Simans82

I hope all is well! I've already learned quite a bit from reading through the last 75 or so pages of threads, but I wanted to create a thread to track the progress of my wife's Q5.

I've had a company car for years, but both my wife and I have also had personal cars. Mine was always a hobby, whereas she daily drove hers. My personal car sat for long periods, and I always told myself that if I wasn't enjoying it much anymore that'd we'd consolidate down to one car. That day came a few weeks ago, and we started the search right away. Over the last year or so my wife fell in love with the idea of getting into a crossover. We test drove quite a few vehicles that the Q5 is often compared to, but we always came back around to the Audi dealership. My wife had a pretty short must have's list, so the Premium fit her perfectly. Our dealership experience was awesome, and we pulled one of the 2014's off of the delivery truck and headed home in it.

Now that I no longer have a personal car to mod, I've already started on hers since we got it home. I wouldn't consider these big changes, but they're changes none the less. lol We replaced all of the puddle and trunk bulbs with LED's, blacked out the emblems and tinted the front windows last week. I ordered the H&R's, and we're still working through what wheels she likes. She likes the idea of an OEM+ look, so we'll see what we land on in the next few weeks. I'll make sure to post up some pics as things progress.

Here are a few pics of her ride:









I come from a background of bagged cars and aggressive offsets, so this is killing me right now. We'll flush out whatever wheels she gets. It looks as though most on the forums are floating around +20 in the rear and +25 in the front to achieve a flush look. Looking forward to getting rid of the sunken stock wheels!

scrmorling

Looking good, keep the pics coming.

Steve

ThunderDent

Looks like a good start!

Look forward to some more pics in the future. We don't really see tons of pics of ibis/beige, and that really screams luxury from the get go.

Good job!

Simans82

Thanks! I didn't think we'd ever own a car with this color interior, but I'm really starting to like how much "brighter" it is compared to black.

Simans82

So my wife and I had the chance to start wrenching on the car tonight. We were able to get the fronts done tonight after work, and we're planning on knocking out the rears tomorrow. I'm missing a few pics of the disassembly, as well as the most important part... completed pics. I'm planning on getting some shots this weekend after everything's done, so this will have to do for now. If anyone has any questions about the H&R install/ride quality, feel free to ask!

Flickr's down tonight, so I'll be rehosting these tomorrow. We'll have to deal with Photobucket quality for now.

Here's a few shots of the stock ride height. You can also see how the 35% tint compares to the factory rear glass. I mentioned it in another thread, but I had the factory rears metered at ~27%. The legal tint here in NC is 35%, so it was going to be lighter no matter what, but I'm pleased with the outcome:



Stock front ride height ~32.75":









I've always had to roll my own fenders, so this was a nice surprise on the fronts:



Stock rear ride height ~32.75":





Front bumper height:



H&R Springs:



Front suspension before we started the disassembly:





UCA's disassembled:





Lower strut fork disassembled:



Sway bar disassembled:



I missed pics of the four engine bay bolts that hold the strut assembly, as well as the lower strut bolt itself. I'll snap some pics tomorrow when we're working on the rear. If anyone wants pics of anything else, just let me know. I made note of the various bolt/nut sizes as well.

Here's the measurement after we took it off of the jack stands and drove it around the block to listen for any noises (~31.25"). We were set to go! Looks like the advertised 1.5" drop is spot on. We'll work on bringing the rear down 1.6" tomorrow.

GeeT

Nice! Looking forward to seeing the final result with the install. Have you guys settled on wheels?

Simans82

We're still working through a few options. She really likes the OEM+ look, so we may just end up going with a 20" replica wheel.

Mark P

Very nice! Looks like you mean 31.25" for the fronts afterwards. Will be nice to see how that looks with whatever wheels you decide on. I think those are 18's you have - are you going for a larger size?

Where abouts in NC are you? I'm in Raleigh/Durham and am expecting my white Q5 in about a month - very excited

rarewolf

Lookin' good!

In the winter, it must be nice not to worry about climbing over snow-plow wakes at the end of your drive

If you don't mind me asking ... if you want a lower ride and you're going to opt for the 2.0T, why do not more people opt for the A4 Allroad?

Parsec

It's more expensive for the same engine and less space?