Hello everyone, I just picked up my frist A4. Its a 1998 A4 quattro 2.8l manuel. Silver on black, and so far im loving it. Kind of wish it was black on black but oh well. Guy who had it before me really did some good stuff with it, lowering springs, short shifter, 17" audi rims, chrome tipped exhaust, Giac chip, euro lights i think. Also wondering if it is a worthless cause to paint it. The body has a few scraches and I figure if im gonna pay to get them fixed I may as well repaint it and get some rs4 bumpers and skirts. If anyone has some ideas on that and if someone could show me how to put pictures below my responses i would really apreciate it. thanks

 

Repainting is not the same thing as touch-up paint. A real factory-quality paint job will be like 6 grand--Audi paint finishes are the best in the industry. Better than Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Mercs, whatever. Real RS4 bumpers don't fit on A4s; they're wide-bodied. You could buy a Rieger/Kerscher/whatever RS4 knock-off front bumper, but that's played out, IMO. The full RS4 conversion involves fenders and quarter panels and molding. If you have the 10G for the kit, plus fitment and paint, do it. It looks phenomenal.

To put a picture in your sig, go to My Profile, go to the signature box. Your picture has to be hosted somewheres on the Internet to link to it. [IMG]type the URL of the picture in between boxes like this:[/IMG] and presto.

Also, lowering springs are ricey and will blow your shocks.

So congrats. Post pictures (same method as in the signature, but in the body of your post)

 

lowering springs are ricey???????? what u drive...a monster truck???
maybe a machine compound bufing may help with the scratchs...is't silver...cant be that bad

 

Lowering springs are ricey. Rice ricety rice rice rice. Lowering springs are the epitome of rice. They're much cheaper than coilovers or shocks+matched-rate springs, they make your car look like it has enhanced performance where really they are probably cushier than stock. The majority of them lower your car a lot without compensating with increased stiffness, so your car settles on the bumpstops when cornering instead of the springs, and understeers worse than before. They might throw your suspension geometry off, which could result, depending on the car, in postive camber or toe changes. They might drop the roll center too far past the center of gravity, which causes more weight to transfer to the outside wheels, causing a lower grip level and probably more understeer, certainly if the car understeers from the factory.

So lowering springs are the same as a Pep Boys muffler: They make your car look like it has increased performance, but their effects are minimal at best and detrimental more often than not.

Believe it or not, lower != better. Lowering springs are ricey.

 

Id agree that too low is ricey but a little lower like H&R with struts??? thats ricey?? I dont think its ricey if it is a minimal drop just enough so the wheels fit in the wells not monster truck like it is stock

 

If you lower your car correctly, it's DEFINATELY NOT ricey.

i.e Proper Struts, Camber Kit if needed, good set of springs, etc.

Me personally, I'm doing the full Koni Sport Kit (Koni "Yellow" Shocks, Koni "Blue" Springs) and Eibach Sway Bars... I don't that's ricey. [:-]

 

No, lowering the ride height with shocks isn't ricey at all. It reduces body roll which ultimately improves grip levels. But lowering springs are rice--they make your car look tuned for performance, but that's all--LOOK is the key word there. That's the definition of rice. Almost all "lowering springs" on the market are too soft and too low to be effective suspension upgrades, but from outside, they sure don't look different from Ohlins coilovers.

 

Ugh stfu. To say that lowering you car with springs is "rice" instead of coilovers is a bold statement and you should def get flamed to hell for saying it. Yes coilovers are great and offer alittle bit more play with your suspension but for people who just want a little drop and calling it rice your a ******* idiot.

 

Simmer down Tip... I'll agree with what he said, too. Lowering springs by themselves is stupid... it is common knowledge that if you lower our cars with just springs, the shocks will be blown within a year... often much sooner. Driving around with blown shocks, pogo-ing over every bump... IS rice.

Ever driven a a little civic with just lowering springs? Every bump feels like it's about to throw you off the road, while your head encounters the ceiling.

And he wasn't saying anything but coilovers was rice... he said a spring/shock combo was good, as well as coilovers.

 

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