ayap

The package came with everything needed and including rubber gloves.

TREGinginCO

Sweet - thank you!

roger_1

In other words, is the ride firmer? Do you feel bumps, potholes etc. more?

I'd not mind more precise steering/handling, but not at the expense of ride quality.

ayap

To sum it up, the ride is 300% better and much more luxurious. Not firm/hard, but more comfy without being bounced around. I hope that answers your question.
Yes, sooo much better - that it rides like a luxurious A6 Avant now on a straight highway drive, but really firm and tight when you curve.
My A6 Avant drove like it was on rails on a straight line, but cornering and turns were not tight and mushy.
The allroad was bouncy before the Alu Kreuz (which I really hated) and felt it was a downgrade from the A6 ride.
If you've driven an A6 or A7, you get that luxurious 'ride on rails' on a straight line with no bumpy feel, but cornering is soft.
My allroad now eats up the bumps and potholes very comfortably, because the entire suspension acts like one uni-body.
While it eats up the bumps, it does not jump or giggle like before. It stays straight like it was on rails. It stays very pliant - like it absorbs the bumps softly because
the bump is absorbed throughout the 4 wheels instead of 1 wheel or 2 wheels.
Yes, the bump's absorption is distributed through-out the 4 wheels, and you don't feel the bouncy springy mushy ride.
Just like a solid 'thud' and the bump/pothole is very nicely absorbed by all 4 shock absorbers without being throw away by a bumpy ride. So, very solid but very comfy soft absorbing ride.
I just tested it on a 2-lane country road today up in the mountains and hit 107 MPH with the Stage 1 software and the ride
stayed very firmly at high speeds without that previous bouncy feel. Just driving as firm as rails now, and very luxurious ride feel. My wife agrees.
I still have the original tires - Pirelli. I had plan to change it, because I thought it was a very hard set of tires. Now,
I'm not going to change the tires until it wears off. 32psi in front 35psi back. Once it wears out, I'll get Continental Conti Extreme DWS which I'm sure will even have a better ride.
But I'm very happy with the ride now .. and of course, the handling on corner and high speeds is great. It has all the advantage of the A6's comfy ride on a straight line +
the solid firm cornering and quick lane change (which the A6 do not have).
The only thing I could think of that will make the ride firmer is if I change the coils which will lower the allroad by 1.4 inches, but I probably will not do that. As long as you don't change the coils and shocks, it will have that comfy ride. The alu Kreuz only makes it much better.

roger_1

Thank you. That's very helpful.

With the benefit of your comments, there's now an Alu Kreuz in my Allroad's future.

djnuge

Does it block anything that needs to be serviced regularly?

ayap

No, it does not block anything. It actually just replaces the factory stabilizer, which is a very thin piece of metal.
The Alu Kreuz is thicker and made with better metal (aluminum used in aircraft) compared with the factory stabilizer so it reduces chassis torsion flex very well.
But no, it does not block anything at all. You are just replacing a weak factory component with a much stronger component.
Once I have the budget, I'm putting one on my S5 as well. The S5's ride and handling is already good so it was not a priority, but the allroad's ride and handling
leaves a lot to be desired - so the Alu Kreuz really improves it a lot.