Can I make my ride smoother???

[Brians 944]

Ive got an 1984 944
I love my car, but I hate the stiffness and the way it rattles and squeekes. Does anybody know anything about having somebody fixing some of the rattles and squeekes and maybe installing dynamat??
I just want the car to ride softer with less noise. Do you think Porsche will fix this?? If not ...any ideas of who will???
please help
Brian in ATL

[Obin Robinson]

the car is supposed to ride stiff. if you want it to me mushy and marshmallow soft... go to Monro and have them put on some of their basic-level shocks.

also, remove the front and rear sway bars.

note, the net gain of this will be a lot of "Audi roll" [a term which describes how an Audi 5000 reacts to a sharp turn, some call it body roll, we call it "audi roll"].

nevertheless, mushy soft.

dynamat will help too, do both the mat and the spray-on stuff. get the doors filled with it too, and have the insulation under the floormats upgraded.

have fun!

obin

[Oregon85_944]

Removing the Sway bar/s will only add body roll not make the ride smoother.

Check to see if you have Koni adjustable sport shocks (Yellow). If so you can soften them up some. Also, they're stiffer than the stock Boge's.

Another area to try is the next time you need tires, try mounting on H rated tires instead of V's. They have softer sidewalls and will give a better "cushy" ride.

Ok, and last suggestion.

1) remove coolant tank cap

2) Push 944 out of drive way

3) roll a Camry under it and replace the cap.

Your 944 should drive alot smoother now...LOL

[This message has been edited by Oregon85_944 (edited 11-14-2000).]

[Dave951]

Sell the Porsche and buy a Mercedes.

Dave

[Obin Robinson]

or buy a fake mercedes (Lexus) and put the mercedes badge on it.

removing the sway bars will get rid of that flat "sports car" handling. that's why i suggested it.

obin

[Harp]

Don't remove the sway bars. It might reduce the shock to the chassis when you hit a bump with just one side of the car, but you don't want to introduce body roll and mess with the suspension design that way. Replace the sway bar bushings if they are causing suspension "clunking", it can help a lot and is cheap I think. Check your manual for tire pressure recommendation. My manual says put 32 psi in front, but I put 37 psi in the front and I feel the bumps quite a bit more. Of course, it improves my cornering so it's worth it to me.

[Obin Robinson]

"removing the sway bars will get rid of that flat "sports car" handling"

was a joke, but i guess it flew over everyone's head

obin

[p0r2chby]

a camel... are you kidding, they buck and spit and on a really hot day, they stink... Much better off buying an ox

[1.2gees]

I'll stick to the 44...
Ahmet

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It's all the driver...

[951_Chris]

Try neutralizing the bushings...I tried it on my '86 951, and it seemed to help out a bit...all you do is loosen the lower control to body bolts (just enough so that the bushings can move a bit) and jounce the suspension a little- even drive it up and down the street, but don't go fast...now, torque the bolts while the car is at the proper ride height. This procedure takes the pre-load out of the bushings, which isn't giving you much handling benefit, but can contribute a great deal to harshness...basically, you are letting the suspension do it's job on small inputs, without the artificially high ride rates, which can be caused by bushing pre-load