finally got around to installing the front Konis with my stock springs

[onlyaudis]

My intent with this car is "OEM Plus" and to make it a better street car than it was from Audi without taking away much at all from the factory refinement or reliability . Running EPL stage 1 with 25% E85 and loving it. Smooth as silk under normal use, but has way more bite when you play a little harder. My set up on this car's suspension / chassis is front braces top and bottom, upgraded alloy sway bar end links on the stock bars, and Koni yellow sports front and back. I did the Koni rears last month, and found I liked them in the softest setting. Any stiffer and it upset the ride quality on our less than stellar roads. Even at full soft in the rear, the ride control was improved noticeably over stock, (quick changes of direction felt more sharp, better turn in) and ride quality may have gotten better as well.

Yesterday I decided to take on the front shock swap. read some DIY's and it seemed complicated, but once you get in there. if you have done a lot of struts like I have, its pretty self explanatory. It is much more time consuming than doing the rears, so I was hoping to not have to take them off to change the settings. Consensus from online and talking to AWE and another Audi tuner was 25% from full soft would be a better setting to try first on the fronts with stock springs than full soft, since these same exact struts are supplied for lighter B8 A4's with the lighter 2 liter engine. First drive at 25%, the car was a bit stiffer than stock up there, but I have learned it takes a few hundred miles to break in brand new Konis, so I will drive them for a few weeks before deciding if I want to try them on full soft. (and spending another 3 hours of wrenching to do so) Steering response is improved over stock, so is quick changes of direction. Normal road irregularities seem similar to stock, but bigger pot holes and bumps transmit harsher right now. I will report back after I get a few more miles on them.

[onlyaudis]

So I drove the car a bunch and could tell the shocks were going to be too stiff for my liking even at 25% --were not going to "break in" that much. I just pulled them off and reset them to the full soft position, and reinstalled them. Took 2 hours this time instead of 3.5. Even in the softest setting, they are a little firmer than the broken in stock shocks I had, but the car control is enhanced like I was hoping for. The car feels very athletic with this set up and the ride is more factory like, and will get better after a 1000 miles or so for sure. I highly recommend a set of Koni yellows set at the default soft settings, especially if your car is getting up there in miles, and you are running stock springs