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VAG CAR CODING
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Thought to post about some recent mods I have completed, and my experiences testing them.
*There is some very interesting MagRide related information towards the end of this post which will demonstrate exactly why you need to have a MagRide vehicle calibrated / re-calibrated after your stock or indeed lowered vehicle suspension has "settled".
While down at QSTuning, and with my car up in the air, I thought it would be rude not to throw an aftermarket mount in there. Why? While in convoy from Audis in the Park 10 back to London, and while trying to keep up with the 400bhp vehicles that were surrounding me, I could really feel the "slop" and movement in the stock Dogbone mount when changing gears, no matter the drive mode.
Powerflex Dogbone mount:
Pretty simple to install, even after the engine moved when removing the stock mount, and loved the way this thing sorted out 70% of all the "slop" when engaged in spirited driving however... when in I was in "daily driver" mode the added vibrations and noise was not for me, especially on a cold start! Swapped out for a Yellow version of the mount and while the "slop" control is not as good as with the purple mount, the compromise between control and noise is pretty much spot on for me, pretty much a 50/50 balance. The car feels way better than it did with the stock mount and thats all that matters in the end
Both of the above mounts were the standard versions which only fill the existing "voids". I am thinking about testing a yellow Hybrid mount which both fills the voids and replaces the lower of the two stock bushes but not for a while as it would require subframe removal for correct installation. This mod is only £25 to £30 so well worth checking out.
MSS Kits Track Lowering Springs - Fully Adjustable Kit:
The main reason for this post and my trip over to QSTuning was to have these fitted. Have always hated the stock Audi MagRide suspension springs and wanted to change them out as soon as I could / had the time to do so.
So why "Track"? Long story short, they were sent to me so it would be rude not to have them installed. Given that I calibrate loads of these every month I had a basic idea of what to expect, or so I thought...
All the MSS vehicles I have every calibrated has been either S3's or RS3's, so the pending calibration on an A3 was gonna be a first for me and in fact I have never experienced MSS in a non S / RS car up until now.
The rear springs went on with no issues at all. Once on these can be adjusted "in place" without much fuss either via the included spanner / adjusting tool or by hand as I found out while messing about.
How did the front springs install then? lol
As you can see from the image above the MSS Kits Track front springs are crazy short when compared to the stock spring on the right! I was advised to install all the springs at their lowest points and then make adjustments from there however while this works for the rear if the fronts were set to their lowest point, with no weight / compression on them, the springs would just flop around on the damper as they are not long enough to "locate" in the cups. Extending / raising them up until they located solved this issue, which would have been an MOT failure (or worse a potential accident) as if the damper was to ever be fully extended the spring would have been flopping around all over the place, however as you may have already guessed the "drop" that could be achieved because of this adjustment was massively compromised!
So what drop did I get once all was safely installed? I could have gone further in the rear as the springs were suited for the application however this would have upset the balance of the vehicle, and as such the MSS Track Springs achieved a 10mm drop all around. Now "stance" was not what I was going for here, it was all about improving the ride so a 10mm drop was just a bonus in my mind, besides these were new springs and they would need at least 500miles in order to settle and get a little lower.
Whats the ride like then? lol.. well... here is where it gets interesting...
QSTuning is located in a very different part of the world to where I live in north London, land of the great British speed bump, however the roads around Haywards Heath are not perfect and when taken for a test drive all seemed pretty good, "floaty" but no issues while pottering around trying to avoid the potholes. While homeward bound on the motorway again the vehicle was "floaty" but again everything seemed to be as expected. Drive Select Mode was never out of comfort. Once I got back to London however.... bang, scrape, bang, scrape! I don't think there is a speed bump in Muswell Hill that does not have a scrape on it from the underside of my car! Why? In order to get around the "dislocation" issue of the front springs we needed to extend the springs so they would "seat". This placed way less than the expected "compression" on the springs and as such they became "soft". Speed bumps which I used to be able to drive over at 20mph with no issues were now a problem at 10mph. The vehicle was bouncing around all over the place! A MagRide calibration made the situation better, 13mph, but the vehicle was basically unusable within London as it was.
