suspension lowering

stuckinarut

i have an a3 and have put 18 inch rs8's onto it.while they look great i cant help feeling they would look better if i was to lower the car slightly.


i have heard of some guys doing it themselves but his sounds risky.im just wondering is it? and how much it would cost to get it fitted by garage?

Barr

I put 18's on my last car an FTO. It looked like it was on stilts till I got it lowered

Dont know about Audis but it cost me €300 about a year ago.

antodeco

How much you looking to lower it? Anything over 35mm and you will feel everything. Might be worthwhile upgrading shocks while your at it.

cantdecide

I wanted to lower my last car, E36 325i saloon, but strictly as little as possible. I hate messing with suspension cos it can go badly wrong if you choose the wrong kit.

All the kits were anything from 40mm-100mm which is just torture. A lot of the expensive coilover kits had a minimum drop that was too much for me but I eventually found a set of springs only that lowered it 20mm (but more like 15) which was the best result and essentially meant that since the rest of the suspension was in good order that they were fine on their own. It wasn't obviously slammed either- it just made the wheels look slightly more snug in the arches.

Masada

15mm is hardly worth while though, you can easily get away with 30mm and the springs are pretty common., OP if your handy with a few spanners then you could do it yourself, you just need a few basic tools and some spring clamps. it should take you about an hour and a half to do it id say.,

rebel.ranter

vtec wrote: »

.... it should take you about an hour and a half to do it id say.,

A hour to swap out four springs? DIY? It will take at least 10 minutes just to remove the wheels!!!

cantdecide

vtec wrote: »

15mm is hardly worth while though

It is if you're only after the mtech looks. It didn't look tuned when I was done- it looked top of the range, it reduced the arch gap by about 40% and the ride was completely unchanged.

I though it was a good result.

Neilw

If you are going to lower the car use a good kit, eibach pro-kit is about the best. Should lower the car 25-30mm.

Neil.

su_dios

What garages will fit the springs?

cantdecide

su_dios wrote: »

What garages will fit the springs?

Any mechanic and most Kwik-Fit type places (cue torrent of hatred for kwik-fit)

the evil belly

be aware though that most kwik fit/advance pitstop type places will not fit parts they don't sell you. i assume that where they're making the profits

bucks

Just make sure you inform your insurance company if you go adjusting the suspension, most of them wont mind as long as you provide an engineers report, so in your case it would be best if you bought the springs and got your local Audi garage to fit them and provide you with a report.

the_syco

A quick off-topic question: how do the rising number of ramps effect such suspension lowerings?

cantdecide

the_syco wrote: »

A quick off-topic question: how do the rising number of ramps effect such suspension lowerings?

Don't over-do it, 30mm is an acceptible max for most cars IMO (often less for some cars), if you go for more, you're playing with fire with regard to your cars health. After that, it's a simple case of easy does it- nice and slow over the bumps

stuckinarut

ye im not going for an out and out modified look,as someone said,just to make the wheels more snug in the arches..id say 20mm would be plenty and then this hopefully wouldnt effect the ride too much..