The Simps

Hi,

First post so don't bite my head off! :I

Purchased a 2003 4.2 Quattro Sport a few weeks back and thoroughly love the car! I purchased some lowering links off ebay from a good source. However there was an immediate problem when going to fit the fronts.

Apparantly all D3s have straight links that are 135mm long. Mine has 160mm links fitted which could be from a bentley. I assume this was done to trick the system to raise the car for same steep driveway. Anyway I proceeded to fit the adjustable links, initially starting at 135mm. This resulted in putting the car on its bump stops! I went up to 150mm and its perfect now. However after going up the road the links broke off and were lost down the road!

Now only explanation I can give for this is the link contacted the chassis under compression? On the standard link there is a kink to stop this.

Does anyone else have the kinked links fitted to their A8? I wondering if its an early model or sport model abnormality? I assumed the were an after fitment but looks like probably not.

Any thoughts?


The Standard Link fitted to the car...




Std Rear, 135mm Front




Std Rear, 150mm Front

mishar

Welcome! We don't bite. At least in the beginning.

OEM links on your car are standard. I don't know where did you find 135 mm and strait. May be your dealer is not that "good source". They have to be bent in order not to touch chassis. You are lucky you didn't brake sensors.

Height you like you can achieve by software lowering. You need VCDS, but you will need it for many other things. It is must tool for these cars.

The Simps

Hi, thanks for your reply.

The ebay seller has sold hundreds of his straight kits - UK & US and was got 135mm from schematic drawings. Thats why there has been confusion. Hmmm.

VCDS - is that the VAG COM software? I have a macbook pro, will it run on that? What do i need cable wise to connect to the car and where?

Thanks.

The Simps

P.S I thought the vag com software can only do a 25mm drop max? It was my understanding that for every 5mm shorter the links are they lower the car 25mm. So for the 150mm link length I liked it was a 50mm drop?

Also, because these cars work by levelling, am I able to have a slight rake like in the picture without causing problems?

mishar

Yes. VAG COM or VCDS. You can find it here. I don't know if it works with Mac. You can find it on their site. You connect it to the plug just above the drivers right foot.

mishar

You can get 25 mm max without cheating. Front and back independent. Add to that Dynamic setting and you have 50 mm.

Drop rate for links is more like 3:1 than 5:1, so with 150 mm links you have ~30 mm drop. 50 mm would be too much. In Dynamic you would have only about 40 mm of a clearance.

The Simps

Mine is a sport model so there is no difference in height adjustment between Dynamic, Automatic & Comfort only the high speed bit which doesnt occur under confort.

jakematic

Yes it works on a Mac.

Bad news is you need to run a Windows virtual machine via Parallels, VMware Fusion, or Bootcamp.
Just assign the Ross-Tech cable to the VM.
If you have an old copy of XP it works fine with it.

I used to use my MBP, but now use the Air because I'm more likely to travel with it.

mishar

Even worse. You can't raise it if you need to. It is always in Dynamic.

The Simps

Thanks Jake. I have Parrallels on the mbp so that should work then,