Now the ride was actually pretty good after a few days while on Motorways and A roads however something needed to be done. After speaking with MSS a set of "Street" springs, fronts only, were sent out.
Some Notes thus far:
Original Ride hight of the vehicle was (approx):
Vehicle is a 2017 Audi A3 8V 2.0TFSI Quattro S-Tronic MagRide Saloon with 19" Revo RV019 wheels with MPS4S 245/35/19 rubber.
Original / Before Photos, front and rear:
So...
VAG Car Coding is now a MSS Kits partner More information to follow...
The spring to the right is a Front MSS Kits Track and the left spring is a Front MSS Kits Street (development "A3").
As you can see from the above photo the Street is a taller spring than the Track, which after speaking with MSS was never actually designed to be used on the Road with anything other than an RS3. The weight of the Engine would compress the spring more, creating more of a drop due to the compression, and the spring is designed to only function as intended while under load. Come MOT time one would need to extend the spring or replace it for the test due to the dislocation "design" but a heavily compressed "track" spring would work on normal roads.
A revisit to QSTuning saw the guys install the replacement front springs while set to their lowest points. The existing rears were then adjusted in order to balance the vehicle, at first both heights were evenly set in anticipation of the front spring settlement and after the initial 500miles I have now raised the rears by 2mm and the fronts dropped 3mm. MSS Kits suggest that the rear be 5mm higher in order to maintain balance of the vehicle.
The Results:
These are the results now that everything has completed the first stage of settlement. It is expected that both front and rear may settle further by another 5mm. If this happens then I will be raising them back up as stance is not my goal here.
Once the new front springs were on the vehicle was switched to Individual Mode with the suspension set to Comfort, and this remained so for the next 500 miles. NO recalibration took place as I wanted to test the effects of a badly or incorrectly calibrated system.
Some numbers:
The vehicle came out of the factory with a calibration somewhere around 375 at the front and 370 in the rear. I say "somewhere" because I recalibrated the vehicle, without making notes, in order to remove the MagRides rear double bounce feature These were the figures I rounded to. After the first round of suspension fitting the system was calibrated to 365 in the front and 360 in the rear. This was made in order to improve the speed bump situation, which it did. Once round two of the suspension installation was complete, the front street springs, the calibration was left at 365/360 for testing, and this is what I found:
Test conditions:
With the vehicle calibrated as 365 in the front and 360 in the rear, on hitting / mounting the speed bump the front spring was initially compressed to 314mm. In response to this compression the MagRide controller, based on the 15mph speed, steering angle and Yaw, supplied the front dampers with 613ma of electricity in order to keep the vehicle flat. Result of test? The front underside of the vehicle scraped a little and "pogoed" 3 times.
With the vehicle calibrated correctly at 340 in the front and 345 in the rear, the same test compressed the spring, initially, again to 322mm. The MagRide controller supplied the front dampers with 1592ma of electricity in order to keep the vehicle flat. Result of test? The front underside did not scrap and there was NO "pogo"!
Now the difference between the uncalibrated and correctly calibrated numbers is actually pretty huge numbers wise, but this is not far off what someone might achieve if they had H&R or Racing Line springs installed. In my experience a calibration difference of just 2 to 3mm is actually enough to throw the ride quality out.
What does this data mean in the real world? Using my test example from above, the uncalibrated system was supplying 2.6 times LESS, or to put it another way 260% LESS electricity than was actually needed in order to correctly control the vehicles dampers while mounting the test speed bump.
Your MagRide vehicle been driven more than 1000miles? Been lowered? Lost the different feeling between Comfort, Dynamic, Auto drive select modes? You need a recalibration in order to bring everything back in to line!
*There is some very interesting MagRide related information towards the end of this post which will demonstrate exactly why you need to have a MagRide vehicle calibrated / re-calibrated after your stock or indeed lowered vehicle suspension has "settled".
