[s-cars] Eibach Update

[Charlie Smith]

Earlier, Djdawson2 at aol.com wrote:
>
> Well, finally got around to putting my Eibachs and Konis into my car... so
> now I know for sure.  The front is lowered to the point where there is about
> 1 1/4 inch of air space between the fender arch and the top of the tire
> (235/45/17).  In the rear, there is about 3 1/2 inches of space.  I'm finding
> it hard to imagine that a spacer could ever be needed.  As I compared the
> perch location on my Konis to the location on the stock strut, it is exactly
> the same +/- 1/16 inch.
>
> My Eibachs are the 1527.001 and 1517.002 variety recently purchased from
> shox.com.
>
> Absolutely thrilled with the outcome.  Not harsh, but nice and firm.  Much
> improved road feel and responsiveness.
>
> However, now I find myself wondering about the rear.  It looks abnormally
> high compared to the front.  I'm going to see if it settles some, but if it
> doesn't, I'll be tempted to remove 1 of the inactive coils to balance out the
> ride height.

You have the wrong springs.  However, if you are going for a retro '70s look,
with the back way up in the air, you may have the ticket!

You have the European version of the kit that was produced first, these
were not designed to give the correct ride heigth on our UrS4/S6 cars.

This was discussed in detail earlier this month.

This is why the back end of your car is way up in the air <!>

Besides being too long on the rear, these springs are softer than
the 'correct' Eibach springs for our cars.

You should move the spring seat on the rear shocks lower on the shock
body.  HOWEVER - before I'd go machining new grooves in a Koni shock body
I would verify WITH KONI that the shock body material is thick enough
to let you machine new grooves in the body.  I don't know how Koni
locates the spring seat on the shock body - IF it is some other way than
with a snap ring in a groove you may be out of luck.

If it turns out you can not lower the spring seat on the shock body,
I'd go get a couple Bilstein Sport rear shocks and go from there.
You may find that you need to also change the front shocks if just
changing the rears screws up the ride because of differences in
damping rates.

    - Charlie


  Charlie Smith   charlie at elektro.cmhnet.org  614-471-1418
  http://www.elektro.com/~charlie      Columbus Ohio   USA
  http://www.elektro.com/~audi     photos & technical info

  95 S6 Quattro  -  24 PSI, RS2 6 speed, and other features
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