Which coilovers?

[david7m]

My rear drivers side coilover has snapped

Audi ones are about £55 each, but I thought for a few extra £'s I could get uprated ones all round.

Which brand would you recommend?
Do I need anything else?
Will it need tracking?

I'd prefer standard height, but will go down a little, but not 'max power' spec.

Cheers,

Dave

[Ads4]

Dave, I've just fitted H&R coilovers and they're the dogs. They're expensive (not sure of price for an S3 - £802 for an S4) and the transformation is awesome. The ride is not as hard as I thought it'd be (I fitted Spax to my Cupra and even on the softest setting they were terribly hard!). I've got mine set quite high for clearance due to fitting 19" wheels so it doesn't look as 'slammed' as it did with H&R springs on standard shocks.

[david7m]

£800 - ouch! Is that just the springs or shocks too? I was expecting about £200-£300

Will fitting springs only to standard shocks damage the shocks/handle pants?

Dave

[Ads4]

That was for the full coilover kit - fixed shocks and adjustable springs/ride height.

I'm sure that there are much cheaper options - I went with th H&R as they're reputedly the best and I've read such good write-ups about them. Some of the FK kits come in at around £400. I think Julian fitted Eibach pro-street to his S4 and they're around £600?

The H&R springs I previously had I was told were designed to fit with the standard shocks but I found the ride a bit 'floaty'. It didn't seem to feel like the car was hugging the ground, just floated over the bumps with not much connection, worse so at speed.

[david7m]

That sounds dangerous, will have to do further research....

Dave

[jc..]

i fitted KW Variant 3 coilover to my B5 Avant.
unbe-f#cking-believable!!

Different car. Took the opportunity to polybush the suspension throughout, combination is fantatstic, they are 3 way adjustable (heigh, bump and rebound) and I am still to play with the setting a bit.
they have two peice progressive springs and stainless steel bodies.

not cheap, but I do not intend replacing either the coilovers or any of the control arms in the next 5 years!

cost me about £950

[grizz]

I've had H&R's on the s4 but now got a set of pss9's on the RS6 , Fantastic..

[GDS968]

JC.. did you fit the KW's your self or get them fitted. Do they give you a base setting for the setup or is it set by feel? etc.

Was thinking about these for my car.

[david7m]

Thanks for the help guys, but think i'm going to stay with the standard springs and maybe upgrade the rear ARB to a slightly thicker 19mm R32 one.

Dave

[jc..]

JC.. did you fit the KW's your self or get them fitted. Do they give you a base setting for the setup or is it set by feel? etc.

Was thinking about these for my car.

Had them fitted along with polybushes all round, all done at the same time.
They have a recommended setting but I felt this was a little harsh.
they allow you to adjust the slow response bump and rebound, this is the most critical round town and over speed bumps.

The high speed settings are fixed and TBH they are bang on! anything over 50-60mph and the ride is transformed, you can feel everything but not in a harsh way, bridge section joins that used to bug me are now almost not there.

you will need to reset the height once it settles down but that is standard.

I also found that any variation in tyre pressure is now much more noticeable and affects the feel very quickly.

masses of fun,

[jeffw]

Can you adjust them with the shocks on the car ?

[jc..]

you can adjust the bump on Front and Back shocks in situ as it is at the bottom of the shock. ramp helps but I did it with a jack wheel by wheel the first time, next time I just went down to National tyres down the road and slipped the guy a tenner whilst I dropped the ride height and did the bump settings.
I am having a hole cut into the panel above the upper mount for the front column assembly, to gain access to the front rebound settings, whilst in situ, relatively straightforward (hole saw through from within the battery compartment under the bonnet).
Not quite right yet and still have some playing to do, a track day where I had access to a lift would be awesome

[jeffw]

Do you have a note of the settings and ride height ? I'm interested in the KW but I heard they where too hard for the road.

[jc..]

I had them on the recommended settings to begin with:

Front rebound 1 turn open (half) Bump 0.75 turn open (3/8ths)
Rear rebound 2 turns open (full) Bump 1 turn open (half)

There are four holes in each spindle which means you can do quarter turns and 2 full revolutions.
Fully closed is fully hard.

This set up was phenomenal at speed, most planted and direct I have felt in ANY car, that includes a 911 with standard suspension!
But it was a bit too harsh round town, don't really want to be avoiding all bumps and holes and slowing down to 2mph to go over speed bumps.

The fast rebound settings (factory set and not adjustable) work well on small or severe bumps (potholes) but are poor on longer undulating bumps like wide speed bumps and undulation in motorways. At speed though it goes over anything like it isn't there. The concrete section joins of the Forth road Bridge used to be a pain with standard suspension, at 50mph with V3's they are barely there!

I now have them fully open on Bump and the same rebound settings as above but it reduces turn in sharpness and needs to be closed off at the front by 1/2 a turn I reckon. this weekends work
Haven't played with rebound settings yet. (need the front top mounts opened up before I am willing to do that)

I had the tyres at 32 all round which was fine, but i pumped them up a bit to 35 rear and 34 front as I was going away with a boot full and four mates. This was fine, but when the car was empty on the way back it was a bit twitchy, understeered like a boat.
Drop the pressure back to 32 and it was back to normal, in short you notice the slightest tyre pressure irregularity now more than I did on standard.

Ride hide is a trial and error thing I am afraid, depends on wheel and tyres and what you have in the car, if it is just you and never full, it will take a while to settle. Mine is full a lot of the time and I have them slightly raised by maybe 1/8-1/4 inch at the back to counter this (helps with aerodynamics at speed as well I am told..)

It is lower than standard now but not like a chavved up Saxo, I still need to get around town and my Milltek does hang down slightly lower than standard. I think there is some room to push it up a bit on a shorter central hanger though.

well worth the money, and put it this way, you can always sell them on. I got mine for less than a grand, I could sell them now for £750+ if I had to. They are normally £1100-1200 in most places.
They are fully stainless but I was planning to "sock" them the keep the crud out. Another project for this weekend!

Hope that helps

[tdiquattro]

I have KW Var2 s, another option to think about.

They are good, adjustable rebound on all 4, and height adjustable and the compression is fixed. They are cartridge shocks, not rebuildable like the V3s and KW will not strip and rebuild the cartridges any more, so problems mean a replacement cartridge (or pair if you are being picky). The cartridges are actually Koni.

With the V3s they can be re-shimmed, oil replaced etc, so repairs actually work out cheaper.

The ride is fine in town and on long runs, very planted and the rebound adjustment takes out the boat feel of gear change, good quality and stainless which is important with the threaded adjusters on the height (read the number of posts on the web about rusted adjusters!)

Rebound is only adjustable off the car, mine are set mid way and it is fine.

If you can get the v3s for that sort of price then do, if not the v2s are a very good (better than KW?) option.