Happy New Year

Please put the bulk of your comments in the post itself...not the title line....thanks..<p>To answer your question...I believe the general consensus of the board would<br>advise you to change the shocks at the same time. You can use the OEM<br>shocks, but I can pretty much guarantee that they won't last long in a 1.25"<br>lowered car. Just my opinion. My recommendation, if you were not going<br>the coilover route, would be H&R springs and Bilstein or Koni adjustable <br>shocks.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM

James, I did just that - H&R springs, and stock springs on my 97 2.8Q. So far (9 Months) so good...the car handles and looks better, with only the rare "oversprung" feeling. In my case, I didn't want to make the shock investment on a leased car, but I couldn't stand the "jacked up" look. I think a mild drop w/ new shocks works well, but I'd budget for a shock change if I decide to keep the car past the lease termination.

Sorry about the Subject line...won't happen again.<p>Thanks to all for thier advice, I really appreciate how quickly people respond...it makes a group like this very effective.<p>Basically here's how the story goes...I'm getting my new A4 1.8T Manual(Thank God) in about two weeks when I gets off the boat from Germany. Initially I'm going to be a little strapped for cash as I have to throw down 10G's to the dealer for my down...you know the routine. So the first thing I want to spend my money on is some wheels..I'm very tempted by the Ronal offer...but then the car is going to look like a 4x4 so I figured it would be cheaper to just get some sport springs to lower the car a tad...drive on em' for say a couple of months..and the pull them off in exchange for the real thing.<p>Thanks again...I really look forward to participating in the group discussions...and gatherings.<p>Best of Wishes for the New Year

You should take your time to decide which is the best suspension upgrade for you. You want to replace the springs and the shocks? Why not coil-overs 6 months from now?

Hey James,<p>It looks to me from your posts that you are planning to upgrade the stock shocks as well, only at a later date. So this is what I think you should do.<p>Wait. Don't install the springs until you've got the shocks as well. If your only reason for aftermarket suspension components is to lower the ride height down 1.25", you probably don't need to buy shocks as well, especially since you're putting them on new shocks. But if you're set on buying shocks as well, learn to live with the stock ride height for a while (as I have), and wait until you have enough money to install both the springs and the shocks.<p>Remember, even if you know someone or somewhere that will install your suspension cheap (twice), you will still have to bring your car to an Audi dealer for alignment after your installations, twice, and that's not going to be cheap, because your alignment will not be covered under warranty if you install aftermarket components.<p>In the meantime, there are other ways to make your car stand out from the other A4's. Cheaper ways. :-) <p>Hope this helps<p>James Wu<br>A4 Club of Vancouver<br>1998 Black/Onyx 1.8tqa<ul><li><a href="http://vancouver.a4.org/james.shtml">Cheap mods (except for that dang A! grill) for my A4</a></li></ul>

Good point about the alingments...I didn't even think about that. I was unaware that they would not be done for free...you know Audi Advantage...guess it's not that big of an Advantage. Anyhow the main thing was that I had planned on doing wheels first as far as the suspension / wheel stuff goes, but I really would hate to drive the car in 4x4 mode...I'd be showing alot of wheel well which looks cheesy in my book. So maybe I'll just wait till I can do it all at once...rims, tires...and a nice set of coilovers.