8v A3 lowering help

[MdnytRyder]

What are those wheel specs?


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Hmm will have to figure that out. They are stock wheels so I'm not sure.


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[MarcMiller]

Nice.

Did you install the rear pads?

It already looks good without spacers.

Yup. I think its really necessary

[VWVW]

In the front yeah about that. In the back barely! Will get a side picture later for you.


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Cool, did you install the rear pads?

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Hmm will have to figure that out. They are stock wheels so I'm not sure.


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I am sure the OEM 19s are 19x8 ET49.

[MdnytRyder]

I didn't install the pads. Probably should have.


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[MdnytRyder]

Cool, did you install the rear pads?

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I am sure the OEM 19s are 19x8 ET49.

I think the wheels are wider than that. I want to say 8.5. Will check.


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[VWVW]

I didn't install the pads. Probably should have.


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It shouldn't be too tough to add the rear pads. It will look better!

[MdnytRyder]

It shouldn't be too tough to add the rear pads. It will look better!

Yeah my mechanic wants $150 to put them in.


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[VWVW]

Yeah my mechanic wants $150 to put them in.


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Maybe ask him to do the spacers as well...

[Donuthustle]

I highly recommend the H&R Deep coilovers. Great performance and fitment


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[MdnytRyder]

Maybe ask him to do the spacers as well...

I have spacers. 10mm front and rear from ECS!


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[VWVW]

I have spacers. 10mm front and rear from ECS!


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Ops, my bad. I got confused.

[TheExile]

Reviving this old thread from the grave since it has given me a good sense of direction on the EMD springs.

For those with the EMD springs, how has it been holding up so far? Running on oem struts? If so, been ok?

Just mounted a set of 19x9.5 et40 with 235/35 on my a3 non-sline... the gap is hideous imho... got to get rid of this asap.

[TheMysticWizard]

Reviving this old thread from the grave since it has given me a good sense of direction on the EMD springs.

For those with the EMD springs, how has it been holding up so far? Running on oem struts? If so, been ok?

Just mounted a set of 19x9.5 et40 with 235/35 on my a3 non-sline... the gap is hideous imho... got to get rid of this asap.

First I ran H&R Super Sports, damn rough springs. Couldn't handle them on a daily driver (which my A3 is) and swapped back to stock.

Then I ran EMD Springs with Stock Struts and Shocks for about 5k miles. Decided to pull the trigger on shocks/struts for lowering springs after I felt the ride was a bit harsh.

If you're on nearly perfect roads, they feel great, much like stock, though the car handles and rides better with the lower center of gravity. But any significant bumps/dips/cracks or potholes and they're harsh with stock shocks/struts.

I installed Bilstein B8 Shocks in the rear and ended up with Koni Sport Adjustable Struts up front. Seemed to help with most of the harshness. I am running the Koni's about 1/3 way from full soft.

Fairly happy, but I have a friend who recently went from EMD's to Eibach and said they run a lot more comfortably with a similar lowering drop... thinking about maybe going that route still...

[clayparent95]

EMD springs with rear rake pads installed. Stock shocks. Bump stops trimmed 0.5”. 10mm spacer front, 12mm spacer rear (would go 15mm in hindsight). Took about 5hrs to do the install. IMG_4113.JPGIMG_4111.JPG


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[TheExile]

Thanks mystic and clay, looks good! Appreciate the feedback, feeding more fuel to the fire. Wanting to pull the trigger soon to have the right look with the 19's on.

Just curious from your experience and anyone else. Did you get a wheel alignment done after you installed them? Or was it still driving straight after? Getting mixed messages of.. you should but.. can get by without an alignment. Thoughts?

Also I was reading over the emd instructions and clay you mentioned it too, on trimming the bump stop. Absolutely necessary to do?

[TheMysticWizard]

Just curious from your experience and anyone else. Did you get a wheel alignment done after you installed them? Or was it still driving straight after? Getting mixed messages of.. you should but.. can get by without an alignment. Thoughts?

Also I was reading over the emd instructions and clay you mentioned it too, on trimming the bump stop. Absolutely necessary to do?

Yes to both

I have not done alignment, It should be done. From what I have read, lowering the car likely changes your toe, leading to more tire wear.

Mine has no problem driving straight, doesn't pull at all, but I shredded the inside shoulder of my tires. I have swapped those to the back but they are to the point they should just be replaced. No cords showing yet, but I feel they were close. I didn't really care cause I have another set of tires sitting in the garage to go on when the time comes and I kind of didn't like the tires on there to begin with.

I trimmed the bump stops the minimum I thought was necessary when I put the H&R's on, and when swapping them out the bump stops looked like they had made contact at least a few times being lowered. When I installed the struts/shocks I cut away the majority of what remained of them.

Front ended up being cut about here:


And rear I cut here and notched out a V on both sides so I could force them back into the dust shields:



Side note, I'm running 18mm spacers both front and rear. Could likely get away with 20mm all around in my configuration, but I am running the EuroSport Camber Kit up front. Otherwise 15mm flushed up the fronts pretty well before.
My wheels are 18 x 8 ET46 (stock 18's)

I had initially installed the Rake Pads with the EMD springs, but later removed them, felt the rear sat too high with them.

