Pothole

Another vote for LEDs. You can definitely get solutions with proper beam patterns. I'd aim for no cooler than 6000K temp. Cooler than that compromises visibility and looks naff / overly blue and very aftermarket. A lot of the LEDs on the market are 6500K and IMO, they're too cool / blue. Not by a huge amount, but a bit.

I'd warn against aftermarket xenons for the high beams. They take too long to warm up to be practical for high beam. Fine for low beam. 

If you want to lower it, use Boxster Spyder springs. The H&R and Eibach kits are too low on the front axle. The Boxster Spyder / Cayman R were set as low as you can practically go with the factory arms before running into problems with travel and geometry.

You have to be quite careful lowering a strut based car like a 987. Struts have a fairly narrow operating range in terms of maintaining geometry not just in terms of setup but in terms of dynamically when you are driving. But it's the reduced travel that really kills the drive. Neither the H&R nor the Eibach lowering kits are stiff - barely any stiffer than the factory springs. But they set the car too low and the suspension simply can't operate properly. That's what compromises the ride and why people often say their car has been spoiled.

It's a little variable and some cars end up worse than others for some reason. And you can mostly or entirely fix it by adding some extra spring pads. But much better to just get some springs with the right spec in the first place.

The Spyder / R springs likewise aren't terribly stiff. But they allow the suspension to actually operate.

Re the bad ride on the H&R springs, I think the issue is the drop, not the spring rate. The H&Rs are not terribly high spring rate, they're actually pretty soft.

The problem is that they lower the car too much for the design of the suspension. I'm not clear is it's a case of literally running out of travel or issues related to the geometry of the arms, but either way, if you go too low the ride is awful.

I had a previous 987 on both the Eibach and the H&R. Both were too low on the front axle. The EIbach were actually worse. I switched to the H&R which were still too low. But I stacked a couple of sets of the factory spring pads up front to lift the nose a little bit and it completely sorted the ride issues.

To be clear, it was still lower than standard, but without the terrible ride. As a rule of thumb, you don't want to go lower than Cayman R / Spyder ride height, which is roughly a 20mm drop from standard (or 10mm drop from a PASM car, which is itself a 10mm drop from a non PASM car). Porsche went about as low as you can with those cars without running into issues. The R and the Spyder have exactly the same arms and geometry as other 987s. Just different springs and dampers (and rear roll bar).

Don't think it's the actual shifter that will be at fault. 

I replaced the shifter on a 987.1 previously. Car had about 70-80k miles at the time. I fitted a shifter where all the bearings / bushes / joints had been not just refreshed but replaced by metal parts for zero play (the factory shifter has a lot of plastic).

It made absolutely ZERO difference. To remove play I think you want the numeric cables with the metal cups on the ends. Then add the factory short shift and I think that will give you the best overall solution.

On 10/30/2022 at 10:25 PM, jasonmo said:

I think the B6 is the one - looks like they are designed for drop of up to 30mm - will prob try grab some on black friday if theres a deal to be had...

B6 is designed for standard springs. B8 is designed for the 30-35mm drop aftermarket lowering springs.

I assume these are PASM springs as there's no M030 option for 987. 

Anyway, if they are the same spec as the PASM spring, they'll be fine on the standard damper. It's only a 10mm drop and the spring rate is only a bit firmer. 

For those talking about matched spring and damper rates, it doesn't really work like that. For proof, merely observe that for PASM, the damper rate is dramatically different depending on what mode you are in. But the spring rate is fixed. In practice, the standard factory damper rate for the non-PASM dampers is in between the standard and sport modes of the PASM system.

Obviously if you went and fitted springs with a hugely different rate then you'd have issues. But the PASM springs are not double the rate of the standard spring. They are not hugely different to the standard springs.

Any suggestions on alternatives to getting ripped off by the OPC? Been quoted over £450 for a full key. If I source the blade separately, may be able to shave off £150. Have been quoted £330 by a third party auto locksmith but that's using a pattern keyhead so doesn't seem like great value.

I've ordered a replacement blade as it's dirt cheap and am leaning towards using OPC for the head and coding...