DrLev99

No chance....totally different in size and shape. You'd have to be pretty stupid to screw that one up. The car itself does NOT look that low, if you see my pics. Why? Because the stops are actually preventing a further drop. I expect that it will drop another 1/2" at least, front and back once I cut the stops. And this is even more scary. More drop, even less travel than I have now!

IceyTys

Dr.......

I like your style.... "you'd rather look good and lose, then look bad and win" - Woody Harrelson

My only questions are, you mentioned switchin back to OE springs and rolling your 17's, what about OE springs and 19's you never mentioned that?

Also maybe you could switch your your H&R Sports for Eibach Pro-Kit, dont they ride just a wee bit higher???

The main reason I went away from an AWD car was due to the ride height factor and limited selection in wheel sizes that were offered for Audi's.

Since your car is a lease i think riding on what you have now could wind up causing you some considerable costs down the road if you stick with the status quo. Just something to think about.....

good luck brotha!

T

bobster52

Aren't there any after market shocks that have revised travel? If you are saying that you lowered the car 1-1.5" and have no travel left, that can't be true. I'm sure these cars have appox 4" of travel stock. So it sounds as though the issue is shocks (struts) that are not operating in their designed range. I have seen pics of your car and it appears to ride about the same height as a 2wd with sport pkg. I would not remove bump stops as it sounds as though you already have metal to metal contact.

DrLev99

You don't want to know what that looks like! I don't think it's a real option at this point...too much gap and not enough rubber to fill it!

Read the last line of my original post...the P.S. part.

Not true...clearances are tight on these cars. With a 1.4" drop in front, I am left with only the cut bump stop (1.5") as my travel distance, probably less once it's cut down more. That means that the OEM travel (Distance below the stop to the top of the strut) is around 1.25" at most.

MiamiPhill

Shocks & springs are designed to work as a unit, changing only one part of the whole causes problems with the way the UNIT functions. What shocks are designed to work with those springs?......and can that combo work with the rest of the car's suspension without creating new problems.?

DrLev99

We both looked at a stock 535xi that was up on the rack as well. You'd be surprised how little travel there actually is. You are correct that my car is only about 1.3" lower than stock (at this point) and with bump stops cut by over an inch, you'd think I would have made back some travel distance and be even...but obviously something ain't kosher if I am sitting on them. The struts themselves on my car have no signs of leakage or damage, according to my mechanic. When my car was on the ground, the front bump stops were completely being compressed...tried to stick a long screwdriver in to move it around with zero luck. However, and this is important I think....the bump stops were not exactly crushed or mangled. They still looked fairly robust and in good shape.

As for the rears, you can't see the bump stops due to their being up inside the strut housing, at the top, so who knows how that is?

bobster52

That sucks because it sounds as though they designed the car to sit up high! I guess another good comparison would be to look at the underside of a 2wd E60 and see if you can see the difference. It would suprise me if there were big differences between the two as the cost to build a whole different chassis would be too much. I would look at the relative position of all components but take special note of the bump stops in the front. One reason you may have limited travel (up front) could be that the U joints on the front axles may have limited up and down movement so a 4x4 may actually have less wheel travel than a 4x2.

DrLev99

Well, there's a front drivetrain on the xi, of course, and it does sit higher, but the main reason for that is more clearance for us "off-roaders." The xi does cost $2K more as a result.

rpav

this doesnt sound right. i have 20's with H&R sport and i can be fully loaded and no bottoming out.

JPJ

Something sounds wrong somewhere, especially since others with the same set up aren't having the same problem....

For what it matters, in modern suspensions the bump stops are an active part of the suspension -- they do a lot more than on older cars where they were there just to "stop" travel well beyond the normal range. Now a days cars are into the bumps stops much more frequently, but the stops are designed to be progressive. That's why they are made out of an engineered foam and generally mounted on the strut itself rather than just a chunk of rubber on the frame. So, I wouldn't try removing them -- when you hit bottom (and it sounds like you would almost all the time) it could be really bad.