PASM on lowered springs with spacers

[Bennyboyc]

Evening all, picked up a 987.1 S Boxster today and already making plans 🤣

 Car has PASM so is already 10mm lower than standard. So I’d planned to just stick some 7/15mm spacers on it, but I’m not convinced I don’t want to lower it a bit more…

So my questions are… does anybody have spacers on their car with standard PASM they could send some pictures of please?

 Or if I go down the lowering route, do I need PASM specific springs?

 Thanks and looking forward to being part of this forum!

 Cheers, Ben

[Paul P]

Not been there so no 1st hand knowledge but I have read that these cars don’t really benefit from going much lower than “pasm”

 

mate of mine just spent a small fortune on a suspension refresh - got talked into “fast road” shocks / springs by an upselling Indy (and his car ended up featured on their YT channel) and he now has some serious regrets.  In his words it went from “great to drive but lacking in kerb appeal” to “looks fantastic parked but I don’t like driving it anymore “

of course.  Your car / money / choice but honestly I think it depends on your desired outcome. 

[Lonewolfgjp]

7mm front 15mm rear on my old PASM 987.1

You can go a touch lower than the standard PASM height but I can’t remember how low or if you need special springs.

Personally if would want to improve your PASM the best money you can spend is on a DSC PASM controller but they are expensive and won’t make your car any lower 😂

[Bennyboyc]

Ooh that looks nice! Especially with the sport body stuff… I was worried that spacers may accentuate the arch gap but in those pics at least they appear to visually reduce it

[phazed]

Interesting. I have PASM with standard everything and doesn’t look too different.

Having done several track days with the standard PASM, I wouldn’t mess with it.

[Geordie40]

My car has PASM & sits on 19" wheels with H & R lowered springs, 15mm spacers rear & 7mm spacers front.

[Ninesomething]

H&R lowering springs are either 10mm lower which is the same as a PASM car or 35mm lower which is quite an increase. Sadly on the .1 cars PASM is a bit half-baked. For example it's a 4 channel system but they released it as a single channel system so instead of each wheel reacting individually they all react together. Also the stock settings were devised on glassy smooth German roads not on our obstacle courses. 

As Lone says the cure is a DSC sport controller. Expensive but they do come up used - I got mine for less than half price. Total game changer from a driving perspective but does nothing for aesthetics. 

[Bennyboyc]

2 hours ago, Geordie40 said:

My car has PASM & sits on 19" wheels with H & R lowered springs, 15mm spacers rear & 7mm spacers front.

That’s the look right there! Is it bone shaking though?

[phazed]

Went out for a nice drive today with my wife in the 987 with PASM on standard setting. Even given the condition of the country roads around Surrey the ride was excellent. Especially compared to my 986 with H&R 10 mm lowered springs, and. Bilstein B6 dampers. The 987 is limousine like by comparison! I’m running 19 inch wheels as well so wouldn’t have expected the ride to be as good as it is. I would never run sport setting on the road as it is far too firm but excellent on the perfect surface race tracks. 
 

I look forward to having a ride in a car with the DSC controller and doing a back to back as in my mind I can’t see how it could be that much better, (happy to be convinced). If anyone has ever driven a BMW Z4, especially with sport setting, the ride is appalling, hard as nails by comparison!

[Lonewolfgjp]

I m a big fan of PASM, quite underrated on the forum but I think it is perfect for our crappie UK roads.

I noticed a big difference going from a 986 to a 987.1 with PASM, but found the Sport setting way too firm but as the PASM is permanently active it is adjusting all the time in non Sport mode.

When I had my 987.2 I managed to find a used DSC controller for a reasonable price and wow what a difference that made! It made the suspension a lot more responsive and adjusted to give you the best ride possible, so much so that I used to drive everywhere in Sport mode as it was firm but controlled adjusted and kept the ride compliant even on bumpy roads.

