Facelift Hard ride

[vekaria]

Recently bought a A4 B9 S-Line with 19” rims. The rims look good but the ride is just so crashy on the pothole local roads.


The car was bought from Southampton and on the test drive did not feel that bad. However, back in North London, where most the roads are just potholes the ride is very uncomfortable.


The 19” alloys are attached for info and have 245/35/ tyres




If I swapped them for 18” 245/40 would they make the ride more bearable? Or would I need to swap out the sport suspension to standard.?


Would like to keep the car OEM if possible.


The 18” I’m interested in are the Audi double spike rims.




Thoughts please. I only drive locally, maybe 2-3k per year.

 

[Paul Golding]

I'd say it's time to move then

Seriously though, it sounds like a awful lot of trouble and expense for a marginally smoother ride, especially for that mileage. Where I live has plenty of pot holes, but given that a lot of the driving is on the same roads, I know where they are and drive around them. I must admit, when I do hit one, it generally makes me jump, and swear a lot.

 

[Nick_B]

I do feel your pain - although I do closer to 40k miles / year! The roads here are utterly terrible - a recent trip to the continent and my car (with the same wheels as yours) feels silken smooth.

Do you have adaptive suspension? If so - comfort mode does soften things up a bit.

 

[And1]

I've the same size wheels on the A4 3.0tdi quattro s-line. Audi recommend 41psi front and 38 rear and the ride is shocking. I Now run 36psi front and 33psi rear with no loss of economy or handling but a much smoother ride. I also had a set of 17inch audi Alloys and they made little difference to the ride quality

 

[jds_sg]

18s might be slightly better but probably not worth shelling out for. I had a loan car a while ago which had 19s and standard sports suspension and there was really no great difference to mine.
Definitely would not consider changing the suspension to the comfort one as again it would be very expensive to replace springs and shocks for OEM originals and totally spoil the look of the car, although it would be more comfortable.
IMHO the A4 only looks good if on sports suspension, wheel arch gap becomes all wrong with the comfort setup.
Probably no consolation but I used to have a B8 on 17inch alloys with the sports suspension and that was much worse by comparison with the B9 on 18s or 19s.

 

[cuke2u]

Mine seems fine with 18" wheels but the opinion in here will probably be divided. I drove a new A Class this week and the ride was terrible and very unsophisticated in the manner it dealt any road imperfections. On going back to my A4 the ride was sublime in comparison...

 

[45bvtc]

We'll ALL be driving an Audi Q5 soon!

I've an RS3, TT, and A1 and while the RS3 (on KW shocks and springs) is acceptable locally; the TT on OEM shocks and springs is brilliant(!), the A1 on KW's remains a pain! OK, a short wheelbase on the A1, however, time's a coming when we'll swap all for an Audi Q5.

A recent run over local roads with a 3.0 TDi Q5, 20-inch wheels and with dynamic suspension setting - thank you Stafford Audi - and AIMING for 'known' potholes, dropped grids, and repairs, lol, proved to us how COMFORTABLE over local roads an Audi Q5 is!

Our political class will soon want our support and unless 'ROADS' is in their '3' priorities then they'll not be getting my vote, just a 'closed' door...

I'm seriously tired of giving away £14.3 billion every year to whomever for whatever - and that's before gifting those EU layabouts...

 

[StretchS4]

Sounds like the roads are the problem not the car

 

[DaveW]

I'd try the tyre pressure adjustment as above, try cheapest/easiest fix first.

 

[45bvtc]

Sounds like the roads are the problem not the car

100% TRUE, it is our local roads that ARE the issue...

 

[45bvtc]

I'd try the tyre pressure adjustment as above, try cheapest/easiest fix first.

Again true; as an ex hands-on/design/development automotive engineer I've adjusted tyre pressures to suit ride/wear/handling characteristics for many years.

 

[vekaria]

I do feel your pain - although I do closer to 40k miles / year! The roads here are utterly terrible - a recent trip to the continent and my car (with the same wheels as yours) feels silken smooth.

Do you have adaptive suspension? If so - comfort mode does soften things up a bit.

Unfortunately no adaptive. I have driven on some smooth or acceptable road and then I think, it’s not bad and will do


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[vekaria]

I've the same size wheels on the A4 3.0tdi quattro s-line. Audi recommend 41psi front and 38 rear and the ride is shocking. I Now run 36psi front and 33psi rear with no loss of economy or handling but a much smoother ride. I also had a set of 17inch audi Alloys and they made little difference to the ride quality

Cheers for that. Will try dropping the pressure.


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[cosmicblue]

However, on low profile tyres dropping the tyre pressure makes your wheels more vulnerable to pothole damage...not like there's many of those to worry about eh?

 

[And1]

However, on low profile tyres dropping the tyre pressure makes your wheels more vulnerable to pothole damage...not like there's many of those to worry about eh?

If running low psi I would agree but 36 and 33 isn't really low I've not had any issues so far in 2 years

 

[Smileysam]

The answer is to ditch the fancy alloys and go for steelies.

 

[cuke2u]

The answer is to ditch the fancy alloys and go for steelies.

 

[vekaria]

The answer is to ditch the fancy alloys and go for steelies.

Didn’t choose the alloys. Bought the car 8 months old and it was the spec I wanted but came with 19s.


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[Deleted member 133011]

If running low psi I would agree but 36 and 33 isn't really low I've not had any issues so far in 2 years

I agree, I run mine at the same pressures and I’ve had no issues. The ride quality was much better when I dropped them. I’ve had the car up to 150mph many times and it is still stable at that speed.
There is a post on here somewhere about tyre pressures.

 

[wecanseeformiles]

I'm running 18 inch wheels on a B9 S-Line saloon with the Comfort suspension rather than the sports suspension. Ride height is higher but the ride/handling compromise is pretty good. Handles well enough and the ride is pretty good.

 

[Hambee1234]

38psi all round on my 19’s (BE MY19 A4 saloon)

Onto my 4th A4 now from 17’s 18’s and now back to 19 inch wheels on my black edition and there is nothing in it between 18 and 19s in terms of comfort

I think it would be an expensive thing to do with not much benefit coming out of it .
19s look a lot better too haha