Group Buy on Stasis Ohlins Coilovers: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/526273-Group-Purchase-STaSIS-Engineering-Ohlins-Suspension-Packages
Might get in on this…
I have the SL kit and have been very happy with it. The only issue I’ve had for 45k miles was a bad shock which Audi/ Stasis covered under warranty. You will encounter front inner wall tire wear which can be solved with adjustable control arms. Stern and several other companies make them for your sled. Axel has a set as well, I don’t recall who the manufacturer is.
^^^ which one needs rebuilding every five minutes? Don’t get that one lol
I think you are talking about the Stasis MS kit which is superior to the SL kit but perhaps more than most want/need. I have the MS kit.
Although the mfg recommends rebuilding like every 15K miles or 2 years (I have the printed recommendations somewhere…can’t locate now) but there are folks that have gone 50k+ miles without a rebuild. And rebuilding is not a huge deal…certainly less involved and costly than a CC.
So, not exactly sure why you would recommend against one of the best systems available for our car.
FYI, if you want to get an MS set, do what I did and buy used (~2000) and then invest $450 in rebuilding everything. Now, you have a superior product for about the same price as the SL or v3 kit.
Rebuild is a bit of work. Maybe a little less of a pain than a carbon clean but I’m not entirely sure it’s as rewarding.
My theory is if the ohlins system is as excellent as people say, why bring the added hassle of potential rebuilds? Do they offer a core program? If not your car is likely down for 3-4 days. If they do, that’s great. If you’re handy enough to uninstall suspension and reinstall suspension ever 1-2 years, all the power to you. That’s not something I would want to deal with even if I was motivated enough to DIY it. Not to mention the cost of the rebuild, which is approaching 20% of the cost of an entire ohlins system.
As for not rebuilding at the recommended interval, is that the best advice? Audi recommends oil changes every 10,000 miles. Your car will still run if you push that to 20,000 miles. I change mine every 4000.
I have the SL’s on my car and am glad I purchased them. It let me accomplish a few things that I wanted to do. The maintenance required (rebuilds) is just part of the deal which I came to terms with. They don’t have to go back to Stasis btw. It helps having a shop that specializes in suspension work within a reasonable distance. When it’s time for mine to be rebuilt I will try…and pair it with something else like a CB clean. If the timing works it would be great. Drop off C/O’s on Friday morning, CB clean over the weekend so I can take my time, pick up C/O’s Monday evening. Having a shop that work’s on Saturdays helps me.
I see your points but your analogy doesn’t quite work. You could completely blow out a shock and still send it in for rebuilding…pretty much same price. Not the case with your engine. But obviously I see the parallel you are trying to draw.
The reality is that all suspension items (particularly shocks) wear and lose compression and rebound ability over time. That includes DRC. If your RS4 has 75K miles on it, I bet replacing with new shocks will noticeably improve ride. Necessary? No, but beneficial.
If you aren’t lookign to maximize the handling potential of the car, DRC is a great system. For those that want to, you gotta pay to play. Would I have forked over $4K for the MS kit new? Nope. But since you can get it for half of that used and spend a few bills to get them rebuilt to like new, I don’t see how “rebuilds” should be that big of a turn off. I for one don’t plan on rebuilding mine for several years and tens of thousands of miles unless there is a noticeable decrease in their performance. Which I doubt there will be.
Do you have to rebuild the SL (is that the Ohlins?) as well as the MS?
EDIT: both can be rebuilt and are recommended to be rebuilt every 18-24 months.
There aer a lot more ‘I had to rebuild in 18months-24 months’ threads than there are ‘I have been going for 4 years and no rebuild!’ threads, so maybe it’s a squeaky wheel thing. Just seems like planning to not have to rebuild is a bit too optimistic.
Of course if you drive 4000 miles a year on a medium setting you might be ok. If you drive 15,000 miles a year, probably will get 3 yeras out of them at most before degradation. Here’s a couple of threads.
