Awful ride on 17 inch low profiles! Trip to dentist!

Sorry Philip I may have missed something here but that photo looks like a wheel trim as opposed to an actual wheel. Ignore this - i see what you mean now

Ta
Dave
:)
 
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Philip said:
My recently-acquired FSI Sport is also pretty punishing around town. Whilst I'd prefer to keep it original, I'm planning to try some steel VW ET38 6J steel wheels with 195/55R15s - with (assuming they fit the wheels and I can find some) these:

22867.jpg
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Hi,

For my winter set, I have A2 15" steel wheels (usure of actual sizes) but the moral of this post is I have those exact wheel trims. They are From an audi 80, took me a while to source a mint set of 4. But not impossible to find.

Personally I love the look with them on the car. Suites the cars image.

Thanks
Ross
 
rosscanning said:
Hi,

For my winter set, I have A2 15" steel wheels (usure of actual sizes) but the moral of this post is I have those exact wheel trims. They are From an audi 80, took me a while to source a mint set of 4. But not impossible to find.h

Personally I love the look with them on the car. Suites the cars image.

Thanks
Ross
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Have you got any photos. I run 15 inch steels in the winter and I'm trying to decide what wheel trims to get for it.
 
A2Steve said:
Have you got any photos. I run 15 inch steels in the winter and I'm trying to decide what wheel trims to get for it.
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I have the A2 origional wheel trims too, but these perfect.

Don't know if you can see my Avatar, is a picture with them on. Although it's a bit on the small side.

I try and post a picture or two for you Steve

Thanks
Ross
 
rosscanning said:
I have the A2 origional wheel trims too, but these perfect.

Don't know if you can see my Avatar, is a picture with them on. Although it's a bit on the small side.

I try and post a picture or two for you Steve

Thanks
Ross
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They really suit the A2 Ross and look good. Would you be interested in selling the original A2 wheel trims you have?
 
Thanks Steve.

Give me a private message with your email, and I'll take some pictures for you sometime this weekend.

Cheers,
Ross
 
After speaking with one or two people at AITP with L4-L5 disc problems, including myself, i think we should call ourselves the "Sciatica Club" and thats not something to laugh about. :(
 
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That was me Dave! I do have sports seat with lumbar support and 17 inch wheels too


Special edition said:
After speaking with one or two people at AITP with L4-L5 disc problems, including myself, i think we should call ourselves the "Sciatica Club" and thats not something to laugh about. :(
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You are a brave man James ! :). I think we are lucky though - poor Sarge still looks like he,s in a lot of pain. A credit to him for taking the photos at AITP.
 
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Yes he did indeed look in pain. Hopefully pain is in the past for me.

Special edition said:
You are a brave man James ! :). I think we are lucky though - poor Sarge still looks like he,s in a lot of pain. A credit to him for taking the photos at AITP.
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Love the look of these Ross. They suited the 80 too.

James

rosscanning said:
Hi,

For my winter set, I have A2 15" steel wheels (usure of actual sizes) but the moral of this post is I have those exact wheel trims. They are From an audi 80, took me a while to source a mint set of 4. But not impossible to find.

Personally I love the look with them on the car. Suites the cars image.

Thanks
Ross
Click to expand...
 
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Decided to stick with the original Sport 17" wheels and give 205/45R17 a try - at 31 psi all round on ContiSportContact 3s, the ride is definitely improved (most noticeably it doesn't crash as horribly over speed bumps and potholes), but it hasn't turned it into a Range Rover or an S Class.

Worthwhile, but not a night-and-day difference.
 
As an side, my second alternative would have been the 16" A1 SE ten-spoke alloys - they seem to come up fairly often on eBay at around £300 with decent original tyres, which is cheaper than a set of tyres alone.
 
Philip said:
Decided to stick with the original Sport 17" wheels and give 205/45R17 a try - at 31 psi all round on ContiSportContact 3s, the ride is definitely improved (most noticeably it doesn't crash as horribly over speed bumps and potholes), but it hasn't turned it into a Range Rover or an S Class.

Worthwhile, but not a night-and-day difference.
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the reason the Range Rover and s class have a significantly better ride is mainly down to weight.

With little or no weight in a car there is nothing to soak up the bumps.
As I have said on many occasions, I used to pay small fortunes to stiffen up the suspension on my other modified cars.
I simply have to use standard sport suspension on my A2 and I get stiff suspension as standard!!!!

Steve B
 
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Just a little heads up incase you dont already know..
New monroe relfex shocks on amazon are under half price while stocks last ;
Monroe E4998 Reflex Shock Absorber - 2 pieces £60.46
Monroe E1308 Reflex Shock Absorber - 2 pieces £52.55
Meyle front Strut Mount and bearings - 2 pieces £21.96
 
Light cars can ride well, it's just that the A2 (and particularly the factory Sport chassis) is typically old-school Audi, i.e. too stiffly sprung and too firmly damped. Whoever signed off the Sport chassis with the 17" wheels had clearly never driven it around a UK city ...
 
Philip said:
Light cars can ride well, it's just that the A2 (and particularly the factory Sport chassis) is typically old-school Audi, i.e. too stiffly sprung and too firmly damped. Whoever signed off the Sport chassis with the 17" wheels had clearly never driven it around a UK city ...
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It is all a matter of personal taste. I am happy to sacrifice a little softness to get improved handling, especially when cornering. But I agree that if you want a soft ride then the sport on 17" is not ideal.

As for soft cars riding well, I also agree, but that is at the expense of stability. Softer suspension can be too soft, especially when cornering. And even in straight line speed, wind can affect the car more of softer suspension (remember the old A class Mercedes problems where they would roll over when driven fast on a slalom type course (mainly due to the car being light on soft suspension).
The A2 smart for two cars also suffer straight line stability at speed when it is windy. They have a reasonably smooth ride due to the soft suspension, but the stability suffers for it.

I guess the best compromise is softer springing with stronger Anti Roll bars. That way you get increased firmness when cornering without any increase in straight line stiffness.

But the bottom line is that you either want a soft ride for comfort or a firm ride for cornering.

I think that you can get close to both in an A2, depending on how you set up the shocks, springs and ARBs. To me the Sport suspension on 18" wheels gives me exactly the ride I want (and it is not a bone shaker in any way, even with that set up)
In my opinion of course.

Steve B
 
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JIGSAW said:
Just a little heads up incase you dont already know..
New monroe relfex shocks on amazon are under half price while stocks last ;
Monroe E4998 Reflex Shock Absorber - 2 pieces £60.46
Monroe E1308 Reflex Shock Absorber - 2 pieces £52.55
Meyle front Strut Mount and bearings - 2 pieces £21.96
Click to expand...

I bought these and they are perfect if you wish to maintain a "stock" suspension. The Munroe fronts were chipped slightly in places when they arrived in the post and my OCD kicked in so i gave them a bit of a repaint before fitting !.

Ta
Dave
:)
 
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