This wasn’t so easy as there was a lot of tension in it. I had to pop the left side first before right would come apart and there was a lot of force driving the right coil over up despite the car being on stands. The left coil over was being pulled apart by the right. With the sway bar off, the left strut had an extra inch of decompression and with a jack I can lift the hub up and down easily until I hit the lock up point.

at this point the damper is coming out for evaluation.

I finally was able to talk to someone at Bilstein who confirmed that Performance Shock mentioned above is THE Bilstein repair facility. Strike one.

Calling around, there is no front end only replacement and so I’m looking at a complete new suspension all round. Oh, and there’s no stock in the country for at least 2 weeks, even kWs, strike two.

I went to look at my tower mounts after remembering some issues with a later bearing mount swap and confirmed the hex keys in the strut shaft are rounded, It seems Bilstein PSS10s, while awesome, are single use only, disposable. Strike three.

so how do I get the top 22mm nut off with a stripped inner hex? IIRC I used the next size up torx to get the thing in last time so that probably won’t work, I’m thinking to use a bolt extractor, drive it into the keyway to get good purchase and then rip the nut off. It’s gonna be ugly. Any ideas?

aam993

I would imagine Performance Shocks are able to replace just the shaft with messed up inner hex: you could send them the shock with top hat installed.
Have you talked to them? They are in Sonoma, an hour drive from the Bay too

IainM

Based on your experience, this would not be a quick and/or direct approach. I should give them a call and make my own assessment.

other thoughts are: Bilstein B12 and B6 are available in non 993 configuration for front only for under a grand. Would any of these be compatible with PSS10 spring rates? Assuming I can swap 993 hardware from mine to make it bolt in?

AOW162435

Do you have a 1/2" impact gun? That 'should' zip the nut right off.



Andreas

IainM

I do, and this might be the appropriate time to bring the BIG tools out.
Goes against my Porsche maintenance principals but these are extenuating circumstances.

AOW162435

I'll look the other way.

Throw a socket on it, switch it to the highest speed (mine has 3), make sure it's in Reverse, and nail the trigger!



Andreas

IainM

You are all warned. If your car stalls Saturday morning for no reason, you’ll know why.

rlme36

to answer the question re spring rates. The PSS10 spring set up will more than likely not work on the other bilstein shocks as they are looking for a more stock looking spring vs. the linear 60mm or whatever the diameter of the springs are.