My new rims...

Geeman

Geeman

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Slight change of plan with the Sport now... I was going to fit some 18" OZ Opera's, but the OZ's have gone as they were going to be a RIGHT pain in the ****... so I bought some 18" BBS Calito's from a new A3 instead.

I trial fitted one wheel tonight so that I could decide what size tyre to order for them...

They are lovely wheels, but they don't look like 18's for some reason - hopefully with tyres on and the coil-overs they'll look better... might need a tiny bit of stretch on there to get them tucked up in the arches though...

wheel_14.jpg


wheel_15.jpg


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very nice wheels

not sure on the A4s but watch the arm when getting your tyres, I had mm's between my tyres and the arm

A418Q.JPG
 
Yeah... I saw that when I put the wheel on... not much clearance at all!

I'll be getting some 215/40's so they won't stick out from the rim - hopefully they won't catch the arm!
 
Just a few snaps of it today after it's 1st outing on it's new rims...

wheel_18.jpg


wheel_19.jpg


I'm really happy with how it's turned out... and for the money I paid for the coil-overs, I'm REALLY surprised at the decent level of ride quality it still retains. Fair enough, it's a little hard on the rough roads, but that's to be expected... but I've ground out 3 times already in the first day!

I think the wheels have worked quite well... and I'm a lot happier with them now they're on the car.

Just the paint to sort out now...
 
woah she looks a little low - like the rims though they look good with the silver car

which coilovers did you fit?
 
She is a tad low... might end up raising it up 15mm or so (dropped it a further 20mm after I had it re-tracked up after I had fitted all new suspension arms as I was scared it wouldn't fit on the ramps).

I bought some second hand coil-overs from Ebay for £100!

They are stamped up, but can't remember for the life of me what they are.

Assume they are only the cheap 'hot-tuning' types you can get as they looked the same. Really happy with them... for now! I've just done 200 miles on them without any disasters... :cool:
 
looks good, but it is too low.

As people have said, need to raise it 20mm or so, you want the gap from the side of the arch to the tyre to be the same as the gap at the top for it to look right.

What width are the wheels and what offset are they?

You said you've had to stretch 215's on, the A3 alloys craig just baught for his were 7.5Jx18 and were ET54. Hes having to use some spacers to bring them out to fit the A4 correctly.
 
They are 8x18's ET45... Might space the rears out 5mm... apart from that, it sits just right.

On the way to Elsecar this morhing...

263copy.jpg
 
looks to be some neg camber on the front there, watch for scrubbing those tyres!
 
Nice car, love the wheels.

Not feeling the ride height at all - way too low, will handle loads better if it's raised. Will need to be raised a fair bit too.
 
^Ignore them^ Keep it low! Looks nice! But I'm biased, love a low motor!
 
the wheels are the correct offset, and fit nicely, i really cant see the point of wheel spacers....

It really does need raised. It must be millimetres off the bump stops, and hitting the bump stops half way round a corner is just what you need to put you into a hedge.
 
It's no where near the bump stops...!

Wierd that everyone on here (barring Stapo) thinks it's too low. Other forums thinks it looks well. There's another 50mm left on the adjusters yet as well!

It handles perfectly well. I'm not a racer, so I've no immediate need for a track weapon... just a cool cruiser with a ready turn of speed when I need it.

Thanks for all the positive comments though. I'll have some better photos later in the week when it's cleaned and I can get to my favourite location.

Giles
 
A wee bit of spacing would look good, they look a bit lost sat bck in the arches.

I've come to find a lot of audi drivers are not into that kinda look, practical and sensible all the way! No offence to them (its cos they all old.....;))
 
Agreed. Spacers for the rear at least... they could do with about 10mm on them. I have some, so will play next weekend.

dsc_0010.jpg
 
It's more function over looks tbh.

Just because there is 50mm left on the adjusters doesn't mean there is 50mm of travel left in the shock absorber before it bottoms out on the bump stops.

When driving a car on the road rather than on a track, you need a bit of give in the suspension. The whole point of the springs is to keep your tyre in contact with the road surface. By lowering the car into the weeds, you reduce the suspensions ability to do this correctly, as any pot hole or rough tar that comes along will bottom it out.

Stapo: you say "I've come to find a lot of audi drivers are not into that kinda look", i feel that this is because if you've gone out and baught a decent car, rather than chavving up a saxo or golf, you've got enough sense to say "yes, it looks better that low, however i want my car to actually handle properly, and as such i will raise it to a sensible height"

Its your car, you can do what you want with it, all i'm doing is pointing out that the car would function better with it raised, because the suspension actually has some room to work. You'll also save yourself some money, as you wont be scrubbing out the front tyres in 5k miles, as while the A4's multilink setup is generally pretty good with managing to keep the geometry correct after lowering the car, in your case, its so low there is a ton of negative camber on the front, which will not only kill the tyres, but reduce your grip.
 
Okay, let's get one thing straight... I'm 34 years old, not 19. I've gone through a whole raft of 'decent' cars in my time (BMW 3/5/7 series, Mercedes C280 Sports, Audi A8/Coupe/A6, Saab 900/93/95, VW Golf/Jetta/, etc)... and I'm no boy-racer. I just love the 'slammed' look.

I have put on completely new suspension (arms, track rod ends, anti-roll-bar links, top-mounts, etc) and then lowered this car on coil-overs... so it's not as if I've just cut some springs and stood back and just guessed at what I've been doing. I then got it tracked and 4-wheel aligned to factory standard spec at this ride-height, so hopefully I'll not have any problems. It still does 'handle' perfectly fine... no pulling, no crashing and banging, so I'm not worried there.

