PZelite_GR

can anyone tell me the ride hight change?
Thanks.

JCJiffy

<ul><li><a href="http://www.somatis.com/audi/?ID=suspension">http://www.somatis.com/audi/?ID=suspension</a></li></ul>

Andy Hedin

To quote an article in European Car magazine (January 2000 issue, page 104) in a multi-part article called "Suspension Basics: Everything You Need to Know About Suspensions":

"The third point is that stiffer springs require stiffer dampers. If you put stiffer springs on your car and use the stock shocks or struts, both ride and handling will suffer. For a given deflection, stiffer springs store more energy. This means that more of the kinetic energy of the upward-moving unsprung mass will be stored by the spring in a shorter distance, before the damper has a chance to dissipate it. On rebound, energy will be released too fast for the damper to do much about it, and your car will bounce down the road like a pogo stick. On the other hand, stiffer springs that are properly damped will, in a way similar to reducing unsprung mass, return the wheel to the pavement faster. As with anything, there are limits: Springs that are too stiff will upset the car body excessively, causing the tires to leave the pavement over bumps."

OK....so based on this, I'd be extremely cautious about just changing the springs and leaving the stock shocks in place. Unless you know that the spring rate on the H&R's is within the "operating range" of the stock shocks, I'd stay away from a spring-only swap.

WClark

The reference JCJiffy provided is a nice reference. It doesnt list spring rates though. If the H&R has a similar stiffness to the Audi/Eibach (somewhat the same drop, implying similar requirements for spring rate to prevent frequent bottoming out and not totally kill ride quality) then the OEM shocks are only marginally OK in terms of their damping rate. When new the OEM sport shocks are pretty good in terms of high frequency damping but the rear low frequency damping is too low - leading to some pogo-stick ride over slower road irregularities. When they wear in, my rear shocks became much worse, and that was within 10,000 miles. My fronts held up better but I ended up changing all 4 at about 11000 for Neuspeed Bilstein's.

If I had to do it over again I would have done the shocks at the same time as the springs. Taking this suspension apart once is quite enough.

BOOSTD

I currently have this setup. don't know the ride height, but it's just right for me.