'95 993 tail wag

[Rick K]

All,
I'm currently about to talk to my 'extended warranty' company about fixing the rear suspension of my '95 993.

Basically, I am getting some serious tail wag at highway speed (more description below for a recent email I sent along to the PCA site). My question to you all is, have any of you struggle w/ this and won? And, do any of you have evidence of Porsche admitting that there is a problem w/ the rear suspension that I could use as ammo w/ my warranty company if necessary?

The car has been checked out and nothing appears out of order, loose, bent, etc. Everything is tight and the problem persists.

More detail: the '95 993 year/model was criticized for a rear suspension anomaly that led in some cases to a loss of control.

I recently bought a '95 993 about two weeks ago. This past weekend, I was about 60 miles into an 80 mile trip when the car began to unexpectedly dart back and forth and I began to feel like the back end was going to come around.

Here is my best take on what happened (very simi lar to other posts here):

During high and low speed (I was not at the limit when this was happening and it was when I got on the brakes and was just driving in a straight line) - it almost feels as if I'm
about to lose the rear end. The back of the car sways back and forth. I read another member describing it as what pilots call "yaw" - very accurate description and very unsettling - felt really dangerous. When switching lanes to different sides of the road - the car, once going over the depression, will sway, giving the sensation that one of the rear wheels has fallen into the depression slightly before the other.

In a previous post, you mentioned that "for 1996 Porsche introduced 'minor suspension geometry changes' which completely solved the problem" and provided a parts list etc.

My question is two-fold:
1) Is this the reason that porsche changed the suspension geometry in 1996? (I heard that it was more b/c balljoints were failing prematurely, at 20,000 miles or so)
2) How can you identify the problem beyond just driving the car (are there certain pieces that appear bent, broken, loose?). I ask b/c upon first visual inspection, my mechanic could find nothing wrong w/ the rear suspension but I have an extended warranty on the car that covers the major suspension components, but I can't take advantage of that if nothing appears wrong.

I understand that my issue could potentially be something different...but my experience was spot-on to how the other folks described it in previous posts.


Answer:
For your numbered questions,

1) I have heard from another very experienced 993 person, who raced them in IMSA before I did, and he believes it was the material in the joints which actually solved the problem. I don't know for sure, all I know is you need the new parts, and it would be very nice of Porsche to say what the fix was really all about. It is also necessary to replace the arms and links in pairs.

2) How can you identify the problem? You just did. Those are textbook examples, and described quite well. When one is inspecting the car on a lift, one can check the manufacturing dates and casting numbers on the rear suspension pieces. But so many people are out there calling me names, yelling and screaming that there is no such problem, and that I'm bashing the 1995's, that almost no one is looking for signs of this problem during inspections. If we could all calm down and share information, as you are, we could expect this to be caught during inspections.

Now, is it possible that you have loose bolts or bad ball joints back there, absolutely. But what you describe is what I have experienced myself on a brand new 1995 back in the day.