What a ride - suspension nose-down
 

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!

That does not sound good, I have no idea how to help but I wish you all the best, sure someone will be along with some info on how to get the bonnet open at least.

Del

Well, try getting your wife drunk on bourbon cocktails until you get it fixed. That would solve that problem at least.


With regards to the car, sorry, I can't offer anything useful :(

GENIUS!

That will work! Here is my favorite, it was also a favorite of Al Capone

1oz simple syrup
2 basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
2 oz Bourbon (or Whiskey)
smash the leaves a bit, then pour over ice and shake.
Strain over ice, and top off with soda water or ginger ale.

I prefer the soda water. You have to get the amount of vinegar to match the strength of your Bourbon, so you might have to drink 3 or 4 to get it just right :ROFL:

Hi David, I'm not sure if this will help, but it may be an idea to look on Craigslist and see if there is anyone with a flatbed vehicle truck, nearby who could transport your A8 to a local Audi specialist. If you have no luck there, I did a quick search to see if there was any Euro specialist independent garages nearby. I took a screenshot with some phone numbers here. It might be worth while giving a couple of them a call and seeing if they can help, or even shed some light on the matter. They may also have a recovery truck.

Keep us posted as to how everything turns out.

thanks! I just called Cordel, he can look at it next week, but says it is a high probability one of the front struts has failed. And that I would need to replace both sides if doing one.

Is that true? If one side fails is it a safety issue to not replace the other side too?

He said he would do a diagnosis for $100 if I wanted to then do the work myself - depending on what the diagnosis is.

I have a tow service who brings flatbeds, but getting on and off without wrecking the nose will be tricky...

Surely it can be jacked up with airbags of some sort and put onto wheeled trolleys? Like the F1 guys use. ;)

If it was traditional style shocks, then replacing a pair is usually the best idea (though they still sell them seperately..)

With these units, it's perfectly safe to do one at a time (and a whole sh*tload cheaper!)

Not sure if this will help, but might be worth a shot. It's a seller from Gemany selling the struts. I would contact the seller and see if they can send them internationally. I know that A8 Parts send parts to all over the world, so give them a call too. However, I agree, you should be ok replacing just one strut. Also I would maybe call around a few other Euro car specialists, just to get an idea of pricing and to see if any of them have dealt with A8's before.

You might have to clear any fault codes with Vagcom or similar before the suspension starts working

Just heard from the techs, they say it's that sensor control block. He's going to let me see if I can find a better price on it than what he can get from Audi.

+++

Waited a week to get the control valve in the mail, and it doesn't seem to have solved the problem.

They installed the new control valve, and "some of the codes are gone" but it "still doesn't know to send air to the 4 corners".

So they are trying to track down any broken wires between the valve and the control module, if they don't find any then I guess we replace the control module?

Does it sound like these guys know what they are doing?

I've read how some parts need to be somehow "configured" with the car's computer, is this one of them; and did they miss that step?

I've asked them to send me the codes so I can post them here.

what do you think?

-D:(

01575 - Controller switched off
 

After replacing the control valve, and finding no leaks, they have contacted me saying they have only one trouble code - and of course the car won;t lift a millimeter.

01575 - Controller Switched off.

But they don't know what to do. The service manager actually offered to pay for transporting it to the Audi dealer :(

I told him I would check the internet ;) I'm about to go do some searching, but wanted to post it here first. Has anyone seen this code, fixed it?

thanks!
-David

The question is what and why have switched it off.

It is a long shot but if the car has not been used for a while battery might be getting flat and power control switched some systems including suspension controller off to conserve energy. You can try running engine for a while to let the battery charge up or charge it off the car and then tell the car you have put new one in.

Might also check fuses and wiring connections.

Other then that I am out of ideas.

relearn the steering angle sensor?
 

