understeer therapy

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zetp

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Dear All,

From June this year I am the proud owner of an Audi A4 saloon 3.0 tdi quattro SE manual.
I bought it used, it is a 2008 model (B8) and it has option 1BL fitted, that is Sports suspension, governed.

First of all, I am very happy overall with the car. It does what it's meant to do very well. The engine is amasing and when cruising, I really appreciate the interior, it is a nice place to be.
Also, I love the fact that it looks discreet and understated, that's why I bought it at first.

I am not happy in the way it handles, specifically the tremendous understeer.

I read about anti roll bars replacement on this forum but I am a bit confused and if you could help me shedding some light on this I would be very grateful.

Essentially I have the following questions:


  1. I read some members replacing the anti roll bars of their cars with the ones of the RS4. Does this apply in my case since I have a B8 model?
  2. I saw Eibach produces a kit for this. Has anyone in my situation tried it and does it manage to improve the situation?
  3. Is it worth considering changing the suspensions with after market products such as Bilstein?
  4. I am open to any other suggestion of course.

Thanks in advance for your help with this matter.

Mark
 
Obvious question, but someone's gotta ask & it might as well be me: front tyres up to the job?
 
Hi Artimus and thanks for the reply.
I have Bridgestone Potenza re050a to all 4 corners. They are pretty new.
I increased the pressure of the back tires a bit but it still understeer a lot.
 
Interesting point.I have a 2.0 tdi sline with the crappy sport suspension, the 20mm drop not the pucker 30mm.I too hate the way it handles.My first attempt at sharpening up the handling and curing the citroen 2cv body roll was to fit the eibach front and rear anti roll bars.At the time i too had bridgestones on all four wheels and found a slight improvement.Needing to replace them after a while with conti sport contact 3 (and then goodyears, and the currently conti sportcontact 5p) the problems returned.Back to handling like a 2cv.All those tyres have soft sidewalls that give way too much when cornering.They might grip like shyte to a blanket, but way too soft.This is definately a major contribution to sloppy body roll.Much worse with tyres other than bridgestones.Im going to see the dealer and find out what dampers i have, and if uprated springs will help.Ill probably go for eibach pro streets, i dont know yet.But i know that by simply changing brands of tyres makes a massive differance.Shouldnt do, but it does.
 
I've just had my coilovers fitted and have found that the understeer has been improved and the car turns in much better, especially at low speed like on roundabouts. I don't know if it has something to do with the amount of camber that has been produced on the front from lowering or what. Interestingly, the springs are in general more comfortable than the standard S-Line jobs...

In terms of ARBs, I don't know about on the B8 but I put uprated versions on my Astra VXR and it completely transformed the cornering ability. The best part about them is that they don't make the car stiffer and uncomfortable (or more uncomfortable if you're running the S-Line suspension) but help a lot in the corners. :) So much so in fact, I found that the FWD VXR could oversteer going around roundabouts if you pushed it!

Hope that helps a little bit. Just for the tyre thing as well, I'm running Conti Contact 3's.

Dan
 
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I never said they weren't... ;) Overall more comfortable because it doesn't seem to crash as much but the springs are definitely stiffer somehow! Much better in the corners though. Damping is also improved. :)
 
I thought about your input and today I had the opportunity to make an experiment.
In the morning the roads were dry. I took my favourite roundabout at speed and the car did it just about. That is without the tremendous understeer I got used to recently (it rained a lot here recently). It still understeered. In the afternoon on the way back home the roads were very wet and it was hopeless which lead to a consideration: the cause of the problem can be the tyres.
Soon I will put the Michelin winter tyres and see if that changes anything.

I also thought that I already have the sport suspension. Can it really change things dramatically if I change the springs?

I am contemplating upgrading the anti roll bars at the moment but before I do that, I want to do more homework and hopefully more advice from the members of this forum.

Thanks to everyone for the precious input so far.

Mark
 
zetp said:
I thought about your input and today I had the opportunity to make an experiment.
In the morning the roads were dry. I took my favourite roundabout at speed and the car did it just about. That is without the tremendous understeer I got used to recently (it rained a lot here recently). It still understeered. In the afternoon on the way back home the roads were very wet and it was hopeless which lead to a consideration: the cause of the problem can be the tyres.
Soon I will put the Michelin winter tyres and see if that changes anything.

I also thought that I already have the sport suspension. Can it really change things dramatically if I change the springs?

I am contemplating upgrading the anti roll bars at the moment but before I do that, I want to do more homework and hopefully more advice from the members of this forum.

Thanks to everyone for the precious input so far.

Mark
Click to expand...

The short answer is yes, better, stiffer springs can make a big difference. Those combined with stiffer anti roll bars will mean it doesn't roll so badly in the corners which should theoretically help under steer. They aren't the only factors by a long shot but you would notice an immediate improvement. :)
 
@Daggerit,

First of all thanks for the reply.
Have you got direct experience in upgrading roll bars in this particular chassis?
If so, what would you recommend?

Thanks,

Mark
 
zetp said:
@Daggerit,

First of all thanks for the reply.
Have you got direct experience in upgrading roll bars in this particular chassis?
If so, what would you recommend?

Thanks,

Mark
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not this chassis... The effect would be the same as I've experienced but I couldn't tell you how much. I was thinking of upgrading mine though so if I do I'll make sure I post up. :)
 
I guess from experiance that if you change the tyres to anything other than bridgestones (which i like, but have to sacrifice a fair bit of wet performance), then you will definately need uprated anti roll bars springs and dampers.Ive checked on etka and the dampers are differant between sline and se.OEM shocks and springs will be around 7-800 quid that will make it to sline specs.Plus another 360 for front and rear arb's.And then there is the tyres.Id staart with the arbs first
 
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