[V6-12v] Understeer - suspension?

[James Whitehouse]

George,

Thanks for the ideas, I'll try them out! On a more extensive drive on mixed
road surfaces today, it's become clear that the rear end gets pretty upset
over bumpy road surfaces even when driving in a straight line, it waggles
and rolls from side to side.

It's so bad that it's definitely worse handling than my FWD model. Now the
understeer could be tyre related, since the previous owner has premium
(Goodyear F1) tyres on the rear, and cheapo (Hankook, or some unknown brand)
on the front. Or it could be related to the other weird handling quirks
which I'm guessing are suspension related. I looked into the data sticker
codes today and found that my FWD is actually an Audi Sports Suspension
model and the 4WD is just the Audi Standard Suspension, but surely the
standard models don't usually handle this badly? Am I just looking at new
shocks/ springs, or is there anything else you'd consider? I notice the rear
suspension is quite complex on these models, with lots of bushes and a rear
anti-roll bar, etc. I wonder if they could be causing a problem.

I also discovered the other day when washing the car for the first time that
it's had the left rear panel replaced at some point. Both Audi and my
mechanic have had a look and said they can't see anything obvious, or
structural, but it makes you wonder. I've booked it into Audi to be jigged
up and check that the geometry is all correct, but they won't be able to do
it until the end of January now.

Cheers,
James

> -----Original Message-----
> From: v6-12v-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v6-12v-bounces at audifans.com] On
> Behalf Of George Tur
> Sent: 28 December 2006 23:21
> To: v6-12v at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [V6-12v] Understeer - suspension?
> 
> 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
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