volvopentaman

So, i got this "great" idea about shortening the ride height potentiometer arms.

This means, that the potentiometer will move less with same height movenemt of the car.

This again translates to lower dynamic mode and higher lift mode.

Of course it will marginally affect the dampening on the shocks, but i suspect that it won't hurt any component in any way if driven normally and carefully.

My idea is to get the car very low with dynamic mode, like 25-30mm lower than stoch "adaptive" suspension, this means around same ride height as sport suspension, without the stiffnes of the sport suspension.

I could use "normal" mode as normal driving, if I want the car low, I'll put it in "dynamic" and if I want it extra high for some semi-offroading at low speeds, i put it in lift.


What do you think about my idea?

NOR_KNet

I know a guy in Norway who lowered his car by replacing his suspension ecu from Sport to none-Sport.

Next he removed his suspension strut and cut of the lower part of the suspension strut (red line in picture), shortened the cut-off part by 1-2 cm and the reweld it back on again and painted it black. This will make the ride softer due to more air in the strut but also lower.

Hope this is understandable for you?



Is this what you are planning on doing Mr Volvopentaman??

mishar

Great idea. Just make those arms longer not shorter. Than the sensors will move less and car will "think" that it has to move more to get to the desired level. Or may be I think wrong.

mishar

Shortening strut is also good idea but only to make suspension softer. Just it won't lower the car. If lowered either VCDS, links, or VPM (volvopentaman) way it will be easier to bottom it.

dvs_dave

The potentiometers aren't just ride height sensors. They relay dynamic suspension movement rate information to the suspension ecu which then adjusts the damping on the fly to suit. So making the ecu think the suspension is moving less than it is will probably have a detrimental effect on handling.

Although if you do it, I think you'll need longer arms, not shorter to make it think there is less movement.

MP4.2+6.0

How many guys on a chatroom board does it take to figure out shorter or longer?

Great mod for a D3 in the offing?

Seemed like a great idea at the time (dubbed over video of oft bad outcome)

Get Art in Engineering on the phone

volvopentaman

Yes, of course lengthen the arms, not shorten, was just thinking the wrong way again.

No catastrophic replies yet, will try out as soon as I'm back driving from Italy to Finland.

volvopentaman

No, that big mods aren't gonna happen, nr1 it will take too much time, and nr2 be too risky to destroy the struts, and I don't need to modify the ride to softer, It's just nice with factory 20" and 275/40R20 tyres.

If it would be a sport suspension, I would have to do something about the ride.

MP4.2+6.0

So, 275/40's (instead of 275/35 factory D3): maybe a good choice there with your preferences I infer a bit from the post here. More so if you are also maybe thinking of a D4 migration at some point if I remember right. You probably know factory D4 is 265/40-20, another dumb real-world Audi one-off orphan choice. Later causes expensive and limited replacement choices. Some D4 owners are thus thinking the greater range of choices and oft lower pricing with 275's, just as they have with the D3 S8 on 265/35s. You've already jumped to that choice prospective D4 wise.

Meantime, what you have of course done is actually raised the car's ride height effectively by (28.7-27.7)/2= ½" (12+ mm) relative the already bigger diameter 20" stock D3 size, or (28.7 - 27.0)/2 = .85" (21+mm). Meaningful good clearance D3 delta's for everyday driveway, road dip and other "chin" hits. But, it's a "double" in that the same change has occurred all around the wheel and fender, so fender gap wise it is as though you have dropped it that 12-21mm range. Sort of your link drop creativity. But, if anything, ride is marginally softer since the sidewall went up by the same radial difference in the math.

Then, take it one more step on the spectrum of still pretty possible/easy to do. Do the VAG COM mode and maybe drop it some, with the stock non-sport suspension you have. In my case, I did 10mm in front on stock 275/35. Basically puts me at stock non-sport D3 ride height with either 18's or 19's, didn't affect ride in any meaningful way except in Dynamic on poor roads, and looks incrementally buttoned down.

I went one more step with the S8 sway bars, but sounds like ride wise you may want to keep it not much more than current stiffness. The bars flattened out the cornering some without the better stiffness notch of a typical sport suspension. Buried in your W12, you should find it actually currently has the "sport" level bars, even though it has the non-Sport air units. That's what mine had, confirmed at the part # level I found on the OE parts.