Front lowering trick with OEM parts

[MikkiJayne]

How to lower the front of a FL S8 by half an inch using OEM parts:

Have a look at these two lower spring platforms. These slot on to the damper. On the left is a stock S8 (or A8 Sport) platform, on the right is a non-sport version.





These both have a rubber doodad on them which is what the spring sits on. Take the doodad off and observe the centre where it locates on the damper:



The non-sport one sits quite a bit lower on the damper body. To compensate, the nubs on which it sits are an inch higher up the non-sport damper resulting in an overall higher ride height. However, if we put this on a sport damper, it sits half an inch lower than the original sport platform.

Now look at the rubber doodads. The non-sport (right) is thicker, again leading to higher ride height compared to the sport (left). The two are not directly compatible, but that rarely slows me down

Cut the edge off and cut a notch where shown, to match the non-sport platform:



The non-sport platform sits lower on the damper so it's closer to the back of the strut hence having this flat bit (in orange). The rubber needs to be trimmed to suit



The finished article looks like this:



All in this translates to about 1/2" lower at the wheel.

Part number for the non-sport lower platform is 8D0412103B. I don't have any loose dampers kicking about but I'll update this post if I come across any. I've done this on my A4 and A6 but my S8 is on Bilsteins which use billet platforms so this trick doesn't work.

There's also a similar swap to get a little bit from a prefacelift using the facelift top spring platform. I'll grab some pics of those bits next time