Suspension gremlin = end of tether

[monkeyboyuk]

I’m at the end of my tether with this bloody car….

I’ve had a niggling ‘fault’ with suspension. Since I’ve had the car and despite numerous attempts to investigate everyone’s drawn a blank.

I’ve tried 2 of my own independent as well as the selling garage trying 2 of theirs.

I’m thinking I might have to go Audi to try get to bottom of it as I’m running out of time to potentially reject car (3months approaching) ….. Ching ching

Ride is worse than my d2 and much worse than my d3 ever was both d3 and d4 are 3.0tdi sports.

D4 new tyres on 20s in April for mot. Wrong size put on but only width, not affecting rolling resistance.

I feel like I can feel every ripple in road, it does handle ramps/holes/speed humps very well whereas my d3 handled them soooo much better

When first purchased I was continuously getting 034 levelling fault…. This has now disappeared never to be seen again

I’ve had a hunt around and seen some stories of drive shaft issue?

There’s nothing visibly wrong, bushes looked a little perished in places but there’s no excessive play whatsoever.

Anyone with a D4L fancy comparing asap? Leicester/notts

[steamship]

I can't remember what issues you've posted previously about the car, but have you come across the following thread? It only mentions the 034 error, but worth a read in case it may shed some light on the situation:

https://forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/33550/

If nothing else, part of that thread will also inform you of what will happen if you take it to Audi. They will throw parts at it (at your expense) until the issue is resolved/or not. Could your solution be as simple as what the OP say in the penultimate paragraph of the last post!

I was going to suggest looking for other forum members with D4s on here and sending them a PM, but unfortunately the forum isn't sending out notification emails any more, so unless they're on the site, they won't see it.

Are you on Facebook, and are you on the A8 & S8 UK Owners Group? There may be other UK focussed groups for D4s, and you may find someone local to do a comparison with.

[Ronin]

Tyre width does affect the rolling resistance.
As part of the fault finding process I would try original OEM tyre/alloy sizes and compare to a known good working car with the same setup.

Additionally, just like D2 has different springs for cars with different wheels/equipment/body, different suspension codings must exist for air suspension of a D4?

What were the troubleshooting steps of the garages which attempted diagnosis?

[monkeyboyuk]

Thanks, I’d seen this on my hunt but discounted it as the only similarity seemed to be the 034 error I was having, which has now all but disappeared…. Not sure what’s changed here

I’ll have a rummage on Facebook, had totally not even thought about a d4 group.

Originally Posted by steamship

I can't remember what issues you've posted previously about the car, but have you come across the following thread? It only mentions the 034 error, but worth a read in case it may shed some light on the situation:

https://forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/33550/

If nothing else, part of that thread will also inform you of what will happen if you take it to Audi. They will throw parts at it (at your expense) until the issue is resolved/or not. Could your solution be as simple as what the OP say in the penultimate paragraph of the last post!

I was going to suggest looking for other forum members with D4s on here and sending them a PM, but unfortunately the forum isn't sending out notification emails any more, so unless they're on the site, they won't see it.

Are you on Facebook, and are you on the A8 & S8 UK Owners Group? There may be other UK focussed groups for D4s, and you may find someone local to do a comparison with.

[monkeyboyuk]

Ta, I thought the rolling resistance would only be affected by the tyre depth not width. IIRC they should be 265/40/20, mines had replaced with 275/40/20. I was looking for a second set of wheels anyway as I intend at some point having these refurbed

Not sure on different codings as not really looked into that.

Ref troubleshooting, this is where I lost my rag a bit with them….. they’ve basically plugged in, not found faults, visually inspected and not found anything, test driven and not has a clue how they should drive……

Originally Posted by Ronin

Tyre width does affect the rolling resistance.
As part of the fault finding process I would try original OEM tyre/alloy sizes and compare to a known good working car with the same setup.

Additionally, just like D2 has different springs for cars with different wheels/equipment/body, different suspension codings must exist for air suspension of a D4?

What were the troubleshooting steps of the garages which attempted diagnosis?

[Ronin]

Well, a good starting point for troubleshooting is to actually read the manual and follow the steps in it, you can find the suspension one in this thread:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8379

And then compare the factory coding/tyre size/spec to yours etc and make sure its all correct.

There's lots of dodgy VCDS people around that will lower your car with vcds for £80 to make it 'stanced' and all that, and you just can't know what the previous owner's lifestyle choices were

[monkeyboyuk]

Oh I’ve seen those files and I’ve read the manual to try see what differences there were to my d3 etc.. I had that for over 7 years and knew it inside out. The differences in suspension aren’t that many between d3/d4. I’m on the hunt for coding etc to check. The tyre/wheel sizes I’d checked Against the door sticker

A friend and I have already reset the suspension to factory to see if that helped any just in case someone had been messing about. And we have since lowered via vcds which in a small way seemed to help slightly with the handling and ride, although I do still get the car skipping across the road sometimes especially on full lock

Originally Posted by Ronin

Well, a good starting point for troubleshooting is to actually read the manual and follow the steps in it, you can find the suspension one in this thread:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8379

And then compare the factory coding/tyre size/spec to yours etc and make sure its all correct.

There's lots of dodgy VCDS people around that will lower your car with vcds for £80 to make it 'stanced' and all that, and you just can't know what the previous owner's lifestyle choices were

[GlynH]

Doesn't help you much ( I was near Leicester only this morning, only just seen this post or maybe we could have arranged something?) but I've had four 8's in my time;

2001 D2 S8
2005 D3 W12
2011 D4 4.2TDi pre-facelift
2014 D4 4.2TDi facelift

and all of them have had an extremely hard ride not helped by 20" alloys on the first three and 21" alloys with 275/35 tyres on my current car.

Hitting even a small pothole that other cars would glide over will jar your teeth but hit anything larger and you would swear you are running on solid rubber tyres.

For such a lovely car it really is a terribly hard ride even in Comfort mode.

-=Glyn=-

[monkeyboyuk]

Thanks glyn,

I haven’t found that so much…..

My d3 sport on 19s was great (even when I had it on 20s it was better), which I think is why I’m struggling so much now. My d2 on 18s is better than my d4 and I know I’ve got suspension issue there lol.

Originally Posted by GlynH

Doesn't help you much ( I was near Leicester only this morning, only just seen this post or maybe we could have arranged something?) but I've had four 8's in my time;

2001 D2 S8
2005 D3 W12
2011 D4 4.2TDi pre-facelift
2014 D4 4.2TDi facelift

and all of them have had an extremely hard ride not helped by 20" alloys on the first three and 21" alloys with 275/35 tyres on my current car.

Hitting even a small pothole that other cars would glide over will jar your teeth but hit anything larger and you would swear you are running on solid rubber tyres.

For such a lovely car it really is a terribly hard ride even in Comfort mode.

-=Glyn=-