I got this advice from an online source:
" I have seen that the battery went dead so the abs light / trac control light and the suspension light would be on and disabled. in order the suspension to reactivate the car must be driven in a straight line for at least 100 feet to relearn the steering angle sensor . once that has relearned the trac light would go off and the suspension light would go off. then the suspension would be active again. I do realize that the suspension in the front is low. the electrics battery MUST be fully charged or new battery is needed. This battery is a special AGM battery and the same must be used if replaced.
please try the test drive 100 feet until the lights turn off in the dash and then clear the suspension fault and then see if the air will go to the front struts"
also this:
"if the battery in the trunk is not charged correctly the battery will cook and render no good. if the battery is 2yrs old and older chances are that the battery will not take a full charge with the proper charger. that battery is a Glass Mat battery and can not take charging voltage over 14.3 volts."

Hoping someone can help,it's a longshot. Even the dealership seems to be at a a loss.

The compressor runs. eventually the green and yellow lights start to flash. Error code 01575 - Controller Switched off is thrown.

The shop I took it to claims to have tried the adaptation procedure and got no response from the car.

The dealership has done nothing yet but read the codes, and listen to the compressor run. When tehy learned that I replaced the compressor myself they immediately suggested that we put a new compressor on.

I asked them if a bad compressor was a known cause of 01575, and it is not. In fact they have never seen a car with that error. So it seems to me that they don't have any idea what is wrong, and are just going to throw parts at it until they get a clue.

Shouldn't the Audi Service department have access to more experienced technicians, some kind of hotline they can call for assistance when they don't have a clue?

Is there a way to determine if the compressor is good or bad?

thanks
-David

I'm fortunate enough to have not had any suspension faults with any of my d3's, buti have looked into it in the past.

The system is really very simple in operation. The compressor fills the tank in the boot, the tank in the boot supplies the control block, and the control block takes the high pressure line from the tank and directs the pressure to each of the 4 shocks as required.

If nothing will pump up at all, suspect pump or tank. If only one corner is looking bad, maybe a single shock is failing (although straining to lift a leaky shock may drain the rest of the system) and if anything else is wrong I guess it's the control block or wiring and wiring doesn't usually break itself.

Even if all the air is lost, it should sit on the bump stops and be bloody bumpy, but driveabe on flat road if required.

The only weird experience I have of air suspension going wrong was when a garage fitted new brake pads, but didn't put the suspension in jacking mode first. This causes it to stress itself out trying to level the car that is being jacked up at one corner.

When they had finished with it, it was totally deflated, with orange and green warning suspension lights on. I knew all they did was change the pads,so I drove it away figuring it would sort itself out, and it did. Took a good 15 mins, several miles etc, but it eventually seemed to recalibrate itself, fills the air tank and pumped up and levelled out. No bother with it ever again.

If it can drive, I'd be really tempted to drive it round for a bit and see what happens. Even a normal a8 will look unhappy after being sat a while. Even if you get a different fault code, it might tell something useful....

a later update
 

So, eventually I found a shop that had a clue, and was not just trying to rip me off.

They identified a leak in the front right strut, we replaced it, and the used compressor I bought was weak, but not totally failed. Being out of money at this point, I was driving the car but it would occasionally not get to ride height.

The towing company had damaged the front end, and they refused to accept an insurance claim, but gave me the run-around for an embarassingly long time. My plan was to get the nose repaired and trade the car in before the compressor failed altogether.

But that didn't happen. We had couple of days below freezing and the suspension failed again. Lights blinking, compressor times out and the car all the way down.

Here is what my mechanic tells me now:


That seems like a pretty thorough diagnosis. So who enjoys a difficult puzzle?

We did try that, not driving it but letting it sit, engine running. The compressor ran for just about a minute, then it shut off and the lights started to flash. We thought that it might, after a few minutes, run the compressor again, until teh tank was pressurized. But it never ran the compressor again, I sat there next to it for 23 minutes, and it never came back on.

I can't believe you still have not got to the bottom of this, you must be at your wits end.

Do you have vcds to read fault codes on the car.

Its quite likely that you will not hear the compressor run again if the pressure is up to optimal.

