A5 SB - bouncey rear, poor shock/spring match?
 

Hi all, our A5 Sportback Premium Plus has the sport suspension and 19" wheel option. Overall the car is great, but it feels like the rear end is a pinch skittish over imperfect road surfaces. It does not feel as composed as I would expect of a car at this performance/luxury level. I've owned many cars with stiff suspension from the factory, and plenty with aftermarket suspension, so this isn't a case of noob factor.

I have tried running factory psi, 2 below, and 2 above, in the tires. But no dice. Are the sport springs just poorly matched to the shocks on the car? Any ideas?

I felt this too before putting H&R Sport Springs on it. These took that bounce away and also firmed up the ride slightly, which I'm fine with since I've always driven stiffly sprung cars. It's not too stiff though. I measured the coils with a caliper and the H&R ones had roughly 10% more cross sectional area than stock so figure 10% more spring rate. Looks a lot better too.

https://imgur.com/a/Mr9DzgA

I have 12mm/17mm spacers installed as well. I get absolutely no rubbing or scraping.

Car looks awesome! So would you say that you feel the H&R springs are better matched to the stock shocks than the stock sport springs?

Never, ever put lowering springs on a car. At least thats my opinion after trying it on my B8. Only bad things come from it.

its either coils or nothing.

Sorry, but that's simply not true. While putting lowering springs on a car CAN be a bad idea, what matters most is that the springs and shocks are a good match for each other. Generally, the manufacturer setup is well-matched. But sometimes it is not. I've had a small handful of cars that ended up with improved ride quality by simply swapping springs.

"Coils or nothing" doesn't mean much either, as there are tons of poorly matched coilover kits as well.

I do feel that the stock rear spring rate was a bit low causing it to be a little overdamped and bouncy. I have no regrets putting the H&R ones on though. It didn't affect my camber much either, the fronts are at -1.0deg and I set the rears to match.

Most coils, especially the cheap ones, are way too firm for cars like ours. I went through 3 sets with my last car and regretted not just staying with stock-ish dampers and springs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not into cheap suspension components period. Anyone who takes the suspension from a 50k+ car and replaces it with a 1000-1500 set of coils is doing it wrong. My argument is much more in favor of avoiding lowering springs across the board and only staying with the top of the line coil alternatives.

I find it hard to believe that anyone is putting out a very well matched kit for the car. The h&r springs on every car I've owned are subpar. Usually when you put lowering springs on a new car, your shocks are just working overtime, once they gradually wear out it gets bouncier and bouncier.

To clarify, unanimous consent that the H&R springs on the Golf R are very bad, many accounts of users purchasing and then switching elsewhere (same goes for VWR)

H&R Springs on both my S6 and S4 were stiff and very unsettled and bouncy over and pavement undulation, worsening over time to the point where my S4 I couldnt stand them.

Most of the time, I agree with you, just any old spring makes a car worse. Sometimes a spring manufacturer gets lucky and the rate is actually better matched to the car than the stock suspension. Very rarely, a spring manufacturer actually does their homework and designs a spring around the stock shocks...and makes a good set. I'd say this is the least common situation though, sadly.

I'm no expert at this, but I think the H&R's on the B9 A5 rides just fine. No complaints, and it removes the rear bouncing issue. Lowers exactly as advertised too, 0.8" per corner for the S-Line.

My last car was an NSX and I went through Zeal B6, BC Racing with Swift springs, and then KW V3 coilovers. The KW V3's were the softest and best out of those unsurprisingly but they were still really stiff for daily street use and by then the car already had a lot of squeaks and rattles from being beat up by the cheaper even stiffer spring rates. A5 with H&Rs rides much much softer than any of those. It's barely stiffer than stock.