Following on from http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a6-s6-...9740-allroad-suspension-stuck-level-4-l4.html I yesterday drove the car to the Audi main-dealer to investigate and fix the air-suspension fault. Their conclusion was that the NSF airspring needs replacing as it has a leak, and they can't proceed further until that's done. Fair enough, except that as the car was jammed on L4 until 3 days ago, and only came down because I opened the pipe with a spanner; I'm thus pretty confident that the airspring damage occured whilst driving 30 miles down the motorway to them, ah well. And it's cost me £120 to get this!!!
If I have to replace the NSF airspring, as I now do, then I'm not going to pay the Audi main-dealer £800 to supply and fit a standard spring, with limited warranty, when £575 gets me a pair of the Arnott Gen 2 springs (including UPS Express carriage), with lifetime warranty. From what I've read elsewhere, airsprings aren't that hard to fit? Unfortunately the Audi main-dealer refuses to fit them for me as "we only fit genuine Audi parts" (fair enough).
So I need to get my car back, now more broken than it was 48 hours ago, and get somebody else who understands Audi air suspension to diagnose and fix the fault. All investigation so far points to a fault with the valve block, but as they're £200 even from a breaker (the dealer has twice failed to quote me the new parts price, so I rang a breaker!) I'd prefer to get an independent specialist (who's prepared to fit non-Audi parts when asked!) to investigate and fix. But I'm not going to pay an hourly rate for somebody to learn air-suspension whilst swapping expensive components by trial and error - I can do that myself - so I want somebody who is already familiar with Audi air suspension.
So can anybody recommend an independent Audi/air-suspension specialist in East Berks / Surrey / Hants who can fix my car's suspension? Alternatively, if it's somebody further away who offers a mobile service, they're welcome to work on the car in my (large, private & securely gated) yard, or trailer it to somewhere else if they prefer.
Any recommendations for a good specialist?
Or maybe I'll just fit the Arnott springs myself, and then get the Audi main-dealer to trailer the car back to their workshop and continue the suspension diagnosis & rectification work?
If I have to replace the NSF airspring, as I now do, then I'm not going to pay the Audi main-dealer £800 to supply and fit a standard spring, with limited warranty, when £575 gets me a pair of the Arnott Gen 2 springs (including UPS Express carriage), with lifetime warranty. From what I've read elsewhere, airsprings aren't that hard to fit? Unfortunately the Audi main-dealer refuses to fit them for me as "we only fit genuine Audi parts" (fair enough).
So I need to get my car back, now more broken than it was 48 hours ago, and get somebody else who understands Audi air suspension to diagnose and fix the fault. All investigation so far points to a fault with the valve block, but as they're £200 even from a breaker (the dealer has twice failed to quote me the new parts price, so I rang a breaker!) I'd prefer to get an independent specialist (who's prepared to fit non-Audi parts when asked!) to investigate and fix. But I'm not going to pay an hourly rate for somebody to learn air-suspension whilst swapping expensive components by trial and error - I can do that myself - so I want somebody who is already familiar with Audi air suspension.
So can anybody recommend an independent Audi/air-suspension specialist in East Berks / Surrey / Hants who can fix my car's suspension? Alternatively, if it's somebody further away who offers a mobile service, they're welcome to work on the car in my (large, private & securely gated) yard, or trailer it to somewhere else if they prefer.
Any recommendations for a good specialist?
Or maybe I'll just fit the Arnott springs myself, and then get the Audi main-dealer to trailer the car back to their workshop and continue the suspension diagnosis & rectification work?
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