Gen III Steering Rack Owners - Dull and Light?

NCRAW

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Guys do you find the GENIII steering rack a bit on the light side and vague? Mine came with GenII but had the usual failure and got replaced under warranty to GenIII.plus the usual procedure (springs, strut tops, etc). This one is super quiet and actually you feel more of the rd (ie road imperfections) but it feels alot lighter and more vague. Taking hard corners is ok but apexes and changing lanes at 60-100 km/hr are not very confident inspiring.
I have installed the rear sway bar 2 weeks ago and im hoping the front sway bar replacement with a 24mm H&R set on soft this weekend will help with the issue.
Also once the springs are in (H&R 25mm), this will increase the negative camber which will help turns (though im thinking it will make it even lighter as there will be less surface contact on the straight).

I know VAG have taken away the ability to change the steering assistance which really ****** me off, but is there something else to change like bushes or anything to give the steering a more lively feel?

I will need new tyres in around 10K more so might get something with harder walls (currently running oem Mich Exaltos)

Thanks
 
TBH you'll get used to it, afterall its new, give it a bit more time then you'll know your limits & what is what, if not happy after say a month or so, take it back & say its not right, maybe audi will download a tweak to the dealer, if its fed back, its to easy.

Watch the front arb, the larger ones can knock a bit on part of the subframe if fitted to close too, when turning of course this puts more pressure on the bush & allows more movement by my experience, I ground down the casting lines on the frame upright to counter this, no structural difference tbh interms of solid, just the raised area from casting gave it something to knock on, which is why I maybe suggest a not so stringent bar upfront, then again mines a 04/05 so maybe they've changed these components slightly now.
 
the first reaction i got when i drove my car from the dealer was "steering is very accurate but no feeling whatsoever". no one has managed to make an electrical assisted system with great feel
 
strange because i have just gone from an 2004 to a 2011 and thought it was miles better., i wondered if it was because i am running on 4 new tyres.
 
I installed the front sway bar. Let me tell u. It was a mission from HELL!!! took me 15 hrs in total. yes u read it right, 15 HRS of cursing and swearing and sweating. Thank god for my best friend being there to help me out (hope I can somehow repay him for the hard work he put in). Pls pls pls make sure the car is on jack stands or all wheels are level before you attempt this. Using ramps was the biggest mistake ever. We could not get the steering rack to align with the right lower arm for 6 hours till we raised the car and relieved the tension. my heart was in my mouth when we finally torqued everything and dropped the car. All is well including no knocking from the sway bar (which copped a few scratches while being installed) except for need for a wheel alignment. Apart from that, no errors showing and everything is nice and quiet. I didnt want to push it hard on the first test as the Loctite did not dry at the time and the wheel alignment worried me a bit but it did feel much meatier and heavier which is what i wanted (probably i did a better install job than Audi that's why hehe). I thinkn next time i will give it to someone else to do it and not worry about the 200 dollars i was quoted. Then again it was a very good learning experience.

NHN, from the short drive i did, it sounds all normal. I will report more once i get the alignment done and go for a good spin but the bar cleared everything. I set it up to soft to see how it feels and if not to my liking then il go hard setting.
 
Oh for sure, its a real ****** of a job to do mate I can tell yer, you need it on a lift that sits under the sides of the car, doing on jack stands is one hell of a ball breaker & tbh seriously not advised, anyway glad you're happy all done.
 
Mate my body still aching (and im a regular gym goer) and my friend is reporting the same :). I would say it will take me 4 hours to do next time as I really learned my lesson the hard way hehe. I'm booked for wheel alignment and tyre rotation tomorrow morining and will need another one after springs are done but im going to wait a couple of months before doing that just to enjoy the results of my hard work.
Looking at it, it seems that the subframe has to be dropped again if i want to replace the turbo back secion of the exhaust. I hope you can tell me im wrong (not the lower arms, just the subframe block).

One question, when we switched from ramps to jack stands, we had to raise the car even higher to pull the ramps from under the tyres and put the stands which meant each side was even higher for about 30 sec (one at a time). While being done, the lower arms were bollted to the chassis. Do you think the chassis would bend from that?
 
What engine/gearbox code is it?
 

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