Dreaded Suspension fail?

[Allroad Farmer]

I think my wallet is about to become a lot lighter. Got up this morning to the passenger side front suspension dropped to the wheel, the car on a slant. Switched on engine, compresser has pumped up the air suspension and it stayed up, as long as the engine is running, I can't hear the compressor constantly filling the air bag so assume its not a "leak"?

Any ideas what it could be? Its safe to drive just panicing that I'm about to get a massive repair bill.

 

[ms1083]

Very likely air spring leakage. Replaced both of my front ones, very doable if you are practicle and not excessively expensive, use arnott springs I got mine for about £250 each via ebay. Dont rush though, for both of my fronts they leaked occasionally to start with and then gradaully worsened over a couple of months. Try running car on level 3, mine only leaked on level 2 to start with. To diagnose cover spring in soapy water, fairy liquid, if it is leaking it will be obvious with the bubbles, obviously may not be that obvious if its an early/slow leak but I waited for it to be obvious on the cause before fixing.

don't drive car when its sunk to lowest, wait for the car to pump up before driving off. only slight risk of waiting too long is excessive work for the compressor as these can wait out too. Personally I did mine when they always sunk when left for a few hours on level 2 (able to see bubbles) but were not leaking on 3 so could drive about without worrying about excessive compressor work.

Do feel free to ask if you end up doing it yourself, there are a couple of crucial tools/socket bits you will need and want to know about before you get past the point of no return!! Also, if you go to a dealer I believe they have to use genuine audi parts but actually the Arnott springs are much better, loads cheaper and have lifetime guarantee so find yourself an independant garage/specialist.

 

[Allroad Farmer]

Thank you for this. I dont think I'm brave enough to take the job on myself, just found this Audi allroad Front Air Spring Replacement | Audiction and think that this is above my skill level. There is a really good indie specialist who serviced the car for me who I'll take it to. Just had a look on Ebay, a pair of Arnotts for about £480 which considering I'd read stories of over £1000 is a lot more like it!

 

[ms1083]

Glad it was of some use. I would still suggest you wait a bit until you get a positive soap test result just to make sure. I believe the £1000 price is the genuine audi springs fitted at dealer as I have heard that price too. When I did my 2nd one it took me about 1.5hours so hopefully labour costs won't be too bad.
You dont have to do both together as the specs of arnotts are exactly the same as audi. When I was chatting to my independant garage about it he said they normally do both together becuase if 1 has failed the other is likely to be not far behind and its easier for the client to feel the job is done with and less likely to cause any issues if the client was not expecting it.
Personally I did them as they failed, the 2nd one failed just under a year after the first.
If you pick a garage not used to audi air suspension make sure they put the car in jack mode so the level settings are not completely messed up.
Anyway, my allroad is currently waiting for a new gearbox to arrive from germany - count yourself lucky!!

 

[Allroad Farmer]

Glad it was of some use. I would still suggest you wait a bit until you get a positive soap test result just to make sure. I believe the £1000 price is the genuine audi springs fitted at dealer as I have heard that price too. When I did my 2nd one it took me about 1.5hours so hopefully labour costs won't be too bad.
You dont have to do both together as the specs of arnotts are exactly the same as audi. When I was chatting to my independant garage about it he said they normally do both together becuase if 1 has failed the other is likely to be not far behind and its easier for the client to feel the job is done with and less likely to cause any issues if the client was not expecting it.
Personally I did them as they failed, the 2nd one failed just under a year after the first.
If you pick a garage not used to audi air suspension make sure they put the car in jack mode so the level settings are not completely messed up.
Anyway, my allroad is currently waiting for a new gearbox to arrive from germany - count yourself lucky!!

OK update.

My local indi wasnt 100% it was the Spring so recommended that I take it to Audi and get them to do diagnostics and check for sure. They charged me 75 quid for this privilage to confirm that the spring does indeed need replacing and a couple of other small things need doing while it was in. To do this work they quoted £1700.00 EX VAT hahahahahahahaha. I told them as politely as possible to do one. Taken the diagnostic info back to the indi, who has agreed to do the work if I buy the Arnott for £120.00. Got a spring off Ebay for 250. So the entire works done for £370.00. A result I think.

 

[ms1083]

well done! Fair price for the time to do the work/labour costs. I have a copy of VCDS (like audi diagnostics system) and although it covers the air suspension system mine never showed up anything about leaking springs even when they were bubbling away with the soapy water when they were leaking. I would love to know how audi dealer diagnosed this from their computer!