Cut springs

[Kings911]

My s2 bounces all over the place. I was thinking struts were blown but now recall a conversation I had about a year ago with the PO about cutting the springs. Could this be the cause of my bounces?

[Dimi 944]

Originally Posted by Kings911

My s2 bounces all over the place. I was thinking struts were blown but now recall a conversation I had about a year ago with the PO about cutting the springs. Could this be the cause of my bounces?

Your shocks are worn out and do not dampen the springs enough. I recommend replacing the shocks first.

Dimi P
Flying Horse Motorsport LLC
flyinghorsemotorsport@gmail.com

[944 S2]

Mine show evidence of worn out shock when I accelerate hard the nose of the car lifts. On my list of things to address too.

[Kings911]

Maybe unrelated. But what causes the sway bar brackets to brake? Could it be cause by to much bouncing in the front end? It wouldn't have anything to do with cut springs/lowering?

[IdahoDoug]

I'd have to look at the altered suspension to be sure but generally the sway bar is not under any tension if both front tires are at the same height. They are designed to create tension when only one side is compressed or in rebound. So the break is probably unrelated, but again someone with experience should take a look as that's a pretty unusual part to break. I'd find it more likely the lowered vehicle whacked the sway bar directly against the pavement. Or the constant shaking in a frequency the stock suspension was designed not to achieve could have weakened the relatively tall mounts on these cars simply by sheer cycles. For a steel part, that means the rest of the car is getting abused mightily, I might add.

If your car is bouncing notably then it needs attention. As a former vehicle designer, I abhor the lowering trend, and laugh at those who claim it improves handling (not you, btw - perhaps the PO). A carefully tuned race suspension that happens to lower the vehicle a small amount will handle better. But all these cheap street lowering things are sad. Torching springs. Cutting springs, air bags, etc. The ridiculous "stanced" tires. I'd race a stock version against one of those for pink slips on a track and I'd win every time. Suspension design is extremely complex and a very mature and demanding science.

If you believe your car has cut springs, for starters the spring rate no longer matches the shock rate. The bouncing is definitely a symptom of something needing attention and its stressful on the vehicle. Motor mounts, suspension, vibrations will take their toll on the electrical harness. Squeaks and rattles.

Ah, that felt cathartic. Carry on.

[Kings911]

Great info!!!

The Po cut the front springs and cranked down the rear suspension. In his 5 years of owning the car he probably put 1k miles on it.

But imo the car handles like crap compared to my 83 with sport konis.

Now part of that is obviously the bounce I get in the front and the unknown to me at the time broken sway bar mount. But the rear also is pretty "creeky" sounding.

I think I want/need to get the car back to its stock form. Ie. New/used factory springs and raise the rear.

I come from a vw background and use to get a lot of work done at shine racing in mass. I believe all their race setups almost raised the car a hair not lowered.

[Dimi 944]

I have a set of good used factory S2 front springs available.

Dimi P
Flying Horse Motorsport LLC
flyinghorsemotorsport@gmail.com

[Dimi 944]

There they are

Dimi P
Flying Horse Motorsport LLC
flyinghorsemotorsport@gmail.com

[azbanks]

If it is bouncing a lot, the most likely suspect is worn out shocks. Replace them first and see what improves.

The sway bar brackets do break on these cars. The design is not well braced/supported. Check out some of the additional braces you can install.
944 Front Swaybar Stiffener Bracket PELTE944STIF - Tarett Engineering - PEL-TE-944STIF | Pelican Parts

[Mr. Squid]

If you are bouncing replace the struts/shocks. The shocks control the springs, and when you cut springs you effectively increase spring rate at the same time.

That being said, if he cut factory springs to achieve this height I might suggest that you replace the springs with a lowering spring from someone like Weltmeister while you have the struts apart. This will maintain the look/stance that you admire with a spring designed for the job.

[Kings911]

Originally Posted by Mr. Squid

If you are bouncing replace the struts/shocks. The shocks control the springs, and when you cut springs you effectively increase spring rate at the same time.

That being said, if he cut factory springs to achieve this height I might suggest that you replace the springs with a lowering spring from someone like Weltmeister while you have the struts apart. This will maintain the look/stance that you admire with a spring designed for the job.

Yea. I am either going to get a lowering spring to match the rears.

or WAY MORE LIKELY

Get factory springs/struts and raise the rear.

Waiting on a price from a local guy who has a set.

Not sure if you can tell how low the rear is from the pic. But it does creak a little on turns. Not sure if that's because its lowered to much or that is just one of the trade offs of lowering it that way.

Ok will have to try pics again. Pelican is tell me the file is to big.

[thomasryan]

CS springs for the 968 are the same rate but 20mm shorter. I believe they are the same 106mm diameter as the S2 units.

inspect your upper mounts. if the bearings are still smooth, it would be a good time to clean and re-lubricate them.

[Kings911]

Will these work in my 89 s2. I found a set with springs etc. Local.

951.343.031.05

951.343.032.05

[TibetanT]

Originally Posted by Kings911

Will these work in my 89 s2. I found a set with springs etc. Local.

951.343.031.05

951.343.032.05

Yes, they should work for you.

[TibetanT]

Originally Posted by Kings911

Maybe unrelated. But what causes the sway bar brackets to brake? Could it be cause by to much bouncing in the front end? It wouldn't have anything to do with cut springs/lowering?

BTW…earlier in this post you asked what would cause the sway bar brackets to break, so thought I would say "it depends."

However, with that said, I owned a 1987 944 n/a automatic which was previously owned by someone who was driving the car home from work one night when the timing belt broke. Now, this was in Seattle and there was a lot of traffic and a lot of rain on I-5 near the city. When the timing belt broke they were traveling at freeway speed (approx. 65 mph) and turned the steering wheel very hard to the right.
They were basically attempting to stop the car on the side of the freeway, but being that the road was very wet and slippery the car spun off into a very high curb. When this happened the right (passenger) side of the suspension system and control arm took the entire force of the hit.

Effectively, this broke the control arm, as well as the sway bar bracket.

Needless to say, the previous owner had a very large repair bill including towing to get the car up and running again. If I remember correctly from the records provided me when I purchased the car, it ran about $7,800.00.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your upgrade.