Front Suspension dropped one side

[matthewr6097]

Hi, I have recently noticed that the front suspension seems to have dropped on one side of my 2002 A4. The distance from the top of the tyre to the wheel arch is about 25mm smaller on the off side. Can anyone give any guidance on what this could be. The spring isn't broken and if it was normal wear then you would expect both sides to wear at the same rate? When you look at the spring itself the coils are closer together. Everything is standard on the car and the springs have the same colour codes, any ideas anyone?

[mark.abersoch]

Have you checked the whole spring. Normally half to 3/4 of a turn will break off the top or bottom and still look normal.

Springs snapping are becoming common, although ive never heard of it on the audi's so much.

[TapMyHed]

Also consider the bottom arms....the straight arm (front lower) can bend a bit as the stress of shock to the wheel can bend the arm around the bottom shock mount point. Its easy to spot as the arm should be absolutely straight. Only the rears are bent....like bananas! Hence being called banana arms.

This has happened to me once as I replace arms with cheap alternative pattern parts.

Consider heavy duty TUV german made arms as a replacement...have a good look on ebay, there is a good supplier on there....hard to spot amongst all the chinese rubbish, but just look for TUV approved.

Hope that helps.

[matthewr6097]

I've checked the spring again and I'm certain it hasn't snapped, I've also checked the lower arms and there is no bending evident. Like I said the actual coils are closer together like there is more weight on one side of the car, so it seems something is forcing it to compress more which is either the spring has weakened and is 'sagging' or something else is causing it to compress. Any other ideas appreciated!

[bez101]

take a close look under the bonet there may be a fat bird hideing in there

[matthewr6097]

Yes, Thankyou, killed two birds with one stone - fixed the suspension and found the Christmas Turkey...

[mark.abersoch]

What was the problem in the end?

[matthewr6097]

I still have the problem, my response above was to the previous joker.

[bez101]

ok no jokes iv seen it on a few cars always been a weak spring if the coils on the droped side are closer its weak previous owner may have just changed 1 at some point