After doing the wheels(16x8), chip, and exhaust on my 1.8tq, I am looking at suspension options. I live in New England and spend a lot of time on Vermont back roads so too low and stiff is not an option. I have decided to buy some used oem "sport" springs and cut them down a hair and then either run the Bilstein shocks or the oem "sport" shocks. Has anyone tried that? What is the damping like on the oem shocks?

{NT}

Your ride will turn to marshmallow....
Imaging riding on a pogo stick... that's pretty much what it's like. ALOT worse the the good ole caddies... back in the 70s and 80s.
If the road condition is so-so, the OEM Sport will do just fine. I have a set for sale off my '98.5 1.8TQ if you are interested.

Cris<ul><li><a href="http://members.xoom.com/TurboQ/events/bbq.html">NE A4 Autumn BBQ Event</a></li></ul>

Cris, Are you selling both springs and shocks or just the springs? How much?

15K miles on them...but in excellent condition. Ride quality is excellent - no sags, no leaks, no funny noises, no winter.
If you are still interested, email me.

Cris

Shorter spring=stiffer, not softer ride (shorter lever arm). Unless you have the incremental patience of an eastern mystic or the luck of the naive, you will cut too much off. Go for the sport.

the last coils on the front springs are smaller than the main coils. so unless you could rebend the spring to fit on the perch i don't think you can do it. you could cut the rear coils though because all the coils are the same diameter. but i agree with everyone else and say don't do it.
neuspeed springs are like 180 from www.shox.com. just save up some money and buy those, or buy used here, i see aftermarket springs here for like 150.
email me if you have questions on the install

The Nuespeed sport springs sound fine because they don't lower the car that much, but, are 30% stiffer then oem. I think that I am just going to buy the OEM "Sport" springs and not cut them. The next problem is rebound damping, any ideas on the OEM sport shocks? My gut tells me that I should just suck it up and buy the Bilstein's. I haven't had a lot of time with Audi's.

the gap is still there, which i wasn't too thrilled about. now it just looks like a regular car, instead of looking like a roller skate. the ride is much better though. it's firm, but not uncomfortable, and it corners much better. anyways, if money weren't an object i would have gotten the hr's and bilstein's. but since i was short on cash i put the factory sport springs and shocks (i got them on this forum for 350).
so if you want the factory stuff, just keep an eye out in the classifieds.
my friend has the oem non-sport springs and neuspeed race springs and the ride is fine. everyone tells you not to do this but he has 20k miles and it still rides nice. i think because his shocks aren't that firm the ride is comfy and since it's dropped 2 inches it corners real nice. anyways, email me if you have more ?'s.