As you say... each to their own. And as this is my own, this is what I've done to it to satisfy myself... no one else. But if other people like it and can appreciate the work that's gone in to it, then great!

I can understand that the 'purists' among us will chastise me for being so 'extreme' with the drop... but surely it looks better than the original hi-rise look...?

I'll get some of my own photos sorted of the front and rear shots to show the camber. It's not as extreme as you think... it's just that photo makes it look that way. It was factory settings on the alignment machine.
 
I'm not chastising you, nor am i a purist, hell i'm half way thru transplanting a Audi V8 motor into a Landrover 90...

I'm just pointing out some facts, which you can use to make your decision on the ride height a more informed choice. There are plenty of folk out there who seem to think the lower the car is the better it will handle, and i am just trying to ensure you are aware of the real issues with having the car that low.

One thing you may want to check is the bushes in the lower arms (and the upper mounting plates, but they're a **** to get to). They are supposed to be torqued up with the vehicle on the floor and the suspension weight bearing so they are tightened in the suspensions "rest" position. If they've been tightened in the air or with the car at its original ride height, the bushings will be twisted permanently and will fail prematurely.
 
Thanks for that! I will check the lower bushes again this week. That's one thing that did slip my mind.
 
Sorry fella wasn't trying to get at anybody with my comments. I'm just a function over form person and in my experience cars lowered to such a degree suffer as a result. However as long as you're happy with the car that's all that matters and I'm happy you're loving the car :blackrs4:.
 
I didn't mean to offend anyone. I can certainly see that handling could well be better with a raised car, I do get a bit fed up with mine sometimes, although I'm pretty low and never ground out once, my car isn't really built for handling anyway, more motorway cruiser with plenty of overtake poke, I don't thrash it around back roads or tracks, if I still wanted to do that I've have kept my Evo! Something with proper handling! Saying that function over form is starting to sound better to me, that's why I'm currently looking into airride......low, practical, comfy, with half decent handling
 
You know what makes me chuckle...?

This pic:

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Apparently mine is too low, but this one is 'awesome'...! If I put Bentley rims on, would you all change your mind about mine? No disprespect to the owner as I think this car rocks... but it's funny that this one gets nothing but praise, but most of you comment that mine is too low. I'd say they are about the same height.

No worries though... I was just looking at this last night and thinking "Hang on a minute..." :think::thumbsup::laugh:
 
In my opinion those Bentley rims are too large for the car, and its also too low. I dont like stretched tyres either. All comes back to function against form in my eyes, and i just wouldnt do something to the car which would detract from its performance/handling/functionality etc.

Stretched tyres like that would last about 12 minutes on the roads round here, and the pot hole that killed the tyre would no doubt have taken out the rim at the same time. Craig has already had a big bulge appear in the sidewall of one of his tyres, and he's only running 225/45's on 17's

Everyones tastes are different though. Stapo and yourself have built your cars the way you want them, to provide what you want from the car. You just asked for opinions and i provided mine.
 
i'd say mine is about an inch higher than yours and I catch my mid box on some low stuff.
do you not ground it on all sorts of things?
 
Aragorn, please don't think I'm having a go, or indeed rejecting your opinion... it just tickled me that I had a set of quite mixed comments (more to the side of 'too low'), where as Stapo had nothing but praise. Okay, so his car is a little better than mine (erm, okay... a LOT better) and I whole-heartedly accept that, so the comments were more geared away from his ride height, and more to the rest of the fantastic looking vehicle.

:salute:
 
jcb - I've only ground out twice so far... but my exhaust isn't my lowest point - it's tucked well up there.

The first time was in some motorway services on a speed bump and it caught the lower subframe mounts on the top of the bump as the front wheels came off it (at a VERY slow speed) and the second time was when the WHOLE of the underside didn't like a single track lane with severe camber on each side, so had to gracefully retreat the way I came and let my g/f walk to her friend's house!

I've run super-low cars for many years (Mk2 Jetta/Mk2 Golf, etc) so I know where to go and where not to go and what to look out for when I'm out and about at home.

The Mk2 Jetta...

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The Mk2 Golf...

golf_111.jpg


The Mk3 Golf...

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...so I know how to look after a low ride. :ninja:
 
Quick shot from this lunchtime... it's not THAT low... lol

a4_loc10.jpg


a4_loc11.jpg
 
Hey Geeman, was the shot of your Jetta at Edition38 last september? We camped there too and Sprky parked his Imola S4 just behind us, I reckon you camped pretty much next door to us! My mate had the big silver Renault Master van with the tarp hanging off it. Small world!

Lovin your rides too
 
Yeah, that was at E38 '08 - you can just see Sparky's yellow nose in the top right of the Jetta pic. Saturday was great... Sunday was a bit of a let-down.

Loving your car more! lol
 
audi upgrades
Geeman said:
Yeah, that was at E38 '08 - you can just see Sparky's yellow nose in the top right of the Jetta pic. Saturday was great... Sunday was a bit of a let-down.

Loving your car more! lol
Click to expand...

I thought that was his car, recognised the mk5 golf too, you're right, sundays weather sucked! I'm guessing if you were near us you didnt get much sleep either! Wasn't us making the noise though! Heard Sparky leave early! We should be there again this year, I'll look you up.
 
for low cruising looks its spot on apart from the wheels look a little lost , if you space them out a little then raise it it will still look as low if you see what i mean. as the tires will look closer to the arches still but the whole car will be a little bit higher with better handling . And yes tires will wear on the inside edge on front mainly as you cant just adjust the camber . well not easily
 
the camber is fixed, but being a multilink setup rather than a mac strut its actually much better at keeping things in line.

Its probably not that far out, tbh.
 
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