1996 A4 2.8 V6 quattro auto: what springs
 

My rear right spring is broken (bottom winding).
I found all kinds of parts mismatched on this car, and I would not be surprised if one of the shady previous owners also installed wrong/different springs.

Further raising my concerns: the car seems to have a negative 'rake', i.e. the front fender/tire gap is larger than the rear.

I heard that Audi offered B5s with normal and sport suspension.

Is there a way of telling what springs are installed? Regular or Sport?

I try to find a used spring that matches (to avoid having to change all 4).

Your car would use part number 8D5-511-115-F and they have 2 white paint marks, and 1 violet paint mark on each spring. If you have springs with some other color markings on them then I'd say you are correct in that they are not original.

Jeff, are the springs 'year' specific? Are the ones above 'sport' or 'normal'?

Front and rear same color marks (want to check the front also).

What color would 'sport' be?

If using all 4, can I use any B5 as a donor?

If installing S4 sport (2001) springs, better to get shocks also?

Took the right wheels off today to take a look at what color dots I have:

rear: red yellow yellow?
front: yellow orange orange?
Comments?
Are these the correct ones for my car?

rear:
http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/a...o/IMG_6068.jpg


front:
http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/a...o/IMG_6069.jpg

Your 2nd picture isn't of the springs, but from what I found the fronts won't have the same color bands on them as the rears. A quattro front spring would have 1 white/3 brown for non ac, and with ac 1 yellow/3brown. As for your rear 2 white/1 pink I didn't find that combo in the quattro or non quattro listing. But the stock springs that I listed to fit your car do fit all B5's. So with that info the answer to your question will all B5 springs fit, I'd say yes for the rears. I searched a 96 front p/n and it is also listed for fitment into an 01 also.

The problem is I couldn't find where your rear springs came from and I looked under B5 and B6 cars. I found 2 pinks/1 white, but not the other way around. On the later B5's they are sorted by option code and weight rating. Sport springs are intermixed with non sport, but I didn't see sport springs offered for your year range car. What was strange was only one rear spring p/n was listed for a quattro but a non quattro had about 4 choices. None matched your color bands in either listing though.

The stock rear springs in mine have the 1 pink and two white dots. That tells you its normal springs and standard suspension. As I understand in 96 there was no sport suspension. The shocks on sport suspension would be a dull red color instead of black also. I have another broken spring so I'm just going to get both rear strut assemblys so I have both sides the same.

Good Luck!!!

Got my hand on a pair of used ones for the rear.
After removing the first old one, I noticed right away that they are about 1.5 inches shorter.

So apparently the new ones are from a "sport" A4?

Now need to find matching front.

http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/a...6-27144746.jpg

It kind of looks that way. A sport suspension is about 1.2 inches lower than a non sport. I had replaced the right rear two years ago and it had two pink and two white dots which I understand makes it a regular suspension with a heavy duty spring. If you get them from Car-parts.com ask for regular suspension and get the pair from the same car. Thats what I'm going to do. Good luck in your quest!

For your lower spring with what looks like 2 pinks 1 white band, those are from 98-02 A4Q cars, rear springs. They are sport springs and one of the codes tells me it's for 30mm lowered suspension. Weight rating is 633-677 pounds. For the front springs from the same 98-02 A4Q, the sport suspension springs are clearly listed. All 10 choices but those are ordered by an option code that applies to the weight rating needed. That weight rating varies from 722-983 ft pds. There were none listed with the same color bands as the rear springs you have.

I'd say the best way to do this is get the vin number from a member with a 98-02 a4q with the sport suspension. Then I can run the vin and tell you what color bands his car runs and you can find those. Or, I can list all the choices and you will know what you are seeing when you go hunting in the wrecking yards. Let me know what you'd like to do.