My cute little strawberry-colored hybrid is all grown up. This week I lastly completed putting in the decreasing springs on my 2016 Audi A3 E-Tron day by day driver and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been driving lowered automobiles as my on a regular basis machines for about 15 years, and sitting just a bit bit decrease than manufacturing unit makes my coronary heart sing. A somewhat easy coil spring swap and a few cool wheels is all most automobiles must look their greatest. The aesthetic and dealing with advantages of decreasing a automobile greater than outweigh the minor lower in consolation skilled with decrease and stiffer springs.
Is decreasing your day by day driver best for you? Let’s get in to it.
Putting in decreasing springs is a reasonably simple DIY activity when you’re no less than reasonably useful with a wrench. The rear springs went in tremendous simply as soon as I discovered the right methodology of disconnecting the decrease management arm, however the fronts fought me slightly extra. On this specific automobile it concerned extracting the entrance strut from the upright meeting, and in an effort to get the upright low sufficient to take away the strut from its clamp meant unbolting the ball joint, disconnecting the CV axle and swaybar, and evenly rocking the hub whereas pushing downward. For some cause the driving force’s aspect took about two hours, however the passenger’s aspect took 20 minutes. Generally that’s the way it goes.
Lots of people are afraid of this fashion of McPherson strut spring compressor. If you happen to deal with them proper and don’t stick your arms contained in the tensioned spring, you’re in all probability effective. I’ve by no means personally seen one fail, however there may be positively quite a lot of potential power sure up within the above picture and if poorly dealt with may shoot your eye out, child. I discover that utilizing an affect gun is the simplest option to deal with this stuff. Line them up appropriately on the spring and ship it, however be sure you’re making use of even ugga duggas to each side. As soon as the spring is compressed you possibly can take away the highest nut and slowly loosen the spring again to its full peak. Pop the brand new spring on, re-install the strut prime, and Robert’s your mom’s brother.
If in case you have been following this suspension saga, which I one way or the other managed to stretch out into three separate blogs, you’ll know that I critically fucked up after I completed the driving force’s aspect entrance nook. A $170 rebuilt caliper from NAPA put every part proper once more, and the set up and bleeding course of was a complete breeze. As a substitute of operating an influence bleeder or having my spouse push pedals all afternoon, I merely cracked the bleeder valve on the brand new caliper, topped up the first cylinder with recent Motul Resting Bitch Face from my stash and let gravity do the job for quarter-hour or so. Then I connected the one-person bleeder bottle to the valve and gave it a single pump on the pedal to verify all of the air had been launched. I used to be actually frightened about it, but it surely couldn’t have gone extra easily.
With that restore out of the way in which I used to be in a position to get the automobile again on 4 wheels for the primary time in three days, and with rear trip peak matching the entrance for the primary time in a pair weeks. Oh child, that appears incredible!
There are tons of choices on the market on the planet, however I selected to go along with ECS Tuning’s twin price decreasing springs for MQB chassis. Whereas they’re explicitly for Mk7 and MK8 Volkswagen GTI fitment, the A3 is kind of a GTI with fancy leather-based inside. The E-Tron is basically the identical automobile as a Euro-market plug-in hybrid Volkswagen GTE, and every part appears to swap over with out a lot subject. These springs are a great mix of consolation and sporty, and higher than that, they’re cheap and I’m a cheapskate.
After a couple of days of driving this automobile on the brand new springs, I’ve positively made some concessions to consolation in favor of aesthetics. These springs make the automobile trip about 1.4 inches decrease than inventory, which implies that taller pace bumps trigger the automobile to scrape evenly. Bumps and freeway growth joints are slightly harsher than earlier than, however I’ve positively pushed stiffer and worse automobiles on manufacturing unit suspension. If you’re coming from mainly any sports activities automobile on inventory suspension, it will really feel related.
Driving a lowered automobile is a mindset factor. Every part is a trade-off, and inventory suspension dynamics are constructed for the bottom widespread denominator. Audi’s suspension engineers needed to construct a automobile that was as comfy as doable for as many individuals as doable, everywhere in the world. A trip peak like this from the manufacturing unit would have been met with distaste from seniors who discover it troublesome to get out of the driving force’s seat, or normies who desire a pillowy trip. In case your priorities, like mine, are aesthetics and dealing with, that is a simple commerce off. Magnificence is ache, as they are saying.
As a result of we’re in the depths of the winter doldrums, I received’t have an actual alternative to check out the dealing with till I get the summer season wheel and tire bundle again on the automobile. Possibly I’ll have the sway bar scenario discovered by then, too. I’ll you’ll want to supply and replace as soon as I do.
