Recommendations on lowering springs

[Dskins]

I was looking at lowering my car but I was curious on ride quality on the different springs since my car is a daily driver. I was looking at reviews on the H & R and also the 034's. I would just be swapping these out and not upgrading the struts. I've also never lowered any of my previous cars so I'm not sure if it would be a simple swap of the springs or if I would have to buy any additional parts to get the job done. I've also read that upgrading sway bars helps on some cars that have lowering springs, would this be beneficial on the A4 as an everyday driver? Any recommendation or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[1killera4]

Never, and I mean never put lowering springs on without changing the shocks.

[A4B7Avant]

I use 034 and they're fine. Slightly more firm though.

[AccordingToAlex]

If you don't have the sport suspension from Audi, start with that. H&R and 034 only lower another 1/4ish" from the OEM sport springs IIRC.

[SJorge3442]

If you don't have the sport suspension from Audi, start with that. H&R and 034 only lower another 1/4ish" from the OEM sport springs IIRC.

034 claims their springs will lower a non-sport sedan 2" and a sport sedan 1.1". These are designed to work with the stock suspension.

[AccordingToAlex]

Crap meant to say 3/4 not 1/4, but yeah like I said if you don't have the sport ones try those first as they're Audi genuine and thus will work with Audi shocks. With that said, I've heard a lot of good things with the 034 springs, but a mixed bag with the H&R

[Dskins]

why do you say that? first hand experience of something bad happening?

[Dskins]

Thanks for the advise, for some odd reason I didn't think about the Audi sport springs haha. I was thinking about throwing the 19" RS6 double spoke wheels on, so that would probably sit nice. I wasn't trying to do anything to dramatic on the drop since it's my daily. Do you know how much lower the sport springs are?

[1killera4]

You own an Audi and let’s say stock springs give you 8 inches of travel — that’s four inches up from neutral and four inches down (from the perspective of the wheel; since the spring and strut are on the control arms, their leverage point is different and therefore they won’t have an actual travel amount that far). The car is 6 inches off the ground anyways, so no big deal. Even if the car bottomed out the suspension, there’d still be two inches of clearance.

Now let’s say that you install 2.5-inch lowering springs on the car. This will shorten the distance between the lower control arm and the top of the strut tower, bringing your overall height down the desired amount. Your suspension can still cycle a good amount, but now you’ve got a stock shock in there. Because the spring is shorter, the shock is now collapsed 2.5 inches at its neutral position. Basically, it’s operating from a point below where it’s comfortable.

As a result, you’ll bottom out the shock sooner. It’ll be able to travel up higher than your suspension will probably go. But down? It’s hosed. The end result is that your car will likely never hit concrete when you’re going over a big dip, but it’ll feel like you’re hitting it because you’re collapsing the spring all the way.

What makes a lowered shock different?
A lowered shock absorber is shorter than stock. It’s designed so that when it’s paired with a lowering spring it will have a full range of travel for that particular suspension. Your shock won’t be able to bottom out the same way, because it’s made to work with that kind of setup.

Again, this is key, and not just for ride quality, either. Yes, that’s important — nothing is worse than riding on a car that’s constantly bouncing off the bump-stops — but it’s a safety issue. Cars that bottom out frequently also have tire contact patch issues, and that, again, can cause braking issues. It’s just not the safe way to go.

Long story short? If you install lowering springs, make sure to install lowering shocks and then your car or truck will still ride like a dream.

[A4B7Avant]

034 claims their springs will lower a non-sport sedan 2" and a sport sedan 1.1". These are designed to work with the stock suspension.

I can confirm the 1.1". Went for an alignment a month later and only the toe on the passenger front was just a little out of spec.

If the OP has a non sports suspension, he will need to trim the bump stops, but no need if he has the sport suspension

[A4B7Avant]

Thanks for the advise, for some odd reason I didn't think about the Audi sport springs haha. I was thinking about throwing the 19" RS6 double spoke wheels on, so that would probably sit nice. I wasn't trying to do anything to dramatic on the drop since it's my daily. Do you know how much lower the sport springs are?

Like 3/4" or so. RS6 wheels may be too wide and wrong offset for the A4.

[1killera4]

^ this.

[Z06jerry]

Never, and I mean never put lowering springs on without changing the shocks.

I disagree

034 claims their springs will lower a non-sport sedan 2" and a sport sedan 1.1". These are designed to work with the stock suspension.

and so do others :)

You own an Audi and let’s say stock springs give you 8 inches of travel — that’s four inches up from neutral and four inches down (from the perspective of the wheel; since the spring and strut are on the control arms, their leverage point is different and therefore they won’t have an actual travel amount that far). The car is 6 inches off the ground anyways, so no big deal. Even if the car bottomed out the suspension, there’d still be two inches of clearance.