[TheExile]

Ah ok, perfect! Thanks a bunch for the detailed explanation! Gives me a better understanding now on what to do step by step. Now time for another round of "christmas presents"

[Grey3]

Yes to both

I have not done alignment, It should be done. From what I have read, lowering the car likely changes your toe, leading to more tire wear.

Mine has no problem driving straight, doesn't pull at all, but I shredded the inside shoulder of my tires. I have swapped those to the back but they are to the point they should just be replaced. No cords showing yet, but I feel they were close. I didn't really care cause I have another set of tires sitting in the garage to go on when the time comes and I kind of didn't like the tires on there to begin with.

I trimmed the bump stops the minimum I thought was necessary when I put the H&R's on, and when swapping them out the bump stops looked like they had made contact at least a few times being lowered. When I installed the struts/shocks I cut away the majority of what remained of them.

Front ended up being cut about here:


And rear I cut here and notched out a V on both sides so I could force them back into the dust shields:



Side note, I'm running 18mm spacers both front and rear. Could likely get away with 20mm all around in my configuration, but I am running the EuroSport Camber Kit up front. Otherwise 15mm flushed up the fronts pretty well before.
My wheels are 18 x 8 ET46 (stock 18's)

I had initially installed the Rake Pads with the EMD springs, but later removed them, felt the rear sat too high with them.

Hey just curious. Why cut the stock bump stops? Wouldn’t that make u bottom out easier,,,,,BAM!
I’m pretty sure we left mine intact for my H&r sports


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[TheMysticWizard]

Hey just curious. Why cut the stock bump stops? Wouldn’t that make u bottom out easier,,,,,BAM!
I’m pretty sure we left mine intact for my H&r sports

EMD calls for it in the install instructions. I believe H&R did as well, I seem to remember the paper in the box indicating how much to trim (#8 says if information sheet says so here). On Eibach's website, for their general (non platform specific) install guide, they recommend trimming bump stops.

As I see it, the bump stops are designed to stock height. If you're lowered you're free travel is that much less, plus if the bump stops are right there, you're gonna hit them. Ultimately they're there to stop the struts/shocks from fully compressing and bottoming out hard. Cutting them allows them to remain in place, not bottom out prematurely with the reduced length of travel but still protect from bottoming out metal to metal.

[Grey3]

Gotcha, the more you’re explaining it I think we did trim off a notch or so. My friend in the mechanic I’m the helper/ cheerleader


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[Grey3]

EMD calls for it in the install instructions. I believe H&R did as well, I seem to remember the paper in the box indicating how much to trim (#8 says if information sheet says so here). On Eibach's website, for their general (non platform specific) install guide, they recommend trimming bump stops.

As I see it, the bump stops are designed to stock height. If you're lowered you're free travel is that much less, plus if the bump stops are right there, you're gonna hit them. Ultimately they're there to stop the struts/shocks from fully compressing and bottoming out hard. Cutting them allows them to remain in place, not bottom out prematurely with the reduced length of travel but still protect from bottoming out metal to metal.

And now that I’m at 80k on stock shocks( seems to right fine) would bilstein be the was to go paired w the H&r sport springs?


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[TheMysticWizard]

Bilstein has a great reputation across many platforms. The B8 Series are intended to be used on lowered cars, they are slightly shortened so they don't bottom out internally as fast and they keep tension on the springs while fully extended.

Koni makes a great product as well. Many of their products are adjustable and are also designed for lowered vehicles.

I ended up with the Koni Sport Adjustables up front due to what FCP Euro had in stock. I had ordered Bilsteins based on what they said would fit and when I received them they did not fit, they wouldn't refund me (I had bought them 6 months before I went to install them and found out they wouldn't fit) so I had to go with what they had on hand that would fit.

I'm happy with them so far.

Don't let my experience scare you tho, the A3 TDI has different parts than the A3 Quattro or S3. I can understand their misinformation as far as fitment, mostly these cars are the same across the board but the TDI is a bastard child.

[Grey3]

I’m also fwd so I appreciate the advise. So bilstein may not fit up front?


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[TheMysticWizard]

I’m also fwd so I appreciate the advise. So bilstein may not fit up front?

I believe the TDI is the only one that's different, but I'm not 100% sure.

MQB Platform uses either 50mm or 55mm up front, the size of the struts where they go in the knuckle.

I had purchased the 55mm ones based on their fitment guide. Ended up I had the 50mm knuckles. They didn't have the 50mm in stock, it was back-ordered and they had no ETA so I went with the Koni's since they had them in stock.

I seem to remember from my research, GTI/Golf without sport suspension used 50mm and GTI/Golf Sportwagen with sport suspension was 55mm. I think all A3/S3 used 55 except A3 TDI. A3 TDI is most like a VW

[TheExile]

Been really curious how the APR springs are compared to EMD. Since emd is backordered until the 24th I haven't purchased anything. Starting to go back into a rabbit hole about this.

Was curious about 034 as well and emailed them. However they confirmed their springs will not fit on A3 non-mag ride. So that's off the list now.

All the APR threads and responses I've read up on were on mag ride/s3's which doesn't help. Anyone with APR springs on a A3 base suspension not s-line or mag ride?