Day 2 at 034 wrapped up and everything is installed now. New wheels with tires will be here tomorrow and they'll be installed by my alignment shop on Thursday/Friday along with a 4 wheel alignment and corner balancing. Can't wash the car until after the detail shop checks that the Opti-coating cured correctly on Saturday so you'll just have to wait for pics. Reviews below but keep in mind I've had the coil overs on the car for 60ish miles and the remaining parts on the car for about 20ish miles. So these are VERY preliminary thoughts.
Bilstein B14s and KW delete kit:
The car looks fantastic sitting at the height it's currently set for (just a hair over 25" road to fender). I suspect however that it will be a bit too low once the new wheels go on as they'll be flush as opposed to sunk in like the OEM ones. Also it's winter so I'll likely be raising the car a bit. The drive however is fantastic. It's a just a touch bouncier than I figured it would be but still very close to Dynamic mode dampening. The car felt much more firm through turns than it did on the OEM suspension in Dynamic mode.
As for the KW kit...well it took me all of 10 miles to throw my first suspension error yesterday. Error on the dash went away over night and it took me all of 10 miles to throw another one today. will13k7 has had similar issues and been able to reproduce the error on demand on banked turns at speed...which is exactly where I threw both my errors. So at the moment I'm pretty disappointed in KW as their delete kit doesn't appear to be deleting shit. $400 so that I can still get errors thrown. Awesome. Hoping this can get sorted out by adjusting the ride height and the height of the sensors.
Neuspeed Rear Sway and Eurocode Rear Chasis Brace:
Say good bye to the body roll in turns. The car feels way more planted/firm through fast cornering now, much more balanced. I have the sway bar set on the "softer" setting which is only 102% increase over stock as opposed to the stiffer setting which is 128% increase over stock. I think that's probably where I'll leave it but I'm going to try to get a few more miles in before taking it to the alignment shop as maybe I'll get them to configure it for the stiffest setting.
Upgraded front and rear endlinks were also installed. Emmanuele Design for the rears, Spulen for the fronts. The OEM front end links look paltry by comparison. Just some twisted stamped metal. Garbage...but I guess Audi has to save money somewhere.
Neuspeed Power Pulley and 034 Dogbone Mount:
Car seems to respond a bit quicker to throttle, revs a bit more freely, and has a bit less lag to it. Pretty much exactly what I expected from this mod as that's been my experience with my previous 2 cars.
After the dogbone insert shifting definitely felt smoother and didn't have as much jerk to it, especially in Sport mode. Didn't notice any added vibration or noise either. Highly recommend this little mod as this is how the car should shift from the factory.
APR Intake and Catch Can:
Looks great! I was too busy rocking out and focusing on the handling of the car to listen and see if I could hear the intake at all. Catch can system looks great, hopefully it's as functional as it is pretty. Curious how often I need to drain it as I've never run a catch can system before. Will need to check the instructions.
APR Turbo Muffler Delete and GFB DV+ Diverter Valve:
Like I said above, I was too busy rocking out to notice any sound difference from the APR bit. No comment performance wise on the DV+ as I don't think it'll make a noticeable impact. That being said it's a quality piece of hardware. You can see and feel the difference between this and the stock version. The stock one looks and feels like a Happy Meal toy, the DV+ is a beautiful, solid machined piece. It's supposed to increase throttle response a bit but I did too many things at once to be able to single it out. Regardless it gets two thumbs up because I know it's not going to break on me.
Bookmarks