VAGcom Lowering
 

OK, the arch gap on my Sport appears to be greater than most others I've seen and I'd love to do something about it. I'd be keen to lower the front of the car 15mm or so, and the rear 10mm- nothing OTT.

My problem lies in that I have a warranty through my local Audi dealer, and I do not want to do anything that will void that if any of the suspension parts were to fail at a later date.

To begin with, can anyone tell me if VAGcom/the dealers computer can actually show a date and time log of any changes that have been made to any of the car settings? Could they see the history and spot that the suspension has been adjusted on X date? Or does it not work like that?

Secondly, how does the lowering actually work? Am I right in thinking theres no reference to millimetres in VAGcom as such, just different numbers that can be increased and decreased which result in 5mm increments?

Ideally I'd love just to get the dealer to do it the next time I'm in, but I'd be worried that they would refuse or say its not possible etc, then I'd be unable to get it done myself after that as I'd have drawn their attention to it.

Can anyone also explain to me about lowering links and what exactly they are?

Thanks in advance!

There is no log recorded in the car of what has been changed and when, the dealer tool does communicate certain info about your car back to Audi HQ however. VCDS changes can be made at will and the dealer will never know.

What you are doing when you lower it with VCDS is feed in false figures during the calibration process so that the car will end up sitting lower than it thinks it is in reality. The dealer tool (VAS-PC) will 99% not have the options to do this, so it will need to be done with VCDS. As far as Audi are concerned it is not possible, since you miscalibrating the suspension with wrong figures.

So how do you think dealers make sure that car is correct height and level on all corners after sensor change for example? Of course they can do this, they just will not lower car as the calibrating option is to make sure car is at correct height and level not to lower it. While they cannot tell time when it has been lowered they can see that reported and actual height are different and suspect it has been lowered.

Are there any issues with lowering the front axle more than the rear? Would it affect the self levelling at all as the car wouldn't be level as such?

How easy is it to do? I recall another there's where someone took a few goes it get it. Is it not just a case of making the change in vagcom and the car lowers?

If the dealers wouldn't notice of the settings being interfered with then I'd very tempted to give it a go.

I think id only do 10mm at the front and 5 at the rear.

I cant think of any issues, the car will still assume its level even though in reality it's not, so it should still behave the same as usual.

Good point, hasn't thought of that. Just wasn't sure if the car would confuse itself as it wouldn't ACTUALLY be level.

Have you got yours lowered?

You can lower front more than rear with no complications.

I've lowered mine front -15mm and rear -10mm
It's all about coding, you do not enter mm's
4th & 5th digit is 55, this is the zero value for both axles
4th front axle, 5th rear axle.

There is never guarantee it will go smooth
Chances of suspension going into limp mode are moderate

First you change coding then you have to complete calibration

I've done so far something like 7 of them and each car is different.
Some goes smooth and some can take even an hour or more
Important is to.have no.issues no dtc's with your suspension.

Thanks for that. So changing it to "33" would be 10mm lower front and rear?

What are the symptoms of the suspension going into limp mode, and how easy is it to recover?

What does the calibration process consist of?

What are DTC's? My car was plugged in to VAGcom recently and no faults were logged.

Sadly I'm over in Belfast so its not an option getting you do it for me!!

DTCs are faults, if you have non than its all good.

33 would lower front by 10mm and rear by 10mm.

Calibration requires measuring a distance from the center of each wheel to the bottom of wheel arch in a dead straight vertical line, for each wheel.
Each time you measure a wheel, you have to enter it to VCDS, test and save, then jump to the next wheel and so on.

Limp mode can happen at any point during the calibration. If that fails (entered distance wont get accepted) you will have to close the controller, close vcds, unplug the cable, switch ignition off and ideally lock the car and wait for 30sec.
Then restart the whole procedure inc entering security access code and coding again and then calibration.

Symptoms are, suspension warning light will come on and you wont be able to change suspension setting via MMI.

After entering new coding (message: coding accepted) you close the controller, close vcds, unplug the cable, ignition off, lock the car and wait 30sec. then ignition on, cable in and you start the calibration base on new coding which is already stored.

If you look at the picture in my signature that's front -15mm and rear -10mm ;) in dynamic mode