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/435857-My-biggest-regret-Stasis
On the topic of the MS, I bought mine used w/20k miles on them for $2500, put another 40k on them (on my A4) before having them rebuilt. Jared@stasis didn’t find any issued with them during the rebuild. I then put them on the RS. Another 40k later & several track days and they still feel great w/out any issues. You only hear about the guys with issues (forum bias), the problem-free owners are the ones recommending the system, but even that’s only a fraction of the total ownership base.
People seem to dis-credit the ohlins because they talk about rebuilds. Thinking that another damper solution is better because rebuilding isn’t mentioned does not make them superior. On the contrary, the ohlins will have a better over-all design and actually last longer than a traditional damper. All dampers will wear out, period. The ‘others’ just don’t even offer the option to be rebuilt…so you just ride them till they blow, and replace. The fact that I can rebuild my dampers is a huge positive IMO, as I don’t need to spend fully price on a new kit.
One thing to keep in mind is running a stiffer spring/damper setup will ultimately put more stress on the other suspension components (bushings/ball joints)…think of it as a ‘weakest link’ scenario. Those (greater) forces are transferred to the other components as well. Since nobody makes an upgraded bushing solution, are spherical bearings the answer…not necessarily unless you have a track-only car (<1% of owners). Point is, in terms of long-term ownership, just upgrading to coilovers isn’t enough, you need to pay attention to the rest of the components as well. This is suspension 101 though, no car is exempt from this… It would be nice if we had a better bushing solution though (hint hint 034).
I just installed JHM rear rotors and new pads, gonna do the bedding late this evening. That bottom caliper bracket bolt is a bit of a bitch.
Does anyone know if LI S4 still sells his V1 remote display kits? I can’t get in touch with him on Audiworld.
Sorry for no pics of the car yet, it has been raining non stop here and nobody wants to see pics of a dirty black car. I gave it a quick bath last weekend, but it rained again yesterday and it will rain again thursday. Ugh.
Do you have vagcom?
Yes
Want to log your car? Would be interesting to get a look at how the car is doing.
Sure, I could do that while I’m doing the bedding tonight. I can’t find the instructions from JHM when I logged my A4. How do I do it again?
For the rs4
Engine module
Measuring values
Then log groups 003 and 020
dont forget turbo mode
Run wot in third gear from 2000 to 8000 on a flat road
Go in both directions
Logs: https://dc414.org/~mindframe/LOG-01-003-020-xxx.CSV
Car read air temp as 48 F in my garage, Local weather said 45 F and 55% humidity.
Please let me know what you see.
P.S. Pads bedded onto new rotors absolutely perfectly.
A few things
-
the car is not tuned - you can see the throttle is still restricted in third. It’s artificially held at ~52% even though your foot was to the floor. I think you knew this, but at least you can for the most part confirm it as that’s pretty easy to defeat for tuners, and most of them that’s the first thing they do on these B7 RS4s. I guess it technically could be tuned,but not likely
-
probably have some carbon buildup. The car is pulling timing even in low RPMs, and is pulling 8-10 degrees in the higher rpms. Typical of a car with probably 20,000+ miles of carbon buildup. This is holding the car back a little, but not a crazy amount. Might be a fun DIY project after you’ve had the car at these levels for a few months, allowing you to give your own appreciation/opinion for the amount of power you get back after cleaning
-
RPM/sec are pretty much bang on for a stock RS4 with some carbon. Right around 540-550 RPM/second average throughout the range. What is the mileage on the car?
Some maintenance items that might help a bit could be plugs, fuel filter, air filter. Normal stuff.
Thanks man, almost 60K miles on the clock.
I was planning to do fuel filter/air filter/spark plugs next since I don’t think the spark plugs or fuel filter have ever been changed. I think I might go the walnut shell blaster route for CB cleaning - I found an interesting write-up that I might try to adapt to our car: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1881774
On the air filter, is it best to just stick with OE?
So, I got the warranty transferred. Now I’m going to spend the warranty money on goodies from JHM 
Tune, downpipes, cat-back, intake spacers, and shifter coming soon.
I’ve decided to use the trip odometer for oil change intervals because there is no fucking point in paying attention to fuel efficiency.