While down at QSTuning, and with my car up in the air, I thought it would be rude not to throw an aftermarket mount in there. Why? While in convoy from Audis in the Park 10 back to London, and while trying to keep up with the 400bhp vehicles that were surrounding me, I could really feel the "slop" and movement in the stock Dogbone mount when changing gears, no matter the drive mode.
Powerflex Dogbone mount:
Pretty simple to install, even after the engine moved when removing the stock mount, and loved the way this thing sorted out 70% of all the "slop" when engaged in spirited driving however... when in I was in "daily driver" mode the added vibrations and noise was not for me, especially on a cold start! Swapped out for a Yellow version of the mount and while the "slop" control is not as good as with the purple mount, the compromise between control and noise is pretty much spot on for me, pretty much a 50/50 balance. The car feels way better than it did with the stock mount and thats all that matters in the end
Both of the above mounts were the standard versions which only fill the existing "voids". I am thinking about testing a yellow Hybrid mount which both fills the voids and replaces the lower of the two stock bushes but not for a while as it would require subframe removal for correct installation. This mod is only £25 to £30 so well worth checking out.
MSS Kits Track Lowering Springs - Fully Adjustable Kit:
The main reason for this post and my trip over to QSTuning was to have these fitted. Have always hated the stock Audi MagRide suspension springs and wanted to change them out as soon as I could / had the time to do so.
So why "Track"? Long story short, they were sent to me so it would be rude not to have them installed. Given that I calibrate loads of these every month I had a basic idea of what to expect, or so I thought...
All the MSS vehicles I have every calibrated has been either S3's or RS3's, so the pending calibration on an A3 was gonna be a first for me and in fact I have never experienced MSS in a non S / RS car up until now.
The rear springs went on with no issues at all. Once on these can be adjusted "in place" without much fuss either via the included spanner / adjusting tool or by hand as I found out while messing about.
How did the front springs install then? lol
As you can see from the image above the MSS Kits Track front springs are crazy short when compared to the stock spring on the right! I was advised to install all the springs at their lowest points and then make adjustments from there however while this works for the rear if the fronts were set to their lowest point, with no weight / compression on them, the springs would just flop around on the damper as they are not long enough to "locate" in the cups. Extending / raising them up until they located solved this issue, which would have been an MOT failure (or worse a potential accident) as if the damper was to ever be fully extended the spring would have been flopping around all over the place, however as you may have already guessed the "drop" that could be achieved because of this adjustment was massively compromised!
So what drop did I get once all was safely installed? I could have gone further in the rear as the springs were suited for the application however this would have upset the balance of the vehicle, and as such the MSS Track Springs achieved a 10mm drop all around. Now "stance" was not what I was going for here, it was all about improving the ride so a 10mm drop was just a bonus in my mind, besides these were new springs and they would need at least 500miles in order to settle and get a little lower.
Whats the ride like then? lol.. well... here is where it gets interesting...
QSTuning is located in a very different part of the world to where I live in north London, land of the great British speed bump, however the roads around Haywards Heath are not perfect and when taken for a test drive all seemed pretty good, "floaty" but no issues while pottering around trying to avoid the potholes. While homeward bound on the motorway again the vehicle was "floaty" but again everything seemed to be as expected. Drive Select Mode was never out of comfort. Once I got back to London however.... bang, scrape, bang, scrape! I don't think there is a speed bump in Muswell Hill that does not have a scrape on it from the underside of my car! Why? In order to get around the "dislocation" issue of the front springs we needed to extend the springs so they would "seat". This placed way less than the expected "compression" on the springs and as such they became "soft". Speed bumps which I used to be able to drive over at 20mph with no issues were now a problem at 10mph. The vehicle was bouncing around all over the place! A MagRide calibration made the situation better, 13mph, but the vehicle was basically unusable within London as it was.
