The steering on the 996 has been a bit creaky lately. Noticeable when backing up or parking, there was a distinct grinding noise coming from the front right strut. Having experienced that before in the MINI, I suspected it would be a strut bearing and was right. Getting it off to replace proved to be a pain though.

The part that needed to be replaced is shown as #11 in this diagram.  It sits between the strut mount on the top and the spring below.  Between the bearing and the spring is a plate (#4) and the rubber spacer (#5). The interesting thing about this design is that you can fine-tune the ride height by using a thicker or thinner (in my case) rubber spacer. The way the design works, the piston of the strut is held in place by the retaining nut, and the strut body and spring rotate underneath it. When I took it apart, the plate (#4) was missing and the bearing was falling apart — hence the groaning whenever it spun.

Here’s a helpful hint to see if something might be wrong.  When you take the strut apart and the bearing comes out as three pieces. Something’s wrong. It’s supposed to be one sealed unit. The good news is that it isn’t terribly expensive (part number 996-343-515) and is usually $35-$45 each.  There must be a Porsche Motorsports part that’s more robust….

Since I had to tear down both front struts, I decided to go ahead and swap out the springs now rather than come back and do it in the Spring as originally planned. The new springs are H&R Sport Springs so not a huge change from the ROW M030 Sport Springs that were already there. They offer a slight drop of about a quarter inch over ROW M030 and an inch and a half over stock (US). Mostly I wanted to see if I could drop the front slightly to better match the rear and I think it worked. [ROW M030 on top; H&R Sport on the bottom]