Stern Adjustable Control Arms installed! One ?

[Papachristou]

Well, i decided to go ahead and DIY on these... so easy! my pinch bolt had zero rust on it... so it came right out... i would offer two tips on these...

first off i didnt make a DIY because they come with a nice step by step install guide with pics from PureMS.

adjust them to factory length before installing! i had to redo the first one i did because it was so far off it was barely driveable!

you WILL need an alignment ASAP after putting these on.. i have an appointment @ audi tomorrrow... i sure hope they are smart enough to adjust these correctly.

one thing i noticed was that i can "feel" the road and steering a lot more. perhaps because the OEM control arms have a rubber bushing type thing and the stern arms have a steel ball and socket. the car seems to follow what i want it to do more...



and my question is... i am putting on rs4 rims.. should i put them on before my alignment or after? i didnt want to drive too much on them with the alignment being off.. its about 20 miles to the dealer....

a few pics...



you can see they fit fine even with stasis streetsports......

[dougyfresh]

How low is your ride-height that you need these because you are wearing tires out? Actlsub9 runs his car around 24inches to the fender wells (or maybe a tad higher) with OEM upper control arms and has seen no abnormal tire wear.

[Papachristou]

thats crazy.. my fronts are at 24" and rears at 24.5" and you can see the angle of that the front tires have.. / \ is how they ride (of course not that bad but you can tell looking at the front of the car)

maybe he did some adjustments with the subframe?

also my car used to be a heavy daily driver, i was putting 50-100 miles a day on it... im not sure how much he drives his car...

[illaudiill]

how much were the control arms?

[Papachristou]

$500

[akaEsCo01]

Greg's car is a daily too if I am not mistaken. I feel your pain, afetr I took my 20's off from about 4-5 months of driving, my insides were wearing on my fronts but the rear was fine and I am at 25.125" all around.

Glad the install went well, I figured your pinch bolt would be fine. As far as your alignment question, an alignment is set for the way you bring the car in, if you change wheels or ride height you will need another one to make it right. So if you bring your car in with 19's on for the alignment, go home take them off and put your 18's or 17's on then your alignment MAY be off a little. It's your call.

[dougyfresh]

thats crazy.. my fronts are at 24" and rears at 24.5" and you can see the angle of that the front tires have.. / \ is how they ride (of course not that bad but you can tell looking at the front of the car)

maybe he did some adjustments with the subframe?

also my car used to be a heavy daily driver, i was putting 50-100 miles a day on it... im not sure how much he drives his car...

I looked at his tires Saturday when we adjusted the ride height of his coilovers. Tires look great. No other adjustments have been done to his suspension. No tweaks to the subframe or anything else. He drives the car every day.

I'm only asking because he doesn't feel its necessary that I install my CPP arms when I install my StreetSports in the springtime. Granted I'm not going to be as low as you guys. I'm thinking of setting the Avant up at 25even all the way around since I load the car up a lot with gear. I basically just want the ride height to be even front to back which the stock sport suspension does not do.

As long as the toe-in is set to zero then I don't think there are any issues.

[Papachristou]

ill put em on before the alignment, just to be sure. surely 20 miles wont kill the tires

honestly doug, i dont know.... it seems some people on here have a terrible problem with it and others hardly anything? perhaps its a small tweak from the factory?

if you have the CPPs already, might as well throw them on this way the alignment shop can get it perfect

[akaEsCo01]

I'm willing to bet Greg has his front toe set to 0 or very close to it. That will even out the tire wear but the care will handle a little different as it will follow the road a lot more. taking your had off the wheel on an uneven or bumpy road would not be advised with that setup, but I'm doing it anyway, no money for mods for a while

[Papachristou]

ill post up my printout of before and after the alignment tomorrow afternoon

[dougyfresh]

ill post up my printout of before and after the alignment tomorrow afternoon

That would be great.


This is what my car is currently aligned to. Audi dealership set it to factory settings. 2002 Sport Suspension.


I found a place that will set it to whatever I want so I'll probably go there when I put the coil-overs on in the spring.

[Mike@PureMS]

These actually come preset to factory lengths out of the box.

While they'll work right away with no alignment, we highly recommend an alignment be done right away.

[Papachristou]

although there is no left or right, i guess i got the lengths backwards... should have checked but i figured it would be the same... thats what i get for not checking...

no problems surely the guys @ audi will sort it out!



Mike, how do the alignment guys get in to adjust these? take the tires off?

[absolutegtr]

As you probably know Chris....toe in and/or toe out is what gives accelerated tire wear.

Camber in/out not as much

[Papachristou]

actually i did not... i just need it set to factory specs so i dont go through tires

what should i have them set the toe at?

[absolutegtr]

The more TOE IN you have the more stable your car is at higher speeds.

The more TOE OUT you have the sharper you can take turns (IIRCC)

Overall I have my wheels set at like .20 TOTAL toe in....or something like that.

[dirtybrd]

That would be great.


This is what my car is currently aligned to. Audi dealership set it to factory settings. 2002 Sport Suspension.


I found a place that will set it to whatever I want so I'll probably go there when I put the coil-overs on in the spring.

Note the toe out in the frt., thats how it should be on a car with negative camber, this offsets some of the wear.

[Mike@PureMS]

There are 4 very distinct arms.
2 long ones, 2 short ones.
The left/ride side is determined by the stickers on the arms. You want the Stern stickers facing out, or away from each other. That will determine which arms fit where.

The arms can be adjusted by an alignment shop without taking the wheels off. They just reach up from under the car, not difficult at all.

[Papachristou]

what would you recommend my toe be set at for the best compromise?

[vinny.dtw]

Dialing the toe as close as 0 will give you the best tire wear for lowered cars. It offsets the negative camber. I did this actually and it helped drastically with tire wear, but I still wouldn't see the entire life of the tire. If my control arms died, I'd certainly attempt to get a set of these.

[VAG_4ever]

Where did you find these?? Searched a while back in conjunction with the Audi dealership and we had no luck...

[inaforest]

I am at 23" fender to ground on coils and my tire wear is fine. Yes, it may be decreased from if I was still stock height, but before I had an alignment done, I went through a set in 10K miles and i have put about the same amount on these and they're doing fine.

[Papachristou]

I just told them factory settings