Now the ride was actually pretty good after a few days while on Motorways and A roads however something needed to be done. After speaking with MSS a set of "Street" springs, fronts only, were sent out.
Some Notes thus far:
Original Ride hight of the vehicle was (approx):
Vehicle is a 2017 Audi A3 8V 2.0TFSI Quattro S-Tronic MagRide Saloon with 19" Revo RV019 wheels with MPS4S 245/35/19 rubber.
- 375mm front Axel (approx)
- 370mm rear Axel (approx)
Original / Before Photos, front and rear:
So...
VAG Car Coding is now a MSS Kits partner
More information to follow...The spring to the right is a Front MSS Kits Track and the left spring is a Front MSS Kits Street (development "A3").
As you can see from the above photo the Street is a taller spring than the Track, which after speaking with MSS was never actually designed to be used on the Road with anything other than an RS3. The weight of the Engine would compress the spring more, creating more of a drop due to the compression, and the spring is designed to only function as intended while under load. Come MOT time one would need to extend the spring or replace it for the test due to the dislocation "design" but a heavily compressed "track" spring would work on normal roads.
A revisit to QSTuning saw the guys install the replacement front springs while set to their lowest points. The existing rears were then adjusted in order to balance the vehicle, at first both heights were evenly set in anticipation of the front spring settlement and after the initial 500miles I have now raised the rears by 2mm and the fronts dropped 3mm. MSS Kits suggest that the rear be 5mm higher in order to maintain balance of the vehicle.
The Results:
- Front overall drop from stock hight = 35mm
- Rear overall drop from stock hight = 25mm
These are the results now that everything has completed the first stage of settlement. It is expected that both front and rear may settle further by another 5mm. If this happens then I will be raising them back up as stance is not my goal here.
Once the new front springs were on the vehicle was switched to Individual Mode with the suspension set to Comfort, and this remained so for the next 500 miles. NO recalibration took place as I wanted to test the effects of a badly or incorrectly calibrated system.
Some numbers:
The vehicle came out of the factory with a calibration somewhere around 375 at the front and 370 in the rear. I say "somewhere" because I recalibrated the vehicle, without making notes, in order to remove the MagRides rear double bounce feature
These were the figures I rounded to. After the first round of suspension fitting the system was calibrated to 365 in the front and 360 in the rear. This was made in order to improve the speed bump situation, which it did. Once round two of the suspension installation was complete, the front street springs, the calibration was left at 365/360 for testing, and this is what I found:Test conditions:
- straight road
- Dry
- 15mph (cruise control set)
- Same speed bump used every test
- Fuel Tank at 46%
- Boot empty other than factory supplied tools etc
- Driver only person in the vehicle
With the vehicle calibrated as 365 in the front and 360 in the rear, on hitting / mounting the speed bump the front spring was initially compressed to 314mm. In response to this compression the MagRide controller, based on the 15mph speed, steering angle and Yaw, supplied the front dampers with 613ma of electricity in order to keep the vehicle flat. Result of test? The front underside of the vehicle scraped a little and "pogoed" 3 times.
With the vehicle calibrated correctly at 340 in the front and 345 in the rear, the same test compressed the spring, initially, again to 322mm. The MagRide controller supplied the front dampers with 1592ma of electricity in order to keep the vehicle flat. Result of test? The front underside did not scrap and there was NO "pogo"!
Now the difference between the uncalibrated and correctly calibrated numbers is actually pretty huge numbers wise, but this is not far off what someone might achieve if they had H&R or Racing Line springs installed. In my experience a calibration difference of just 2 to 3mm is actually enough to throw the ride quality out.
What does this data mean in the real world? Using my test example from above, the uncalibrated system was supplying 2.6 times LESS, or to put it another way 260% LESS electricity than was actually needed in order to correctly control the vehicles dampers while mounting the test speed bump.
Your MagRide vehicle been driven more than 1000miles? Been lowered? Lost the different feeling between Comfort, Dynamic, Auto drive select modes? You need a recalibration in order to bring everything back in to line!
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