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Here's my review of my suspension, I put it in a couple weeks ago and got about 500 miles on it already.

My Profile - 97 1.8T QS AT. At first I didn't really want to drop my car because of worries about snow clearance. But gradually I figured I really wanted to do it. Looking primarily to cut wheel well gap, especially the annoying larger wheel gap in the front compared to the back. I am willing to sacrifice performance for better ride, since I drive an avg of 30k mi per year)

My choice - I heavily considered going with retrofitting the 98.5+ sport suspension back into mine. The sport suspension still has that front looks higher than the back look, so eventually I went with Bilstein Sports and Eibach Pro Kits. Heard lots of good things about the comfort of this combo, although I was aware of the common complaints on the board (sinking springs, maybe too soft, etc). I bought them from shox.com for something like $750 or so, I don't remember. But the front bilsteins didn't come with perches (more on this later)

my Review - I had the rears installed at perch 4, the default. Fronts, I had no choice.

After I got the suspension in, I knew I did the right thing because I got a compliment about 3 blocks away while waiting at a stop light.

I was actually surprised by the ride, it was more comfortable than I expected. But then again I'm comparing it to memories of my friends from high school who had their cars lowered with cut springs or heat treated springs (remember those days?).

Don't get me wrong, you WILL feel the road even with this combo, and some people will definitely find it annoying, but it is much better ride than I thought it was going to be. Pothole are annoying, but even worse are the temporary steel covers placed over roadwork gaps while the crews are not working (For instance, 1/2 mile west of 101 on University Avenue, Palo Alto)

Performance - Again, not one of my top concerns, and I'm not a person who knows a lot about driving at top speed. But the bilstein/eibach combo is subtle in its performance. It doesn't feel like a car on rails like one with a coilover setup, but you definitely know its there and feel far more confident going into turns. I"m sure if I knew how to drive well, it would be even better. But suddenly you find yourself wondering if you can take turns at twice the posted speed limit (not that I would try to do something like that :>)

Observation - Shox.com and Eibach and about 4 other sales people at other stores I talked to said that the drop on Eibach/Bilstein is about 1.4" front, 1.3" rear. In my case, it was actually much more than that. I took before and after measurements and it's 1.8"-1.9" lower in front, 1.7" in rear. I actually don't mind the extra drop, it just took me by surprise.

Measuring from fender to ground, it's the same at 25 3/8" on all four corners. The wheel well to fender gap is about 2 finger widths using my hand-y ruler.

But the one thing that I've noticed is that the car's angles make it look like it slopes to the front a little. (maybe it's cause I looked too closely at that front higher than the back thing). It's very subtle and I actually have to point it out to people to see what I"m talking about, so I guess it's not all that noticeable except to me. The lean forward looks BMWish rather than Cameroish, and I've seen other lowered A4's do the same so it doesn't really bother me. But the thing that makes me wonder is if the perchless Bilstein front matches up with the 3rd perch of the perched-Bilstein front (i.e. the default height for the front). If not, then it could mean that it drops the front a touch lower. It's probably in my head more than actuality, and it hasn't bothered me enough to think that there's something wrong. Just an observation.

For my next trick, I'll pay off the car so I'm modifying MY car rather than the credit union's! Seriously, maybe chip next, I think I'm the last of the chipless 97 1.8'ers.

Thanks to Jim Seamone and Steve S for help with this.

Brian T
97 1.8T QS AT Bilstein/Eibach

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the front is noticebly lower than the rear. There is about about 1.5 finger gap difference between front and rear and that's very annoying look for me. I guess it's because my car is FWD which is considerbly lighter in the rear than Quatrro car.

Anyway, I am thinking about changing to bilstien because it has perches in the rear so I can use those perches to lower my rear.

Questions:
1) Is perch 4 at the rear that u used in yours is the lowest setting for rear shock? Can I go an inch or at least .5 inch lower? How far of a gap between each perch.?

2) If there is exist a lower pech than perch 4, will the spring get loose if i use the lower one? I mean, I am afraid that spring will not be preloaded and might get loose when the wheel is in completely rebound position.

Hope u can clear these up for me.
thanks in advance

Nick T 97 1.8 FWD

The bilstein adjustable rears can only be adjusted to a higher setting. The lowest setting is already the same as stock.

The front adjustable shocks have five settings. The stock level is the middle perch.

Dan

The rims are replicas of the Porsche Carrerra rim. They're made by Mille Miglia, and are available from Autobahn International. Size is 17x7.5, and they came with the rings center caps.

The tires are Pirelli 7000 Super Sports, 225x45x17. Although these tires get knocked a bit in the forum, I like them a lot. They're one of the few M+S in 17", they're cheap, and they have longer tread wear than the softer tires. For my purposes, they're great.

The difference between the front and rear height in my setup is closer than that. The clearance between fender and tire in the front is a tight two fingers for me, and the clearance between fender and tire in the rear is a loose two fingers for me. So it is fairly close.

I was wondering, maybe you might want to check if you got the quattro springs installed instead of the FWD springs? That might cause the difference in the gap. I can write down the part # of my springs when I get home and we can compare notes.

But as posted, the front perched-bilsteins can raise/lower slightly, but the rears are already at the lowest setting, and only go higher. So the bilsteins alone won't solve the gap unless you want to pre-load the front to raise it.