Very very impressive 👌😎

[Geordie40]

On 4/13/2024 at 3:06 PM, Bennyboyc said:

That’s the look right there! Is it bone shaking though?

Not overly so but the state of the roads around Devon make it difficult to tell, I have been looking for a DSC controller but cheapest I've found so far is still £800 which is a little expensive as car is a weekend toy really.

The car is on 35mm lowered springs if your interested

[Ninesomething]

On 4/13/2024 at 6:49 PM, Lonewolfgjp said:

I m a big fan of PASM, quite underrated on the forum but I think it is perfect for our crappie UK roads.

I noticed a big difference going from a 986 to a 987.1 with PASM, but found the Sport setting way too firm but as the PASM is permanently active it is adjusting all the time in non Sport mode.

When I had my 987.2 I managed to find a used DSC controller for a reasonable price and wow what a difference that made! It made the suspension a lot more responsive and adjusted to give you the best ride possible, so much so that I used to drive everywhere in Sport mode as it was firm but controlled adjusted and kept the ride compliant even on bumpy roads.

Very very impressive 👌😎

I wasn't that impressed when I first put it on mind you it was used and it came with a custom tune for a 997 GT3. Probably worse than stock. I downloaded the official 987 tune and it was better but the ride was still plenty firm so I did my own demon tune up. If all else fails read the manual. I had programmed in some values that were outside the available range so the poor thing got confused. In my defence it doesn't tell you in the manual what the available range is. Reading something somewhere I realised where I'd gone wrong. Retuned it and wow. First thing was that going slowly over bumps in town you can actually feel the damping working rather than it just crashing into potholes. (We have our fair share hereabouts) The revelation happened in sport mode though. It feels like cheating to just throw it into any corner at any speed and not even have to use my (limited) skills to make it do whatever I ask. I also forget sometimes that I've left it in sport mode when going slowly. A permanent marker on the dash would help. The downside is that I used to be able to punch it out of corners and hang the back out a bit but there's so much traction now you have to try really hard at speeds that are frankly a bit daft on the road. On one closed, private bit of test track officer I use a guy was coming the other way on a sports bike. He turned round in the road and came after me. Poor bloke - I slowed down twice to let him catch up and have another go. To be honest the road was slightly damp in places and I probably wouldn't have gone any faster on a bike but he was just a dot...  In the end he turned off. It just seems like the harder you push it the better it feels. It really wants taking on a track to figure out what it can do.

[Lonewolfgjp]

I got lucky with mine, the previous owner had it fitted at Center Gravity and it was turned for the 987😎👌

[Pothole]

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.

[Ninesomething]

13 hours ago, Pothole said:

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.

Yeah I did this on my last Subaru. Lowered it to where the geometry was outside of it's working range. Whiteline sold me some offset brackets that put it back to where it was working properly. 👍

[Bennyboyc]

I assume that if I replaced the standard PASM springs (10mm lower than standard) with H&R 10mm lowering springs the car would stay at the same height? Or is the  PASM lowered height achieved via shorted dampers, or something else, hence fitting the H&R 10mm lowering springs would reduce my PASM car by a further 10mm?

[phazed]

Dampers are dampers. Fitting same height springs won’t change anything. The car will remain at the same height. I haven’t had any firsthand experience of fitting even lower springs with your existing dampers but I would imagine that just a 10 mm additional drop would be fine and the dampers would cope with that. No doubt it will give you a firmer ride. Is that what you want? 

Personally, I can’t see the advantage over standard which I think is great. 

[Ninesomething]

On 4/26/2024 at 11:17 AM, Bennyboyc said:

I assume that if I replaced the standard PASM springs (10mm lower than standard) with H&R 10mm lowering springs the car would stay at the same height? Or is the  PASM lowered height achieved via shorted dampers, or something else, hence fitting the H&R 10mm lowering springs would reduce my PASM car by a further 10mm?

Yeah you'll be the same with the H&R -10s.