Rob 97 993c2

Is the stock suspension on a 1999 Audi A4 (2.8L) as bad as our 993 and goes dead in 30k?
I drove my friends A4 with 44K miles in the rain last week and the car felt very light, unstable and was hovering at little- car is a quattro with new all weather tires. \Perhaps im parnoid as the suspension on my TT was dangerously dead, or , perhaps im spoiled by the surefooted feel of our cars, but i really felt unsafe driving on the merritt parkway in the rain.
Is there a better upgrade for her car? .. pls dont say pss-9.
The car is mint and is her weekend driver around ny and ct - no track or street racing.
thanks

TamiyaGuy

I believe there was a recall notice that went out a little while ago about the A4's and their front suspension arms. I thought it covered the '96 to '99 model years but I can't remember. It came in the mail for me but I didn't own the car anymore and so send back the postcard about change of ownership and promptly tossed it.

However, when I did have my 1996 A4, the front suspension arms were shot at 40,000km, soooooo... it's very possible Audi didn't fix up things until a few years later.

Thanks,
Peter

Ms Kita

The service action from Audi covers some 1996-2000 model year A4 vehicles, some 2000 S4 vehicles and some 1997-2000 model year A8 vehicles.

KOAN

If fixing the upper control arms doesn't do the trick, there are several spring upgrades that will make the ride much more confidence inspiring without making it a track beast. Check out the Eibach springs from MTM (Hoppen) or ECS. I have a StaSis suspension on my S4, but it is a track suspension. They have excellent quality, and have several levels of upgrades. I am very pleased with mine.

Chuck A.

You might want to search or post your question here. It's like the Rennlist for Audi's...

http://www.audiworld.com/forum/a4.html

Pete K

I may be biased because I crew for the race team, but StaSis makes great suspension kits for Audi's.

http://www.stasisengineering.com/

I have no first hand knowledge about the suspenions on the A4 dying but I can tell you that quattro's are sensitive to what tires you install. Might want to throw on another set and see how it feels.

Pete

Rob 97 993c2

Turns out she received the recall notice, so that will get done.

Im still curious of the expected lifespan of a stock '99 audi suspension, i really cant tell if it is dead .. but, i would not have know my TT suspension was dead until someone else drove it at limerock.
Anyone change their setup? Perhaps Audi also used the cheap parts that porsche used for 993s.

Audiworld.com is not nearly as user friendly as rennlist... we are very lucky to have rennlist and have the interface be so handy.

Frank 993 C4S

Rob, my S4 currently has 40k miles on in and the suspension is still in good shape (although I was considering lowering it a bit - primarily for optics). I do however have my winter tires mounted right now and the difference is HUGE, i.e. I have to be a little bit more careful with the degraded handling.
BTW - Doing the control arm recall isn't going to change the handling of the car. Maybe hthe car needs an alignment.

www.audiworld.com is the best source out there, however the people don't seem to be as mature as on rennlist. Rennlist rules!

Euromagination

Rob,

Of course compared to your 993, a stock A4 will seem floaty. The higher-profile tires and higher ride height have a lot to do with the floatiness.

FWIW, I have a Passat 1.8T that is built on the same "B5" platform as the A4, and I replaced the stock shocks with "grooved" (height adjustable up front) Bilstein shocks from ECS Tuning, and replaced the stock springs with Eibach pro-kit. Right now I have the front height adjusted to the first-lowest setting from the bottom. The total drop is ~2+" up front and about 1.75" in the rear. This setup, plus Z-rated tires that I run on the car, makes the car handle like it's on rails. And I don't mean "rails" for a Passat, I mean "rails" for ANY car. Even people who drive true sports cars have complimented my Passat's handling.

Picture of the current drop to show it's not that extreme...


As far as the front suspension is concerned, many Audis and the VW Passat (b/c the Passat is more or less an A4 with a different badge) have control arm problems. What I mean by "problems" is that the Audi four-link suspension, which is mainly meant to prevent torque steer, wears out at the rubber seals, leaks the grease out, and starts popping and creaking due to lack of grease. I've heard of all front control arms having to be replaced as early as 45k miles, with many having to be replaced @75k miles. That said, this is probably not the case for your friend's A4. To find out, simply take a peek at the rubber seals on each joint of the front suspension to see what condition they're in.

I replaced my Passat's control arms with some heavier-duty non-VW ones from Germany @ 70k miles, and my A6 is due for new control arms shortly as well. They cost >$1000 P&L to replace unless you do the work yourself as I did with my Passat, but won't do with the A6.
Unfortunately, control arms and CV boots are pretty problematic on any FWD or Quattro/4Motion Audi or VW. Just one of those things!

If you have any specific questions, don't hesitate for a second to PM me. A6's, A4's, and Passats are my specialty! (Until I find my 993, that is.)

Ray Calvo

Well, with 96K miles on my 98 A4 Avant (30V V-6, 5 speed manual), will offer my opinions. No, they do not feel as sure-footed as the 993. If they did, they would lose a lot of sales because many folks would feel they are too harsh. However, I have still loved the feel of my A4; I got it with the Sport suspension and if you're driving a stock suspension this might be one reason why it feels like mush. Also, all-season tires will not have as good a feel as pure summer VR tires; I notice a big difference when I switch to snow tires for winter.

If car feels poor in the rain, I would bet it's something called "hydroplaning". Different tires will experience it to worse levels; I've had deep tread tires that had it worse than less than half tread worn tires; all depends on the tread pattern.

Suspension should be fine at 30K miles, but they do show faster wear than the 993 I feel. At about 45K miles both rear wheel bearings needed replacing, at 70K the shocks had to be replaced (normal, I feel), at 80K miles had a tie rod replaced, and I just had a LF lower control arm replaced as part of an Audi recall campaign (had to pay for the repair; Audi insisted that car had to have records of 30K, 60K, and 90K mile maintenances done at a dealer. Mine wasn't since I did all maintenance myself after the 3 year/50K mile Audi Advantage free maintenance program expired).

Bottom line: would I buy another? Danged right - I'm planning on an S4 next year to replace the Avant!