letter in the post - car tax £330 ! for 12 months - always seems to come just at the time I have shelled out for loads of other stuff. I forget how expensive car tax was on the S3 Shouldnt we get some form of rebate for maintaining older cars - because we are eliminating the carbon footprint cost of a new model ? Anyway - drive time
I think the car is now finished........omg don't even think that ... these things as psychic ... ) I thought that , till the driver door lock decided to enter a fail mode , I run the tracking values from the chart at 25 mm lowered, handles fine , no more high speed 'weaving , which though was the front lifting , turned out to be the rear end set up , and , with the replacement full size , -25mm hr rear spring , I would say its actually better than the short koni+adjuster set up , but , that might of been expected , with full size vari rate spring - retained the koni damper , rear Tyre's look to be quite even and no ripples on the tread .. so far so good .. Good to see , you found some out of spec items, in the suspension.steering , had to be really , just needed the right inspection routine and someone who actually knows what should and should not be .. all engineering is a compromise , the trick is picking the right combination , eg replacing the aftermarket recirculate valve , with a plastic Audi oem cured 101 issues , where as the big brake kit 'they' fitted , improved the stopping ..but caused the car to dive like a dolphin under hard breaking with standard suspension ... fine ''now'' with coil-over's ... G,
Been for a couple of drives now - 10 mile then another 30 miles today So first impressions are that the car feels more compliant over rough terrain , turn in has been improved althought the car is still loading up on hard cornering so suspect my next upgrade will be the ARB's - it made such a difference on the last one Crashing has gone which means the drive is more enjoyable and I am not having to weave around to avoid marks in the road It feels as though I can feel the compliance in the top mounts now - perhaps a weird thing to say but there seems to more 'give' which actually improves the ride and the feeling of enjoyment. Nothing on the car is poly bushed ( having removed those other top mounts ) and after this I plan to replace bushes in the future with OEM ones. ( Note - I used polybushes throughot on the previous one and it was 'fine - everywhere incl dog bone - just not the top mounts). On balance the standard bushes seem to work better for me Ok so I am getting older , but have now had and messed with 4 of these beauties now and done at least 250,000 miles in them over the past 20 years - and honestly I dont think these cars suit being polybushed unless you plan to put them on a track - if you dont I dont think you need to - just my thoughts for what they are worth If anything the car feels too low - I do feel everything now - I expected the dampers to be a bit more delayed but they are very responsive to the road surface so thats going to get used to but in a good way. Car feels more planted - I know people use this expression a lot , me too but I think I get what that really means now - there doesnt appear to be any lift anymore even on the rougher surfaces and it feels as though I am getting maximu grip from the new tyres Car feels tight - fast and fun to drive again - just how it should have been when I picked it up So car handles and looks better - was it all worth it ? looking back I think I would have done some things differently Next up - lessons learned
Lessons Learned then: Buy as many ancilliary components as possible sale or return from Audi as you never know what will need replacing Buy longer bolts for the tie bar at the back as the original ones arent long enough to reuse Dont use polybush the top mounts let me repeat that DONT POLYBUSH THE TOP MOUNTS (imho) Check the finish of the springs before fitting Dont assume that work carried out by a garage before taking ownership of a car was done correctly Consider Eibach next time ( strongly ) Dont lower the car any more than 25mm - 25mm is plenty for standard road use Do buy tyres from Black Circles and shop around for parts - DPM were much cheaper Dont ever use that garage in Wales again Do take the extra time and expense to do the ARBS at the same time If you are going to replace springs and dampers you may as well change track rods , check ball joints etc Dont be afraid to have a go at stuff yourself but dont expect everything to go perfectly - learn from the experience Loving being back behind the wheel - car is a lot of fun now - glad I did this and the upgrade was definitely worth it Before anyone elses buys from that garage feel free to ask me what they did/said on pm
Had the geometry of the car properly looked at over the weekend using a frame - string and some expensive calipers Spent the day just looking at camber and toe front and rear Left Front Camber originally -0.54 now -0.76 Toe originally +1.9 (!) now -0.11 Right front Camber originally -0.46 Toe originally +3.1 ( !!) now -0.09 Feels Perfect on the front - nice straight line and sharp turn in Left Rear Camber originally -1.25 now -1.1 Toe originally -6.6 now -6.6 (!!) Right Rear Camber originally -1.04 now -1.1 Toe originally -4.6 now now -4.6 (!!) So as thought I do need another sdjustable tie bar for the back as I would rather have a little less camber and more parallel toe Second time I am going down the route of top and bottom adjustable arms - has anyone ever managed to get toe and camber on the rear to more acceptable levels with just one ? - I dont think its doable Has anyone managed it ?
Just before lockdown I decided to take the car to see a man with the blocks of wood and string - to properly sort the aligment We put a frame around the car on the front and back bumper and connected the frames up with string ( I am sure some of you on here already know about this but I had not seen this done before ) then using calipers measured the toe settings and adjusted them precisely for each wheel and also checked camber and adjusted as much as was possible ( as second set of tie bars not fitted yet ) This took about 2 hours , making minor adjustments and then re-measuring Took the car for a drive afterwards and it tracked perfectly straight . I had never had chance to do this before but highly recommend it as the accuracy was perfect. I have now bought another set of tie bars so I can do the bottom set too and sort out the rear camber and then abnother trip back to the frame and string game - all good fun Having had the bilsteins and H&R 's for a couple of months now they have settled and I am really happy with the improvements to the ride and handling over stock Messing about with cars is such fun
You've been framed -) Assume one of the new all wheel lazer tracking set up's , produce suitable results I had a problem. finding some one who would look at the car, yes we do 4x4 ..then one glimpse of the s3 badge and then .. actually , we don't ... luckily , there is one close by in neston now , saves the run to north wales G..
we used calipers to get it down to milimeter differences - it sounds rudimentary but it was very accurate Basically 2 aliminium poles - one each end of the car resting on the bodywork with padded brackets , connected front to back with string Made sure the shape was a true rectangle first of all and then made minor adjustments to each side of the tracking until the toe and camber were where we wanted it to be - wish I had taken a pic - I will next time
