Lowering Springs, Audi Magnetic Ride and Re-Calibration - Is it worth it? - My Story
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I have owned my car for about 2.5 years and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I had always thought the car sat quite nicely and felt pretty good to drive in the vast majority of situations with a good blend of comfort vs sporty drive. I was never one to track or push it too hard on public roads so I never initially noticed the bouncy castle traits that the stock suspension allegedly suffers from. I had however always kept a keen eye on many of the mod threads as it’s great to see what some people have achieved with these cars, whether it be looks, performance or handling or in fact all three!. When you read items across the forum you look for those traits or tips tricks and they give you ideas that you can apply to your own car. Sometimes they are good and sometimes they make you notice things you wish were not there !. The bouncy castle motion that many had discussed is one of those. I started to pick up on it more and more in my own car across certain situations. Sleeping policemen / speed bumps being the easiest to replicate where the car would bounce 2 -3 times before settling. But on other occasions especially across bumpy fast A or Motorway roads the bouncy ride was becoming very noticeable. The Audi Mag ride is an improvement over standard sports suspension but it is still poor if you are looking for these traits under these conditions. It’s one of those things that once you notice you try to put out of your mind, however it starts to bug. At least it did with me to some degree.
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Forum Meet up
Earlier this year I met up with a few guys from the forum and they were all sitting on lowered Eibach Sportline suspension. The cars looked really good As mentioned above I had always thought my car looked great, until it was parked next to theirs… Yes it was cleaner (dig dig...
) but theirs looked lovely on the lowered springs. As my car has the Mag ride I knew it sat appx 5mm higher than stock sports suspension but it looked like it was on stilts compared to their cars!.
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When we went out on the road it also became crystal clear they cornered flatter and clearly had more confidence in their cars cornering ability than I did. This was even more apparent when on poor road surfaces or poor camber and if requiring a mid corner adjustment when travelling at speed. The difference was clear.... The lowered suspension gave more confidence to the driver... we were all on good tyres so the springs were the biggest factor other than driving ability. Either that or I was driving like Miss Daisy compared to them. Did I need to do something?
To lower or not to lower ?
The seed had been sown to lower the car, reduce the wheel arch gap, correct the stance and hopefully improve the handling characteristics. But anyone that knows me well would appreciate I don't tend to jump in feet first without gathering the facts and weighing up the options.
When lowering a car there are of course different choices of brand, drop height, comfort levels and whether you do the coil-overs or springs or you go the full hog and change springs and dampers etc. All at their own price and pain points obviously.
H&R and Eibach springs appeared to be the most popular choices across the forum so it was between those two for me personally.
H&R offer different kits for lowering the car from 15mm to 40mm and with many choosing this option if they are going to track their car.
Eibach offer the Pro Kit for a 10mm drop or the Sportlines for 15 – 20mm drop on the 2013 8V onward models.
After discussing the various options with several people and physically viewing cars with the Eibach Sportlines I decided these would be the route I would take…. if I decided to go for it. I loved the subtle drop that the Eibach Sportlines offered and the handling differences were also clear. However I had real reservations about altering the comfort level on my car. I had been out in a car running Eibachs, however this car was without Mag ride and things were pretty good. But I did notice a reduction in comfort for obvious reasons, but it was still very acceptable. But I continued to have reservations and hesitancy about what difference this would make on cars with the Audi Magnetic ride suspension and the mode selections between Comfort, Dynamic, and Auto.
Would lowering the car make the Audi Mag ride useless? Would the ride comfort be too poor? I was reassured that things would be fine by so many I bit the bullet and ordered the Eibach Sportlines.
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At the same time I also ordered new top mounts and bearings as I had listened to advice that it was a good idea to complete this during the installation process as the parts are easily accessible and revised items were available. Fitment would be basically free while changing the springs so it is a very worth while investment. The Eibach Sportline Springs were bought, fitted and the cars alignment checked – all for considerably less than £400. -Not too shabby.
