Anyone fitted springs themselves?

[RobinA3]

Has anyone on here fitted lowering springs themselves on their A3?

I am wondering what kind of job is it, i have done a few suspension changes in the past on Polos and engine rebuilds etc so i have all the required tools but i don't know if the A3 will be as simple or is a bit more complicated.

I have been quoted £135 for the labour to fit some lowering springs and that includes the neccesary camber and tracking set up afterwards.

 

[Khufu]

reading your past jobs I'd say no worries to you being able to do it but it may be worth paying for it to have the geometry checked too out r.e. tyre wear etc. What sort of drop have you planned? IIRC, the camber is non adjustable & tracking shouldn't be affected though.

 

[RobinA3]

reading your past jobs I'd say no worries to you being able to do it but it may be worth paying for it to have the geometry checked too out r.e. tyre wear etc. What sort of drop have you planned? IIRC, the camber is non adjustable & tracking shouldn't be affected though.

I am going for a 35mm drop.

The camber is adjustable on the front so as soon as you remove the strut the tracking and camber go to pop.

On the rear the toe is adjustable so that'll need resetting once its lowered.

 

[boggym]

I dropped my last A3 8P myself with Eibach pro springs on the driveway at home. It isn't a hard job and providing you've got some axle stands, spring compressors etc. I'm sure you'll be able manage it. The rears were easy but the fronts required some work. I left my hubs on and slid the shocks and hubs complete off the driveshafts after taking the brake calipers off. They were a bit heavy but it was easier than separating the hubs from the the shocks. The other problems was undoing the the nut in the engine bay at the top off the struts. I found a large spark plug socket from halfords fitted and enabled me to get an allen key through the middle of the socket whilst undoing the socket with a spanner at the top got them undone.

TBH I wouldn't do it again and for £135 to fit new springs and setting up afterwards, I don't think you can wrong.

 

[RobinA3]

Thanks for that info.

I was just looking on ELSA (electronic Adi/VW workshop manual) and they state that the driveshaft has to be popped out to get the strut out so i guess that would be messy!

As you said for £135 drive in drive out (demon tweeks) its worth it just for the less hassle.

 

[boggym]

Definately, for £135 let them do the work.

 

[Mikey]

PSI tuning in stoke did my A3 the other week, very good place, and VAG specialist. I would much rather use them than Demon Tweeks. PSI are in Stoke.

 

[RobinA3]

PSI tuning in stoke did my A3 the other week, very good place, and VAG specialist. I would much rather use them than Demon Tweeks. PSI are in Stoke.

Following your advice i am now booked in PSI for next Saturday - £125 + VAT, £30 more than Demon Tweek but Stoke is 25miles closer!

 

[curley]

Mines booked in at PSi at the end of next week for the same.
Hope the springs arrive in time.

 

[Teejay]

Sorry, but any competant home mechanic should be able to do this easily so long as you have a good socket set including torqz bits.

Rears are literally a case of jacking up and supporting the car, remove wheels, compressing the spring, swap old spring out, new spring in, refit wheel and lower car.

Fronts were also easy (easier than they were on my mk3 Golf or mk4 Astra).
Car up and supported, wheels off, ARB unbolted (1 bolt each side of car), undo hub bolt (1 each side of car), remove windscreen wipers & scuttle panel, remove 3 strut top bolts each side (15Nm - so just over finger tight). Then the only specialist tool required is Audi 3424 to split the knuckle. You could do this with a screwdriver (I did on one side), but then borrowed the tool to do the other side from a neighbour - saved me the skin on my knuckles (after slipping on the first one).

The only thing you then need to do is compress the spring, undo the spring seat (21mm swan neck spanner & 6mm allen key) and then swap the spring.

I did this on my parents drive last week. All 4 corners done in about 3 hours (not rushing).

 

[Gti Jazz Blue]

I would also add that it you have Xenons fitted you need to be aware of the level sensors and un-bolt them where required.

Also it is possible for the arm on the rear sensor to swing the wrong direction when the car is lowered back to the ground. This puts the value returned out of range which will give you a problem when you try to put them into adjust mode with VAG-COM.

I'd recommend if you have Xenons to make a note of which way the level arm goes before you jack it up (can't remember which is the correct way, but you will see that the elbow join sits to the left or right).

My best mate is a mechanic and he didn't have any issues installing my Eibach Pro-Line Springs and Koni FSD dampers on my drive at home.

Paul

 

[marriedblonde]

Just as a reminder Robin's got the quattro version so the rear is slightly more complicated than the FWD cars.

It is a fairly straight forward job, I managed to change mine over in about 1.5 hours.

J.

 

[mechanic69]

Changed mine a few weeks ago. Rear springs can just be pulled out by hand if you remove the bolt at the bottom of the shock absorber, just rest the hub on a jack to prevent it dropping to far. Fronts are relatively simple, you don't need to remove the driveshaft, just ARB and steering arm to allow the hub to drop far enough.

But for £135 for 2-4 hours work and to re-set the geometry sounds really good.

 

[RobinA3]

Thanks for the input guys, i know its a do-able job, as i mentioned i have all the tools to do the job and also the experience but i think i'll get PSI to do it as tracking and camber set up is £50-60 alone so for an extra £80 odd i might as well drop the car off and then pick it up again once its done.

 

[Mikey]

RobinA3, psi do the wheel geo in with that price they gave you.