Now let’s say that you install 2.5-inch lowering springs on the car. This will shorten the distance between the lower control arm and the top of the strut tower, bringing your overall height down the desired amount. Your suspension can still cycle a good amount, but now you’ve got a stock shock in there. Because the spring is shorter, the shock is now collapsed 2.5 inches at its neutral position. Basically, it’s operating from a point below where it’s comfortable.

As a result, you’ll bottom out the shock sooner. It’ll be able to travel up higher than your suspension will probably go. But down? It’s hosed. The end result is that your car will likely never hit concrete when you’re going over a big dip, but it’ll feel like you’re hitting it because you’re collapsing the spring all the way.

What makes a lowered shock different?
A lowered shock absorber is shorter than stock. It’s designed so that when it’s paired with a lowering spring it will have a full range of travel for that particular suspension. Your shock won’t be able to bottom out the same way, because it’s made to work with that kind of setup.

Again, this is key, and not just for ride quality, either. Yes, that’s important — nothing is worse than riding on a car that’s constantly bouncing off the bump-stops — but it’s a safety issue. Cars that bottom out frequently also have tire contact patch issues, and that, again, can cause braking issues. It’s just not the safe way to go.

Long story short? If you install lowering springs, make sure to install lowering shocks and then your car or truck will still ride like a dream.

The A4's standard suspension and sport suspension struts are the same length compressed and uncompressed. Both suspensions' struts use the same bump stop. The exception is the A4 Allroad strut which is 20mm longer and has it's lower spring perch located 20mm higher up on the strut.

[1killera4]

Only thing being, how long have you been driving the car with non sport springs? The shocks have seated and worn to that length of travel. Having those shocks with different travel springs will cause premature attrition of the sealing surfaces and seal leakage with reduced performance. I know this from experience. But then again, what do I know. I'm just a Mechanical Engineer trying to help you out when changing the geometry of your suspension.
Best of luck.

[XLR8Performance]

Hello. I am Keven, a retail sales rep at XLR8. I want to help you find the correct part. We stock thousands of parts from many different manufacturers like APR, 034, AWE, Milltek, Scorpion, and many more. And we offer free shipping to the cont 48 U.S. on most orders. We offer some great brands that provide lowering springs like 034, H&R, MSS, and Bilstein offers their shock and springs kits. We are looking at the front & rear with the 034 springs; we are looking at the front & rear if you have the Base Suspension 2.0 lower Sport Suspension 1.1 lower. They recommend trimming the front bump stops by 10mm on Base Suspension A4 if that is the suspension you have. With MMS, their springs are a fully adjustable kit that gives you adjustments in the front from 0 to -35mm (+/-3mm) or 0 to -30mm (+/-3mm) in the rear. Then we have the Bilstein, which is a shock and spring kit. We have all three in stock. They are all good options to do with!

Feel free to D.M. me or send an email over at [email protected] or call at 203-483-6100 ex 1002.

https://xlr8performance.com/search.p...1&category=512

[Dskins]

Only thing being, how long have you been driving the car with non sport springs? The shocks have seated and worn to that length of travel. Having those shocks with different travel springs will cause premature attrition of the sealing surfaces and seal leakage with reduced performance. I know this from experience. But then again, what do I know. I'm just a Mechanical Engineer trying to help you out when changing the geometry of your suspension.
Best of luck.

I've had the car for right around a year and there are currently about 25k miles on it. So you would recommend just getting new struts while doing the springs since they would not seat correctly with the current wear on the struts?

[1killera4]

I'm sorry, I am done giving advice on here. Best of luck, do whatever you wanna do.

I will say this, just Google if you should replace shocks when changing springs. That way I'm off the hook.

[deviantspeed]

I disagree



and so do others :)



The A4's standard suspension and sport suspension struts are the same length compressed and uncompressed. Both suspensions' struts use the same bump stop. The exception is the A4 Allroad strut which is 20mm longer and has it's lower spring perch located 20mm higher up on the strut.

Mostly true. AR is longer.

If you have the standard suspension, you'll want to replace the stock monroe struts. You will also want to measure the mount size in the knuckle. There's two and the common guides were wrong in my application. They all said I had the smaller one for the front struts, but I used calipers and found out mine were the larger ones.

If you increase the spring rate, the monroes are going to hate it. Go with Bilstein B8's, but they are hard to find, the struts are actually shorter and will preload your spring more. Your roll center will change. Lowering will feel good with just springs, but your spine is going to hate bumps, unless you maybe live in the outskirts of fine roads in Phoenix or Vegas.

OP, I had the H&R's, stiff and fun, but too low. Your upper arms will tap the upper well and undo your little inspection covers. Same with the rev springs I tried, which were actually much better than the H&R's on daily driving spring rates. All of them are too low IMHO. Honestly, if you have stock (IBE?) suspension, look for the sport springs on ebay and go OEM+

Ok, I've rambled too much. I swapped suspension several times on the B9 trying a few different combos. I think a lot of Manu's just guessed at what would work on this chassis.

[1killera4]

Thank you. Funny how folks will argue with you when you are just trying to save them money and grief.