[V6-12v] Understeer - suspension?

[George Tur]

On Thursday 28 December 2006 14:32, James Whitehouse wrote:
> Now that I've been driving the new 80 Quattro for a bit longer and started
> to push it a bit harder, it's become apparent that when putting the power
> down in the middle of a corner (to come out of the corner fast, as 4WD
> should excel at) I suddenly get massive understeer. The car doesn't just
> politely lose grip (as did my 2WD) it just suddenly understeers to an
> alarming degree.
>
> Any experience of this? Is it just tired rear shocks/springs, or is there
> something more insidious at play like some accident damage that's been
> hidden and missed in the pre-sales checks?
>
*********
Try playing with the tire pressure. Set the tire pressure to what Audi 
recommends on the car and try it out. If it still understeers too much try 
lowering the front tire pressure a bit and increasing the rear tire pressure 
a bit. In the range of 2 lbs or so. This should give the front more bite and 
allow the rear to swing out a little faster. You'll have to play with the 
tire pressure to get the turn in that you want which will also vary according 
to the speed you're running at. 

Or, it could be as you said very tired shocks and springs, but I doubt it. My 
experience with Audis is that they understeer from the factory and to get 
them to handle better you will probably have to go to higher rate springs, 
probably lowered, and shocks if you want the car to ride on rails. My son did 
the suspension on his 87 5ktq a few years ago and it took lowered, higher 
rate springs and heavy duty struts and shocks plus new bushings all around to 
get the car to handle correctly. 

HTH

George Tur