Thoughts after fitment of lowering springs.
With the Eibach Sportlines fitted my car dropped about 20mm front and 10-12mm rear giving a uniform height of about 650mm floor to wheel arch across all four corners with my car running stock 19 inch wheels. The biggest noticeable difference in wheel arch gap was evident on the front with the 20mm drop from the original height of 670mm down to 650mm.
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The car now sat pretty level across the board ( rather than raised at the front as per original stock car on Audi Mag ride ) and looked fantastic in my eyes. Visually I was really pleased with the result, subtle but effective with a marginally more aggressive stance.
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Initial thoughts on ride quality and handling characteristics.
Pros - The car felt virtually the same with maybe 10-20% firmer ride at most. However there was a significant improvement in confidence over undulating / poor roads surfaces and speed bumps. Far less bounce with controlled returns in the spring rate / damping.. Cornering was fantastic, high levels of confidence was evident in the car with improved feel.
Cons – The Audi Mag ride was less effective and nowhere near as pronounced between Comfort and Dynamic modes. The system still worked but it was not as distinguishable or as obvious as the stock system. The spring rate return was controlled but it felt more aggressive with the car coming back to ride height very quickly which made for a harder / firmer ride. It was not bad by any means but more noticeable.
Overall initial thoughts / reactions.
I was very pleased as I had not lost too much comfort ( maybe 20% ) but had gained the stance and look that I really wanted the car to have without dropping it too far. I simply wanted to close the wheel arch gap after seeing my car look like it was on stilts compared to others and improve the spring reactions. Speed bumps were fine and never a problem …. Overall …. the car felt great, with signifcantly improved driving dynamics.
However after I had driven the car a lot more and piled on about another 1,000 – 1,500 miles there were some things that I wish could have been sorted or I was made more aware of. I was continually analysing the ride quality, was it good?, was it bad?… Truth being, neither really, it was simply...just acceptable.
The difference in the Audi Mag ride settings were so slim I pretty much left the car in Auto mode and let it do its thing. Which to be fair it did pretty well, but Comfort and Dynamic were very very similar, yes there was a difference but not enough to make it worth changing settings. Although speed bumps were fine, I found that I had to have radar vision for any minor bumps, holes / imperfections in the road surface which would translate through the car far more brutally than previously under stock springs in Comfort mode. Although this wasn’t terrible by any means there were times when I would wince which I had never previously done with the stock set up, especially in Comfort mode. On a long run, although the car was very acceptable comfort wise with the Eibachs, the spring return rate was a lot shorter / stiffer,. Therefore over bumpy A or Motorway roads I did find that I sometimes felt like certain body parts were moving around more than they should… and I don’t mean car parts, more like moobs ! ( ha ha ).
As the miles had piled on I had noticed a slight vagueness from the rear which although better than stock was still apparent. I generally loved the stance, the control the new springs gave around corners etc, but on a cruise home after a long day I missed some of the comfort and controlled damping dynamics the original set up offered. Now I am not saying the Eibachs are bad, as they are far from it. But I felt like the springs and dampers were not really working in unison but almost against each other, especially in certain situations. This is ofcourse almost true in that the car thinks it has more travel in the suspension than really it has once the car is lowered.
If only there was a way to correct things…….
Audi Magnetic Ride – Recalibration.
I noticed that Alex @ VAG Car Coding who are authorised Volkswagen Group UK independent specialists had recently re-calibrated a car with Audi Mag ride, so I contacted Alex to see what was possible. A suitable date was arranged….
When Alex from VAG Car Coding turned up we went out for a quick drive in the car with the Eibachs fitted so that he could assess the current set up and I could show him the types of roads and conditions that I am trying to describe above and replicated the things that I wanted to reduce / eradicate. Overall Alex was impressed with the Eibach Sportlines ( as I had been ) but he advised he could improve things even further.