Please read through the attachments they may help you to track down the culprit.

I assume these guys have the latest diag tools, they are well-run Audi shop.

Beyond wit's end! I feel like I might just have a half a wit left, my wife is sure.

Ask them to email you a copy of the scan, then post here if you can.

You must be getting very frustrated by now. :(

here it is, in my dropbox.

I am also working with Wolfgang form JustAnswer.com.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/51s3xjeact...m-109156mi.txt

so many fault codes, I'm amazed the car still runs.

After looking at this, Wolfgang recommended clearing the battery codes, charging the battery and testing the suspension again. he gave me some specific instructions that I passed along to the shop. I'd be so happy to buy a battery if that fixed it.

Let me put this on the record: If you need Audi service or VW service in Omaha, Nebraska, go to S-Line Motorsports. Really sharp guys who know their stuff. They are really bending over backwards to find this very elusive problem ( Wait, does that phrase make sense in the UK :D ). Great bunch of guys! http://slinemotorsports.com/.


Now, hopefully they can find this problem.

I'm beyond frustration, and have accepted that this is just some kind of lesson or test that God is putting me through :hammer: Or maybe some kind of bad karma (car-ma?) I have to pay off. Or maybe I am earning good karma for my next one. I dunno. So I'm trying not to get emotional about it (angry, frustrated, depressed). My WIFE however is ALL KINDS OF UPSET and is mostly starting to blame me as if I am personally responsible for this thing not being fixed.

Looking through your faults I wouldn't concern yourself too much.

The biggest culprit is the Battery here, you can see the battery manager has rapidly went through the different shut down stages, either the battery was already discharged or its past its use by date.

That said you can start the car which will tell the battery manger to turn on all systems.

Then you could clear the faults while the car is running and re-scan to get a better representation of what's truly wrong.

If your shop decides to charge the battery instead it should be done on the car so the battery manager knows its state of charge, if you don't then it should be coded in as a new battery if it was removed to be charged.

Hopefully after clearing faults with car running the bad comms to suspension control will be ok, if its not you will need to investigate why, but we can cross that bridge when you get there.

For now either replace and code your battery, or charge it, run the car and clear the faults and re-scan and report back.

Good luck

this is what Wolfgang had them do: "go to 61 battery management and have them clear the faults and reset the battery management intervention to 0 .

have them go to adaptation channel 01 in 61 module. the value should
display either 12-16 depends and reset to 0"

they said : "We installed a good battery with a 100% charge, reset all values, and no change. "

Now by "no change" I suspect they mean "the front end did not go up". I don't think they did a re-scan and had no differences in the codes thrown. But I'll ask.

Yeah if you could get a scan after fresh battery has been coded in and all falts cleared to show what's remaining, might help narrow down

S-Line gave up, they don't have the full-blown dealer diag tool. So now it is at the dealership, please wish me good luck.

The dealership called. They said the BRAND NEW Wabco compressor is only putting out 1/10 the pressure it should. He gave me exact numbers but I can't remember them, I'm so angry right now.

I installed it in December. The car didn't go up. I took it to S-Line. They found a tiny leak in an air-line. But for the last month the compressor has sat un-plugged.

Now it's at the dealer and it's no good. NO WAY. It's as new as new can be.

What could be causing a false reading? Could a blocked input line to the compressor be the cause?

I think I'm going to put it on e-bay "as is" for 50% of book value. Or find someone to steal it and burn it.

With 1/10th the pressure the car is going nowhere up at all. Mine with about 50% output was only raising the car very slowly. I fitted a compressor repair kit and all is good again.

Being a new compressor, do you get a warranty in USA. I don't know where you sourced it from, but if EU then you usually get 12 months or 2 years. its possible the new compressor was DOA.

I think something is currently up with my air intake tube, not sure yet but when venting air out there is a strange sound that was not present before. I think mine has come loose, they are taking a look today as I don't want the compressor sucking in dirty air.