Greeting to all of you.

Well the car bug bit, and I now am married (for better or worse) to an 05.5 A4Q 2.0T with nearly all the trimmings.
Fit and finish really did the sale for me, but after a week of reading your boards (some great stuff here for noobs, but will take months to read it all), and driving the car I still have a few unanswered questions.

(I will be buying the VAG software and cable withing a few months, I'll start with easy questions for now, and work up to really annoying all of you later!

Your guidance is appreciated.

1st The Nav system.
Currently: HW: H55, SW: 0020, and Map Version is: MIN040903_NN0312.
From an OEM perspective, what is my first step in bringing everything current and up to date? (and what are the current versions?)
Any step-by-step procedures written for the whole process?


2nd.) Sound Quality:
I lost my Alpine on trade, and the sound quality of this system, although louder, severely lacks in quality and definition. Has anyone found the weak points in the system? Most commonly the head unit sets the standard (which cannot obviously be replaced), but maybe the amp or speakers are known to need upgrading? I'm an audiophile, not a kid, so "thumping" is not my bag. I like volume (old rockers never die... instead of hearing aids, we just crank it louder...) but flat frequency response across the board is important to me.

2.) Handling:
Now that I own the car, I have pushed it much harder that when test driving. The suspension does not want to settle in on hard corners, especially if any road undulations occur in mid corner. I assume this is mostly because the stock spring have it riding too high and plush? (I admit I have not gone and tested the shocks individually yet,and will do so today). I have 17" rims, but that does not mean my A4 has the sport package, correct?
2a.) What is know good spring/sway bar swap that will not increase the ride harshness, but control the body roll a bit better?

2b.) What is the F/R weight ratio on this car anyhow?

2c.) I already ordered a new set of rims and tires, due in 2 days. The new rims weight in at 20 lbs, which i hope are lighter that OEM. Anyone know what the 17" OEM rims weigh? I'd like to think I am getting the unsprung weight down a bit to help.



With my background as computer tech, ex-electronics tech, and aircraft mechanic, I hope to remain involved and help with this board, but I have one heck of a learning curve right now, and I would be deeply indebted to anyone willing to step up and bring me up to speed quickly.

peace!
Vince

 

Welcome, you need any pm shoot me a pm!

 

Nav question i couldn't help since my car didn't come with it, so i know nothing about it.

Sport package is when you car is a bit lower in height then a reg A4, if you could post a pic i could probably help you. But i think all sport packages came with 18's i could be wrong tho.

I heard nothing but good about H7R springs, Stasis Super Street coilovers, and for sway bars i recommend RS4 Front and Read 22mm each

Well most OEM rims are about 25 lbs 18in and up should 17in might be a lb or two lighter.

IDK 2b. Sorry lol

 

Like AWDTURBO said, the RS4 swaybar will help with body roll a lot, but since you're presumably not on sport suspension you should probably get upgraded suspension as well.

 

Hey thanks for the replys so far.
Can anyone tell me what the car has for stock sways? Is it just fronts? and what diameter?

Lowering a little would be nice, but not by a lot (I am getting old enough that getting in and out of a lowered ride kinda stinks) Do you need camber kits or does the stock system have enough adjustment to dial the tires back into spec?
H&R springs... Progressive?

As for sound, any idea what is stock speakers are on the car? The tweeters seem very poor quality, but Bose was never known for tweeters anyhow. What is the overall speaker layout.(Is there one under the grill on the dash too?)

Thanks again for the help.
Vince

 

any swap in spring and ur ride will harsh alot, go with a stiffer sway bar h&r makes a solid front and rear and i have also heard u can get an rs4 sways as well if u don;t like h&r (actually im not sure of the brand name it definetly starts with an h tho)

as for updating the nav unit.....u need a new 2009 nav DVD because the nav system is a DVD based head unit which feeds off the dvd rather then a hardrive other then that there are flashes that audi does that makes the entertainment system more current (call audi for more details)

as for sound.....if ur gonna upgrade the speakers you will need a clean sweep summing device (i highly recomend jl audio) which will take all your hi frequencies and lower them so you can use rca cables to hook up a nice channel amp too

as for speakers there is a german company that makes speaker i'll look up the name later but since i'm a broke college kid and can;t afford them they are some of the best speakers i have heard and they would be ....as you seniors like to put it ''thumping'' in my car if i had the cash :-P just a joke ....but there are still some kids that prefer a well sounding system over heart moving bass any day

umm i guess the easiest thing to do about ur tire weight is when ur swapping the tires just put one on a scal you have in ur bathroom

hope i helped

 

I'm not sure about the front sway bar... most folks seem to only upgrade the rear.

Stock is 16 mm diameter, RS4 is 22 mm.

For lowering, Eibach is supposed to be one of the least aggressive, lowering a little more than OEM Sport setup.

 

Many thanks.
Right now I think I will investigate sways a bit more and not mess with springs or lowering yet.
If I understand you correctly, the A4 only has a front 16mm sway. Th RS4 came with a front 22mm sway, and still no rear sway? I see H&R pushing a 32mm front and 20 mm rear. That combination still maintaining alot more stiffness up front.
I would think just tossing a 20mm rear to follow a stock 16mm front (Stiffer in the rear) make the car oversteer in a very bad and dangerous way. Who beside H&R has a properly balanced set?

Nav: I saw a youtube where our nav had "voice recognition" commanding it to choose "cd" or "Navigation". What year was this function added?

I listened to the Focals speakers, but for the price, I would be hard pressed to buy several sets. May drift to Infinity's as they are quite clean for the price.

your input is great, I appreciate the time you have taken. Any other tthoughts are always welcome!
Vince

 

the a4 has a stock rear sway bar.....u can see it if u crawl under from the back.....both sway bars shouldn;t take u more then a ahlf hour to install tho....its like the only thing audi conviently put under the hood

 

Thanks,
So even the basic A4 has front AND rear? cool.
Do you know both dimensions off the top of your head?
What about the RS4 and S4? I may be more interested in just upgrading to one of those two OEM options, The H&R leap seems one heck of a jump for my needs.

V