self levelling rear suspension
 

Hi Guys

im not sure if im fortunate or not but i have self levelling suspension on the rear of my A8 and when i bought the car the rear was raised and after getting very irritated with ppl bouncying around in the back and bashing my head on the roof on certain bumps on way to work and back. i did some home work and spent many hours fiddling around with the suspension i eventually got the car level and reset the control valve and linkage up according to elsa which seems to have sorted out the bouncy rear
yet i stil have harsh ride compared to the polo i drive aswel.it doesnt bounce but its as if its very stiff and i can feel all the bumps in the road as speeds slower than 60km yet on high way or at speed i cannot feel the bumps. if i push the back down by hand it goes down smoothly and easily. i had someone drive the car while i followed and the car looks smooth on the road at low speeds. it has me baffled. is it just how self levelling suspension is or is something still wrong?

It sounds broken to me, which isnt a surprise as the self levelling on the D2 *always* breaks. It may well be that the valve is stuck, permanently sending fluid into the shocks making a hard ride....

Your best bet is to rip it out and put in normal shocks....

It runs off the power steering pump as you probably know, so just cap off the pipes from that that run to the rear and jobs a good un +++

i removed the lever from the valve and operated the valve by hand and it pushes the car up and brings it down slowly. i set it in the center and put all back and from then the rebound on the shocks seemed to be better, so the valve is working.i did see play on the linkages though.i wouldnt like to remove the system, i like the idea that i can load the car and it levels out and i dont mind fiddling till i get it right but not going to spend a fortune replacing parts.so as a last resort ill remove it. do you know how to bleed the system?or anyway to test the accumulators?

Sorry, no idea.... Every, and i mean every time I've seen a D2 with self levelling, they have ripped it out because it fails. They are standard mounts for the shocks, so normal A8 ones will go straight in, you just have to cap off the pipes.

I think the shocks were approx £600 each from Audi, if they are even still available.

It will take a lot more time, effort and cost to fix it, than it will to replace it and its only really any use if you intend to do a lot of towing, or carry a lot of very heavy heavy passengers in the rear !

i have a set of bilstein shocks now and i am wanting to replace my self levelling shocks. can i buy oem bump stops,dust covers and the top bracket or will it not work? and where do i block off the hydraulic lines? at the pump? does it need to be returned or just blocked off?