What's up guys, posting to get some opinions on various suspension setups for a good friend's '02 1.8T FWD A4. I saw the suspension section on the forum, but it seemed a little dead and I wanted model specific info.

He's asked me if I could help him figure out what shock/spring or possibly coilover setup to run on his A4. I work at an independent BMWrepair shop here in Atlanta, we/I work on other cars, but I've never really had an experience workingon or modding Audi's, so I don't know what's the best bang for the buck with these cars. I personally own an E36 M3 with FK coilovers and know that generally something like a Koni or Bilstein with H&R springs is a pretty solid setup, but wanted some opinions straight from you guys. He daily drives this car and wants it to be lowered about 1.5"s all around. He'd talked about a full Eibach kit, mainly because of the fairly low price, but I'm personally not a big Eibach fan.

For under $1k, what would you all recommend. I did a little looking around and saw that the Tein Basics were almost $900, which is similar pricing to my M3. I know with the E36 M3's, spacers are required for the Tein's, is it the same for B6's? If so, what size spacers are you all running?

Sorry for the long post, just wanting to hear some opinions on what you all would recommend for my friend. TIA.

 

one word.... Eibach

 

H&R is a good bet, and there spring kits should run you about $800 I think, mostly a good company for BMW will be good for Audi too, save I haven't seen many Audi's on ground control's and I've heard they are really good on BMW's

 

H&R are good. But they tend to have a little more of a bumpier ride. Eibach will cost about 300 for springs that will lower the car about 1.5 - 2.0 inches

 

it's not really a bumpy ride, it's a stiff ride, H&R's are more for those who want to carve corners and to make every arrand a finish line kinda deal, but many people I've talked to love their H&R springs as a daily driver. For what the OP posted the sport spring would probably fit the application very well. Also check out Neuspeed.


me personally my car is a cruiser that likes to take some fun runs through the hills sometimes, but I still want comfort, so I am probably going to get either koni or Vmaxx coilovers if I ever get around to moding my car. For some reason my money always seems to go other places.

 

I saw that the H&R Cup Kit was ~$670 (+shipping), is that what you're refering to?

I also saw that the Koni SA's were about $500 for all four corners, and then add a set of springs. H&R sports were $360 and then I saw various Neuspeed springs. I'd only heard of them for Audi and VW.

And yeah, Ground Control's are a great buy for the money for my M3. I got too good of a deal to pass up with the FK's, but I'll be replacing them sometime in the next few months witha Ground Control track/school kit.

Really? I've never personally run any H&R springs, but I've always heard good things about the sports, while the race springs are too stiff and drop too much to run on an out of the box Koni or Bilstein shock.

I'll look into those Eibach's more, as that's what my friend had originally talked about.

I think he'll probably go for a set of Koni SA's with H&R sports, unless anyone else thinks there's a better setup for the money.

Thanks for the replies.

 

Dont get me wrong... I love H&R springs and products. But as far as a street car... I personally dont think you need that STIFF of a ride. But I probably should have asked a few questions before answering yours.... I guess it really depends on the driver and where and how she/he will drive the car.

For me... Eibach works better than H&R and Neuspeed

...and yes, i've experienced all three!!

 

Actually I was thinking of the regular spring/shock combo kits you can find but I was also thinking for a quattro not FWD.

 

Are the H&R springs on the B6's really that stiff? I know quite a few people with the H&R sports coupled with either Koni's or Bilstein's on their E36 BMW's and they all ride what I'd consider really nicely and very easily tolerable to daily drive. I should probably also mention that my friend lives in a smaller town in northeast GA where the roads couldn't get much better, so harsh roads isn't an issue for him.

 

It is all subjective. To an older gentlemen the H&R's might seem to stiff, while to some young hot rodder, they would be to soft. I mean everything about suspension is mostly subjective to the driver and how they drive/ what they are looking for.