Springs vs coilovers on a budget

[jacob morgan]

hi.
I’m looking to lower my 57 plate Audi A3 S-Line 1.8tfsi. I’m looking to do it on a budget as money is tight and there is still a lot I was to do on the car. I’ve got about £400 to spend on getting the car lowered including fitting and I’ve found some decent spring for between £150-£200 or I have found some cheap end coil over sold at Euro car parts for between £200-£300. I only use the car for general road driving and do not plan on driving on a track any time soon. What would everyone suggest and what’s everyone’s personal experience with this? Thanks in advance

 

[Forecast.bucket.s]

if you want performance on that budget i would say go for springs purely for the fact it will be evenly balanced all round.
i have H&R springs on my S3 8p. the ride height is perfect and has improved the stability of the car. for the price i was very happy with results.

if you're unlikely to use your car on a track then really there isn't that much point in my opinion spending too much on suspension set ups. Especially as most coilovers require professionals to set up correctly to get the most benefits out of them.

but if you do want budget coilovers so you can fiddle with ride height - i would recommend Pro sport - i had these years ago on my Leon Cupra R - they were roughly 250 quid brand new. i had no idea at the time if they were going to be any good. bought them as a gamble.. once fitted i couldn't believe the comfort and ride stability. totally blown away especially having come from other cars where i had used set ups quadruple the price and were less impressed. They stayed on that car the entire 4 years i owned it - and they're probably still on there !

i would recommend servicing budget coilovers annually, by greasing them etc etc otherwise they will corrode quicker than your high end ones.

im sure others will have something else to say but this has been my personal experience ^^

 

[paddy]

Agree with above, lower springs will be much better that cheap coilovers. Only real advantage of coilovers is the adjustability for track days etc.

 

[DPM]

It will depend a lot on how many miles your current dampers have covered?

Damian @ DPM Performance

 

[paddy]

Its always a trade off between looks and handling IMHO, most lowered cars handle like shopping trolleys. If you want to go round corners look at your bushes, mounts and anti roll bars. I always remember the top gear test with a works cooper mini GP against a range rover sport round the track and the RR beat the mini. I can assure you the range rover was not lowered, just set up properly.

 

[Eren S3]

I initially had H&R springs on my S3. Springs were great, my shocks however let them down but they were on 125k miles at the time. I eventually went for AP coilovers, paid just over £400 for them which is possibly slightly stretching your budget a bit but I'd say worth it. If you can have a go at changing them yourself as well that will save you some money

Similar to you, I don't plan on putting it on a track any time soon but the coilovers were a better option for me considering I had useless shocks so it might be a different decision for you. Let us know what you decide to do

 

[jacob morgan]

Thinking I’m going to go with these springs https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Spax-25m...b-2a70-4863-a64f-7dd098f3b93a&epid=2222984451 car is on 90k miles so just guna give them a go and see how I get on. Was recommended these by the guy that’s going to fit them for me so will just have to wait and see