The process.
With the car stationary and on a flat surface, he scanned the car to take a copy of the original settings that the Audi Mag Ride had been set up with direct from the factory.
He then measured the new ride height across all four corners and took additional measurements from the middle of the wheel to the wheel arch, once again unique to each corner of the car. These measurements were then used to recalibrate the cars height based on the new Eibachs so that the original dampers could work more efficiently . As part of the process the headlight beam was also realigned.
My original cars Mag Ride settings were:
Front 360 – 364
Rear 346 – 347
After recalibration my new settings were:
Front 340
Rear 333- 335
The first drive after Audi Magnetic Ride – recalibration.
WOW WOW WOW. Things were instantly noticeable from the moment I pulled down the road. The car was transformed. Alex and I both looked at each other and agreed we could feel the difference instantly.
Comfort was back. Bumps, imperfections in the road surface were absorbed by the car, rather than transmitted through it. Dynamic mode was fully controlled with a less fidgety and a supplness that just wasnt there before. Most importantly we had a ride with no moobs dancing over those poor surfaces !
The rear of the car felt truly planted in Dynamic mode and had lost that slight vagueness that had been previously witnessed. The cars dynamocs had been completly reworked. We had retained all of the good qualities and eliminated all of the bad. There was supplness and support and a new found precision that just was not there before. We gave the car a full road test and I was very impressed with how the car transitioned between modes and made the car a complete joy to drive again.
I have now put a further 1,000 miles on the car since the re- calibration and I remain impressed with it. So dazzled in fact that I had to put pen to paper, well fingers to keyboard to share my experience !
Do you need to have your car recalibrated if you have lowering springs and Mag ride ?
I was pretty happy with the lowering springs on the car (honest I was) and If I was not aware of the possibility of re-calibrating the dampers I would have probably left it alone. The positives definitely outnumbered the negatives.
With the lowering springs fitted, the points I describe above about firmer stiffer suspension I am fully aware is exactly what many people are actually looking for. For me however it was not perfect and I longed for a little more control, suppleness and refinement between the Audi Magnetic ride settings. The dampers were definitely not working correctly without re-calibration after the lowering springs had been fitted.
Of course each person has their own tolerances and one man’s comfortable ride is another man’s bone crusher. One mans’ comfort is another’s loose and spongy ride. And so on......So I appreciate each has different requirements. ....
However I think recalibration is a must going forward for cars fitted with Audi Magnetic ride if you have already lowered the car or are considering it. Certainly if you want the best of both worlds. It soothes the edges off the harshness in Dynamic mode and gives you true Comfort mode back. The car glides over bumps in the road that were previously very noticeable with the new springs fitted as the car was not utilising the dampers effectively. There is a huge difference between settings. Comfort mode is simply gorgeous, Dynamic mode just the right balance of stiffness and suppleness without the fidgety harsh ride which I had put up with for the past 1,000+ miles. It’s so good infact that I suspect many would just leave the car in this new re-calibrated Dynamic setting ( as many do with the stock car ) . Auto mode works very well and is a great midpoint between the two with the car switching instantly between a stiffer and a more comfortable ride dependent upon speed and road conditions. allowing you to make swift, controlled and comfortable progress. ... In my eyes and with my bum its spot on.
The cars original components now feel like they have truly accepted the lowering springs and with both dampers and springs working in unison to contribute to what I can only describe as the perfect blend of performance and comfort.
The icing on the cake… Is that Alex is working on tweaking the process even further for individual requirements - Want your car stiffer, or more compliant / softer? Give Alex @ VAG Car Coding a call for further information.
I cannot recommend the recalibration highly enough ! Go for it !
Thx for the very long read....
Jungle
Thx go out to....
@DJAlix ,
@batch ,
@sjbarneS3 and ofcourse
@Rob2k68 !!
How many failed attempts did it take to get the hallelujah moment?
