I know, this is going to sound silly…but I’m noticing the back of my car sits higher than other B8.5’s, and I have no idea why. The S-line A4 sits noticably lower!
I’ve measured ground to fender, my I have the following heights:
front: 27.3L, 27.4R
rear: 27.8L, 27.5R
Does it seem high?
Context - the car is new, and it has about 900miles on it.
Pure rice comment: I really like how the B8’s sit stock. That height would be wonderful if I could get there–but I can confirm that the springs and spring pads are the same part numbers across both b8 and b8.5 cars.
When I installed my H&R OE springs, I read from well_armed post’s that there was a small plastic perch above the rear springs. I have ADS FWIW, do you have them or stock suspension? The perch was removed during the install. I forget what my FTG is, something like 26.5" both F and R. Front fenders make it look like the front ride height is higher, giving it that reverse raked appearance.
Before (don’t mind the terrible tirerack wheels lol)
^Wow, OE sports look perfect!
I like that a lot. Keeps roll center in check too since the drop isn’t dramatic.
I don’t believe I have the plastic perch, as I don’t have ADS. But I will pop my rear wheels off and check to see if that’s the place. You might be right - because I see no other reason for the rear to be abnormally high compared with other cars!
Just to be clear, I believe the perches are there because the ADS springs are shorter?!?! Jeff just installed coilovers on his B8, but I believe he also removed some kind of spacer in the rear, but better to ask him. The ADS comes with a much smaller rear anti-sway bar FWIW.
What you have doesn’t look right, this sounds dumb, but are there shipping blocks still in there? It’s hard to tell how much gap in the lighting conditions. Look at this for comic relief, still has the shipping blocks
Over the first 1000 miles (maybe earlier) mine settled in right around 27 1/4 at all corners. Some measured well over that for the first few hundred miles. Its been a while since I have measured and I am still on stock springs with about 4200 miles now. I can check it again tonight if your interested.
27 1/4! Hmm, seems like a big difference. I’m going to go out and check to see if there is any sort of spacer (but it seems that only ADS cars have that). I have no idea why mine is higher! Would be interesting to know what you measure. Please do find out if you have time Thanks!
For the record, I investigated this today.
There are no shipping spacers (lol). Out of curiosity, I also checked to see if there were any colored markings on my rear spring – there were none. It’s just black.
What I did notice is that my upper rear spring pad is about 1 inch thick, and the lower rear spring pad is 1/4inch thick. The upper is the thickest I’ve seen! There is no spring pad spacer found anywhere.
Sooo I think my car is just oddly high in the back. I’ve done some digging and it’s in the range of 0.5 - 1 inch higher than other S4’s. Not sure why…
What I plan to do to even it out is to buy a 2nd pair of rear lower spring pads and use them to replace my uppers (ie: swap the 1 inch pads for 1/4 inch pads). Before anyone cries foul, there is a lot of rake on my car – visually, more than 1 inch worth between front and back. Even if I swapped the rear pads, I’d maintain the rake (although lessened).
For anyone else curious about the issue, I’ve found that the B8 rear ride height is 26.8 fender to ground. I’m at 27.8 fender to ground. That’s a big difference. As well, hopefully mmmkam can chime in when he has time to do the measurements on the rear of his b8.5 car.
I think the tiny, tucky winters are making it look worse.
What tire size are they…? Smaller dimension will enhance wheel gap
But a couple of those pics look insane. I always thought stock b8 s4 ride height was pretty solid . It never looked like it needed a change unlike the b67.
I’m spamming this bc I cannot edit my posts
Thanks for the link – that’s a very good thread. Got info on stock height, as well as changes with H&R OE sport. I think that cements my decision to get OE sports. They drop them to 26inch ground to fender–which is approx 1.25 drop all around (assuming the car wasn’t excessively high to begin with!).
Time to hit up ECS for some yellows and the OE’s then!
I’m not even remotely in a position to suggest something given your background, however, I’m curious why you wouldn’t want to go with an adjustable coilover setup? Maybe something like PSS10’s or KW V2’s? There’s a guy on AZ who is selling his never installed Billsteins…along with some adjustable upper a-arms if you desire to change your front camber at all.
I’d probably go with the PSS10’s if I didn’t have ADS…
But wanted to point out that OE’s will rake your car negatively like I mentioned above…maybe not a big deal, but aesthetically it bothers me some.
I will assume though that the S4 should actually have a pretty neutral rake given it’s weight balance and factory stance. Interested to see Jeff’s car, which I know was corner balanced (he has the top end H&R coilovers, forget which model).
PSS10s are fantastic - I had them on one of my previous track cars. And certainly as you know, the primary purpose of a coilover is to grant provisions for corner balancing. While I do intend to track the S4, I also accept that it won’t ever be that fantastic (compared with cars in my history). I don’t want to throw a ton of money at it to make it something it isn’t. Instead, I want to do mild upgrades (primarily alignment–so yes, camber arms are at the top of my list!), and I’ll fine tune balance with sway bar(s).
I’m going to be doing this in phases, and see what could be improved next (if at all). Ultimately, I want to retain it’s fantastic practicality as a daily driver + the comfort. It’s a slippery slope - one can throw a lot of money at the car. And yes, while it’s a great car, you get to a point where it would have made more sense to get something better to begin with. And no, I’m not saying this to downplay anyone’s decision to modify the S4 extensively–more power to them. It’s a great platform as an all rounder. But it is not a great platform as a track car.
It’s fun as is, I only want to alter the handling balance to be more suited to my driving style. In my case, I am looking to make the car looser on entry. No need to go all hardcore and coilovers for that My other opinion on the matter is that if one got coilovers and DIDNT corner balance, then it’s a waste.
FWIW one can corner balance to a degree without coilovers via playing with various thickness spring pads. This is a common thing to do for racing classes where non OE suspension parts are disallowed. I’ll chart my adventures down this path once I start making some changes
I just measured my 2013 6MT non-ADS. Fender to ground height is 26 3/4" all around +/- 1/32" and this is with brand new 255/35/19 Toyo T1 Sport tires. Car has 36k miles.
Cool…looking forward to following your progress, and your opinions of it on the track. I am still in the the novice group in driver school, and really enjoying taking the S4 to road courses. The car hangs with pretty much everything out there at this level.
You probably know this, but the musts for suspension are: Eurocode Alu Kreuz, adjustable rear sway bar (set to stiff) and proper tires. In addition to those, I did an adjustable front sway bar (set to soft), solid end-links, SPC adjustable control arms and the lowering springs. When paired with the sports diff, I really feel like the car is well balanced on the track and I don’t feel any issues with understeer. Body roll is minimal and the car feels extremely controllable at the limit.
You’re probably aware that the real issue with the car on a track is the factory brake setup (aside from being fat as hell lol). This can be largely mitigated with proper fluid and race pads, but the lack of cooling is a major problem. YMMV based on track too. There’s a great track thread on AZ if you haven’t seen it: www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/574274-OFFICIAL-B8-S4-Track-Drivers-Thread
Thanks!