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A buddy of mine has run into an issue that he could use some help with. He's not a member, so I'm asking for him.
He writes...
I need your help regarding information about the front shock absorbers for a 944 Turbo S (Koni M030).
The shock absorbers are worn out, so I need to find new inserts that can be used with the M030 setup. I understand that they are not designed to be replaceable, but I have read that it is possible to cut them open and weld them back together.
Which dampers can I use, and where can they be purchased? Preferably within Europe.
Thank you in advance
Jotronic wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:51 am
A buddy of mine has run into an issue that he could use some help with. He's not a member, so I'm asking for him.
He writes...
I need your help regarding information about the front shock absorbers for a 944 Turbo S (Koni M030).
The shock absorbers are worn out, so I need to find new inserts that can be used with the M030 setup. I understand that they are not designed to be replaceable, but I have read that it is possible to cut them open and weld them back together.
Which dampers can I use, and where can they be purchased? Preferably within Europe.
Thank you in advance
What say you, Carpokers?
I seem to recall @johnb did this conversion on his car... he may have good intel on this... (I bet CarBot could give good info too.)
Jotronic wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2026 11:51 am
A buddy of mine has run into an issue that he could use some help with. He's not a member, so I'm asking for him.
He writes...
I need your help regarding information about the front shock absorbers for a 944 Turbo S (Koni M030).
The shock absorbers are worn out, so I need to find new inserts that can be used with the M030 setup. I understand that they are not designed to be replaceable, but I have read that it is possible to cut them open and weld them back together.
Which dampers can I use, and where can they be purchased? Preferably within Europe.
Thank you in advance
What say you, Carpokers?
I seem to recall @johnb did this conversion on his car... he may have good intel on this... (I bet CarBot could give good info too.)
I did, but it was many years before Carpokes (2012 actually) so I'm not sure how you remember that! But I'm not sure if what I did is quite the same. I had original M030s, and I cut them open and put inserts into them. I have no idea if you can do that again - it sounds like that's what the OP is asking. I got the inserts from Paragon. I don't have much info on it, it was too long ago for me to remember any details. There was no welding, I remember that much.
For what it's worth I wouldn't do it again. I always found the suspension of this car to be harsh on the street and spongy on the track. If I was doing it again I think I would get something more modern, maybe KWs.
The inserts actually don't require welding (I believe the bilsteins do, but not the Konis), but they do require cutting your existing perches. The inserts are the same Koni Sport inserts you would install in the Sachs perches, however, you get to maintain the threaded perches of the M030 for true coilover adjustability. Available from Paragon (I prefer to go to them for their longtime support of the 944 community), and currently on sale for about $430 plus shipping for the pair. The matching Koni Sport rears are also on sale for $350 right now.
The other option rather than cutting up your rare M030 coilovers is to have them rebuilt. Last quote I got from the authorized service center, Performance Shock, was $350 per shock, base cost. More if revalving or additional options.
You could pick up a pair of cheap blown Sachs shocks to chop up for the inserts, rather than chop up the M030s, but any of the above are good options.
EDIT: as @johnb notes, there are some modern options too, but everything I could find resulted in a lower car, and I'm just squeaking into my current garage without scraping so none of those were options for me right now. The options I bookmarked for the future were:
- Riaction, which seem like very good value at $1300 (base... there are several options) and still a bump in performance.
- KW V3s seem universally loved but run $4k.
For either of those, you'll also have to either re-index or remove your torsion bars, given the rear coilovers.
FWIW, Jason at Paragon feels like fresh Koni Sports are still pretty good options for street use.
For what it's worth, with KWs I found that there are readily available spacers (60mm spring ID is very common, KW even make their own) in sizes from like 5mm up to 30mm or so (like this). I was set on using them, but eventually got fed up with the binding of the coils on the Racer's Edge camber plates (for various reasons the monoball in those isn't a good bearing in this axis) and designed an adapter to use the BMW strut bearing (p/n 31331090612) to prevent this (the "torrington" bearing commonly used is a bad solution for like six reasons). The stack of bearing + adapter takes up ~10mm, which was enough for me. You can of course expand the adapter to include more spacing easily. I see no reason why either of these won't work (spacers, bearing adapters) with any 60mm ID springs.
