What a ride - suspension nose-down

[DavidCC]

Trying to fix this suspension has been quite a ride...

I used to own a couple of Lincoln Mark 8s so I know about dynamic air suspension systems, in principle, but not Audi-specific. So, the other day after work, the Audi is nose-down - all the way down. Rear at normal height. Blinking yellow and green lights.

I hit the internet, checked my compressor - using a jack to move the wheel up and down the compressor triggers on and off. But it was jumping out of its mount and loud. Soapy water - no leaks around the compressor, or either front air lines visible from the wheel wells. E-bay, scored a used compressor for $180, installed, it runs smooth and quiet. But nothing goes up, lights still blinking.

So at this point, the hood release cable just pops and swings freely, no hood release. I drop the dash panel, the cable is still in place, pulling on it there is no resistance :'( I hit the internet: how to open the hood. Lots of answers, none of them have worked, although I haven't tried anything destructive. Hood still impossible to open. Got drunk on Bourbon cocktails.

Back into the passenger (american-side passenger side) again with soapy water. I can;t see the back of the strut, but I try really hard to detect any leaks on it by touch and sound, and in the wheel well lines etc and find nothing. I decided to put this side on a jack stand since the only jack that would fit under the dropped car, even driven up on bricks, is the Audi tire-change jack. While using my floor jack under the front end, something goes wrong and the Audi jack fails, the central screw twists out of it's mount. I feel like an idiot, but I'm still not sure how that happened, but somehow it seems the weight shifted onto that jack at the behind-the-tire lift point?

If you are keeping score now that is one broken hood release and one broken jack, and one replaced compressor. And zero repairs effected.

Not only can I not detect any leaks, I also cannot find any way to open the hood from tat wheel well either. So I go back to the driver side, find the module where all the lines are distributed, and spray all around it for leans,and track those lines as far as I can, no leaks.

So where am I now? My working compressor is installed but the lights still blink, and the suspension will not move at all. I can't get the hood open to look for air line leaks in there. It's sitting so low I don't know how I can even get it to a repair shop, scraping the nose up onto a flat bed or towed behind dragging the rear

I don't even know what my next step should be. My wife is breaking out the emergency credit card, wants me to send it to a shop, but I know she'll be making me "pay for it" in other ways until that bill is paid off :/ And like I said, how do I even get it towed without damaging it?

I look forward to any advice on how to fix my car or calm down my wife.

thanks!