yb28

As someone else has stated, I did a lot of research when I wanted to lower my B8.5 with non sport suspension, many people (including friends) bought H&R sport springs, here's my conclusion..

non sport: Majority of people blew their struts eventually.. some was lucky enough to go far while some others blew it at about 30k kms

sline and s4: none have issues so far...

but also it depends on how the roads are where you travel....

if you are leasing the car and not going to keep it, do whatever
if you are leasing and planning to keep it or bought it, id suggest sport suspension + springs OR aftermarket spring+strut combo OR coilovers

just my 2 cents hope it helps!

I have sport suspension and 034 springs!

jorgecopa

Like tjones78 I went with the Emmanuele Design springs on my non sport quattro and very happy with them. Perfect drop for me and ride quality is basically the same as stock. Went with them because they had a non sport A4 quattro as their development vehicle. They are Linear design just like the stock springs and a good match to the stock shocks. They also included the front bump stops.

jorgecopa

So what your telling us is that A4 B9 owners with the non-sport suspension will have to deal with blown struts at about 18,000 miles or so?

tjones78

I know on the VW cars, there are options like Driver Gear that lower the car conservatively and keep moderate linear spring rates, and they seem to hold up fine. This is one of the reasons I opted for the emmanuele design linear springs, but of course time will tell.

jorgecopa

We have S-Line without the sport suspension in the U.S.

yb28

No, just stating that's what I've gathered over the B6, B7 and B8 years, thats the trend, I cant speak for B9, keep in mind for the 8.5 H&R OE sport springs (IIRC) , the drop is a lot more aggresive than 034 or B9 H&R and ED..

I didnt say any of you with non sport will blow in 18k, the group of people that I gathered the data from dont represent all the owners for the 8/8.5. I said majority of them ending up having issues, but too much variables so I cant conclude that if you have non sport, you are guarantee to blow the struts.

Was also told by some of my friends that have some background knowledge in suspension that I should be fine with sport suspension, especially the drop isnt much...however time will tell..

I opted for 034 mainly because their development car has sport suspension as well!

p.s. when i say sline i meant sport suspension**

jorgecopa

Holy crap you scared me! Lol... Hopefully the ED with the same linear design and similar spring rate will be fine.

mwardA4

So here's my whole problem with this, it seems like a few people have tried this but don't have a lot of miles on their car. And there is a lot of hearsay going on. Talk to a performance shop first, don't order springs online and tell people to install them. This sounds like a great way to screw up your new car.

VipinLJ

From what I've read, majority of the people who blew struts because they installed lowering springs had installed lowering springs around 30-40k miles after they ran on stock springs and struts. These guys then blew struts around 15-20k miles after that. So basically, the struts lasted around 45-60k miles, which is good enough for me. If my struts blow at around 40-50k miles (since I installed my springs at around 19xx miles), I don't mind since I won't have the car by then (I'll be replacing it with stock springs when I return it).
I've also read threads where people ran lowering springs from the beginning itself and 70k miles down the line, everything is still working fine. So yea. The way I see it. Depends on your luck. I'm guessing around 40k miles should be easy with lowering springs. Plus, if you do blow your struts, you can then buy coilovers then, if you want to.

mwardA4

But you won't get a good ride quality. You are totally half assing it. Save your money and invest in a really good sport suspension later on. Google ride quality of lowering springs. I guess I don't know, I haven't tried it. Seems like a bad solution.