bob

Just wanted to report that I'm pretty pleased with the results.

The shocks and struts were fairly tired on the parental unit's 07 A5 GT at around 62k so before the parental unit made the annual odyssey to deer and horse cart plagued northwestern Pennsylvania I suggested replacing them with a quality set of dampers.

AM had the best deal I bumped into for the dampers all the way around, about 365 bucks shipped and the sway bars plus strut mounts were take off parts from my car. Also tried to get the parental unit to go in for a set of drop springs (AM had another good deal with 40% off IIRC) but steep driveways and ground clearance were issues so no go there.

Strut & shock install in the garage all with hand tools and a little muscle went pretty well with exception of one GT strut mount which came apart and spit ball bearings everywhere (no big deal due to the GT500 mounts on hand) and took around four hours of work (five including breaks and BS time with buddies) for removal and install.

The spring compressors I have to work with are a bit clumsy as they are essentially a set of screw jacks that clamp to the spring with u-bolts and you have to wind them down using a ratchet and a wrench - no real muscle involved but its tedious when you have to keep winding them down to get the clearance you need to install the strut mount.

In any event the Koni SRTs and GT500 sway bars tightened things up a fair bit, no more floaty feeling and the car is a bit more level in turns with some understeer still evident when you push the car.

The front sway bar is the same diameter so no need to swap sway bushings (although the GT500 front bushing is fairly stiff and unfortunately my stock bushing was cracked in half necessitating the use of the softer GT bushings). As I understand it the metal is thicker and that's where the extra rate comes from.

The rear bar is a good bit thicker (24mm vs. 21 or 22mm) but the rear GT500 bushings still fit in the stock clamshells making it a pretty straightforward bolt in.

Its to bad I couldn't talk the parental unit into a spring swap as well since it would have been a done deal with the take off parts for a bit over 500 bucks and a pretty good upgrade for the budget conscious provided one has the take off parts on hand or can score them pretty cheap.

Mr. V

This is great. I have read many people's questions about stock springs and strt shocks and I think you're the first post I've read where someone actually installed them. Great write up.