Life expectancy of turbo S shocks & struts.

wild man · 01-10-2010, 11:43 AM

There are almost 140 clicks on the clock of my 89, and nothing to show in the receipts that the front struts or rear shocks were ever replaced. Do the OEM Koni's really last that long? I never noticed any oil on any of them (they do look old and somewhat corroded though), and I don't notice anything in the way of handling or ride. Is it possible that the beefiness of the rest of the suspension could mask the symptoms of bad shocks/struts that one would otherwise notice, or are they just fine, and I don't need to worry about them? Like I said, nothing about the way it rides or handles has ever made me wonder whether or not any of the shocks or struts need to be replaced. My "wondering" is based solely on the # of miles on them.

Karl2bdc · 01-11-2010, 08:04 AM

I would almost guarantee they need to be rebuilt after the mileage and age. Without driving a 951 with new shocks and struts to compare though, you might not know what "new" should feel like.

wild man · 01-11-2010, 08:41 AM

What you are saying does make sense. But I don't want to deal with changing them if there is still usable life in them. And I know that the standard way of testing them doesn't work with Porsche suspensions. When you push down on each corner of the car with a decent amount of weight, and them let it "bounce" up, if it has 3 or more rebounds, that shock/strut is bad. But with all of the porsches I've owned, it just comes back up to level position, without so much as even 1 bounce.

minho78 · minho78's Garage

I replaced mine(OEM BOGE) with new Koni's all 4 corners. Huge difference. If it's OEM I would definately replaced them.

running_cold924 · running_cold924's Garage

did mine too, they were boge as well. actually I had a looseness on the right side and turns out it was the piston rod in the strut moving back and forth. installed new koni inserts and also a set of slightly used rear koni's and its as tight as can be. i set them about half since the lowest setting is right above stock (or so they say)

mine had 113K

wild man · 01-13-2010, 06:01 AM

You both had OEM bogies though. It is the OEM konies that I am inquiring about. They should hold up better than the bogies, I would think.

minho78 · minho78's Garage

If you got 140K on your shocks, and they are the oem i'm pretty sure that they are not performing has they are supposed. Better yet I had Koni and bilsteins going bad on me before(less than 18 months). I just did my Jetta with bilstein sport. The old ones looked good but when I pressed the piston side by side what a difference. My Maxima I replaced them with Tokico and same story. Heat +friction=wear.

running_cold924 · running_cold924's Garage

a shock is a shock at that many miles. they are going to wear the same and with age, they are probably junk

racer · 01-13-2010, 12:19 PM

Not only 140K miles.. but also 20 years of supporting the car. Are you looking for an answer that will save you money or are you looking to restore the ride of your car. If the shocks are original, are all the rubber bushings still original? Some may look ok, but cmon, 20 years of heat, friction, etc will wear those out too. Most times, you don't realize how worn your suspension is until you replace components.

kdjones2000 · kdjones2000's Garage

As for the Koni's: I got a set of low mileage M030 struts and shocks from someone on this board, something like 60k miles on them. I took the struts apart and found out that they were bad. Same for the rear shocks.

I sent them off to Koni for testing/rebuilding ($$$$), and they said that they all failed their dyno testing.

As mentioned above, age plays a significant factor in shocks as well as mileage. Expect those to need a rebuild.

Cheers, Keith

wild man · 01-18-2010, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by racer

Not only 140K miles.. but also 20 years of supporting the car. Are you looking for an answer that will save you money or are you looking to restore the ride of your car. If the shocks are original, are all the rubber bushings still original? Some may look ok, but cmon, 20 years of heat, friction, etc will wear those out too. Most times, you don't realize how worn your suspension is until you replace components.

I don't necessarily agree that they have been "supporting" the car. But I am glad that you asked the question. What I am looking for (ideally) is the answer that will save me money (over OEM), while providing higher-than-stock damping capability.

I think maybe a pair of "super heavy duty" truck (like for an F350, or something) shocks might give me what I am looking for in the rear. But I would need to find strut cartridges for the front that have similar damping capabilities, and that is where I am drawing a complete blank. Anyone have ideas?

Karl2bdc · 01-18-2010, 04:47 AM

Get paragon products koni conversion. You can pull your front struts and send them in and they will put in koni inserts for you, and they will give you koni shocks for the rear. Set them to stiff before installing them, and you should be good to go. If you try bolting on "truck" shocks, you are going to end up spending more money in the long run, trust me.

running_cold924 · running_cold924's Garage

the strut inserts for the front are cake. maybe 1 1/2 hrs for both sides, not including alignment.
did mine about 6 months ago with the koni inserts for the boge strut cartridges. but I think for actual koni struts, you buy the whole deal. I don't think they make an insert for a koni, but then again, i've never done it before on them.

TexasBlake · TexasBlake's Garage

Most normal cars last about 100,000 miles. Sports cars, and cars driven like sports cars, could drop it down to 50,000.

The problem with shocks and struts, is that it's a gradual wear. So gradual, you don't even notice them wearing out.

I'd replace them ASAP. I have about 130k on my 951, put Konis in the front (haven't done rear yet, PO put KYBs on them within the past few years) and it made a huge difference.

I would also look into replacing the strut mounts if you're going through the hassle of replacing the struts. KLA industries makes some very good replacement strut mounts at a VERY good price. Yours might be fine since you have a later model 951, but I always like to replace as many things as possible when I have something torn apart

Also, plan on an alignment. You might also replace the lower strut bolts, especially the eccentric one as it can be all messed up from years of alignments.

wild man · 01-19-2010, 06:41 AM

The whole reason I started thinking about this issue was that I saw a pair of konis on ebay for $99 (I think shipping was 30). Was that a good price? But they were only being listed for 1990 and 1991 951's, so they probably would not have fit on my 89, right?

I do have a question about konis though. A while back, when the car was up on a lift, I was looking at the rears, wanting to see if they were turned up to full siffness, and turn them all the way up, if they weren't. But ,visually speaking, I was unable to determine how they are adjusted. I came to the conclusion that the upper mounting bolt had to be removed, and the rod has to be turned. Is this correct? If so, how does one know how much to turn it (in half turn increments, obviously) , or what direction to turn it in, to achieve maximum damping effect?