Lowered in winter advice?

[Flash]

I know there's a number of you guys who drive B5 S4s and A4s and I'm wondering of the people who drive all-year-round, would you or are you driving lowered?

Basically, I've got a 2.8 30v A4 that's my daily beater . It has non-sport suspension and I'm either looking at picking up used sport suspension or bilstein/H&R spring combo, but I didn't think I could get away with anything lower than OEM Sport. Primarily, I want better handling. I loved the sport suspension in my wife's A4 till a huge diesel rear ended us and the car was totalled.... anyway, it felt great and handled way better than my worn out non-sport. Of course, I want to get a set of dedicated summer tires with rims, and so I want to try amd reduce the fender gap as much as possible.


What do you guys think?

[The_Jerbel]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

I ran year-round in the S4 which had 3" clearance. I plowed a little snow from time to time, but never had any problems. Just have to make sure to avoid the ice chunks. It would have been nice to have an extra inch clearance, though...

[Kor]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

Unless you are slamming a car on coilovers or bags, you will be fine. This is Calgary not Winnipeg. You have WAY more to fear from the condition of the roads than you do from weather or snow in the winter.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

lowered in winter is fine.. you just gotta watch for ice chunks and when it snows deep sometimes you plow..

you could try and pickup a set of s4 suspension for cheap.. that will lower you down and give you good handling

[Kordain]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

lowered is a pain in the ass in winter if you ask me, one ice chunk and you have to have your front bumper repainted as it cracks it all and gives you a nice big scar. This could just be the anger coming out in me but this year when we had that heavy snow fall and all the side roads had deep snow ruts then it froze into ice ruts for a month you needed to have lots of clearance or have your rear bumper ripped off and your front one smashed too much repair work for me this year. Id be getting rid of the gti of the wife didnt need a new car

[RSS]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

This year was really bad in the A4 it was the ruts that kept getting me and i lost one fog light to the ice and dragged the bottom of the car on a dozen or so occasions. I think that is why i don't drive my S4 during the winter.

[Flash]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

Alright,

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm going to stay practical and just upgrade to oem sport suspension.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

go S4 suspension.. you should be able to pickup a set easily from someone here even or off az/aw

[Flash]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

Hmm. Well I checked a whole shwack of threads on Audizine and Audiworld and it appears that s4 shocks will work, but the springs will actually raise the front. The reasoning is that the s4 front is heavier than A4 2.8 front.

I haven't seen this in person, so I have no idea. What do you guys think? Naturally I'd rather score a deal locally, but I don't want a donk-mobile .

[R_Ethug]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

http://www.audizine.com/classifieds/...t=12809&cat=49

[Xtreme-R]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

Whatever setup you go with be sure to get a good set of shoes... the Nokian winters are probably the best investment I have made!

[Flash]

Re: Lowered in winter advice?

Good advice for sure. I'm running Yokohama Ice Gaurds and they seem to be pretty good.