Possible to lower 2014 Q5 and retain Adaptive Damping Suspension?

[reparoo]

I love the dynamic suspension in my Q5 but am interested in lowering it a bit - is it possible to lower while maintaining the Adaptive Suspension? Are lowering springs an option? Pros/cons?

I've seen a couple posts that indirectly address this, but have not gotten a definitive answer.


Any help/guidance is appreciated - thanks!

[stapan]

I have the adjustable suspension and installed KW HAS when I first got the car about 30k miles and 4+ years ago. Significantly lowered.

All modes work phenomenally well and like new. One of my favorite features of the car is the ability to go from soft comfort to track ready dynamic suspension mode. Handles incredibly well in dynamic with 295 tires, I can keep up with last gen M3's in the corners and then flip it to Comfort and it drives almost like my wife's Highlander.

Also I didn't have to do anything special to make the HAS work with the adjustable suspension system. Plug and play.

[sQ5inSD]

I love the dynamic suspension in my Q5 but am interested in lowering it a bit - is it possible to lower while maintaining the Adaptive Suspension? Are lowering springs an option? Pros/cons?

I've seen a couple posts that indirectly address this, but have not gotten a definitive answer.


Any help/guidance is appreciated - thanks!

I have the same suspension, with the KW H.A.S. kit, on my 2013 S-Line and with almost 120k miles the OE magnetic dampers are "tired" so my best advice to you is make sure your stock shocks are worth the time/$ when and if you decide to go lower. Some owners try the HAS way first and find they cannot get low enough. The rear springs in the kit are not as low as the fronts, my rear collars are bottomed out but the front collars are in the middle of the threaded range. It also took more than 5k miles for the rear springs to fully sag. The initial drop is about 2.5 to 3" if the collars are bottomed out. I got about another 0.5" lower in the rear after a year of daily (short) commuting. The final fender-to-ground after 10k miles is 29.75" rear and 29.5" front.

Also be prepared to invest $$$ in replacement OEM dampers at some point. Lately I keep the suspension setting in Dynamic constantly because the shocks are simply not as firm as they were at 105k miles when I installed the HAS kit. At that time the factory shocks showed no signs of fluid loss but when I had them off the vehicle and did the rebound test I noticed it took longer than I liked to see for the front shock pistons to return after pushing them in as far as possible. If you look around you will see there are few options for replacing these dampers. The OEs are Sachs for Audi and run about $3,400/set front and rear from dealerships online. Bilstein has a sport version in their catalog that RockAuto lists for a relatively reasonable $1,350/ set of four but based upon the available pics and installation data I think these are OEM Porsche Macan. This is not necessarily bad but the two-pin wiring harness on the Bilstein exits the very top of the piston rod where the factory Q5 damper wiring exits the lower portion of the shock tube. I have yet to figure out if and how to adapt the wiring - it probably will involve some cutting/splicing - TBD.

The other way is to do what the non-adaptive owners do and just swap out sets of dampers+springs. In that case you will need the outrageously expensive bypass plugs that connect to each end of the factory harness to trick the ECU to think you still have adaptive dampers. A set of these new from KW runs $420 right now from ECS.

[stapan]

120k is pretty good for a set of shocks especially adaptive ones.

Wonder how much lowering affected lifespan.

[q5 dave]

yes on kw HAS but it can be stiff and bouncy as it's already compressed. if you go too low dampers can leak/fail. i only lasted 10k before switching to coilovers. never looked back.

[reparoo]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the replies! Sounds like KW HAS is exactly what I'm looking for. My Q5 only has 33k miles on it so I'm hoping the dampers still have a lot of life left in them! I'll be prepared to move over to coilovers at some point if they start to fail. Thanks!

[B5in]

I have the same suspension and lowered with the 034 Dynamic+ springs and everything still works as it should with no errors

[034Motorsport]

Our 034Motorsport Dynamic+ Lowering Springs are designed to be used with the OE dampers on your Q5/SQ5 - This includes OE Magride.

We've determined through our thorough research and development that these springs are safe for extended use on OE dampers and are certain to provide you with a great stance without compromising ride quality or comfort!



Check these out here:
https://store.034motorsport.com/dyna...di-q5-sq5.html

-Sean@034

[djn876]

I haven't seen any lowering springs that don't destroy the dampers within a few years. Even though the spring rates match OK, the damper is just so far out of it's normal range of travel.

KW makes an electronic damping that I think might work, but I'm not 100% sure and it's expensive.

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