Rear suspension lower on one side, car sits lower?

[thommo]

Does anyone know what the problem maybe here, for sometime now I have noticed - particularly when I have people in the back seats - that the car sits very low on the driver side rear, the wheel is right inside the arch when on the other side I can get a couple of fingers between tyre & arch, with no rear weight it is not as noticeable but I can still see it.

The car rides fine with no funny noises or bumps either round corners or on the straights.

I have been told that the shock absorber shows some signs of leaking, would this cause this problem, I thought the shockers were primarily for damping - I don't want to go and change them if it is something other on the suspension that is causing this.

2006 Audia A4 B7 2.0 TDi 140Bhp Avant (90k miles)

thanks, Mark.

[markspark71]

i would be looking more towards a damaged/weak spring the shocker may well be damaged and that has caused the spring problem try bouncing the car down with your hands see if both sides feel the same

[discobarry]

Yeah it sounds like a spring, i guess taking it into a garage would tell you for definite.

[a8 tech]

lol not the first to pick up on this, if the springs and shocks are fine check when the fuel tank is empty and full

if it dips when full then its normal as back in the day when b7 was a new platform this was mentioned a couple of times and I remember my mate replaced all the suspension and it never made a difference but noticed the fuel tank level thing

[El Guapo]

I had this on my car as well. I had Audi check everything twice and they conformed that there were no problems. But as you say there is definitely a discrepancy there.

[Deakin]

On a car without self-levelling suspension the ride height is dictated by the springs. Shock absorbers damp shock only, they don't support the car. Have you checked to see if any of the arms are bent? If not it's not a long job to remove the springs. You could swap sides and see if the droop moves to the other side.

[wheely88]

I had exactly the same and took it back to the Audi dealers several times under warranty. They did find and replace a weeping shock, but I was suprised when they believed this might have been the cause - as it wasnt. In the end after going through their tech support they had it for a whole day, checked everything out and all was perfect. They did charge me a few hours labour in the end, against my arguments, but as said they found all parts exactly right.
About 6 months later it got very bad and I found the driver side rear spring had snapped slightly near one-end (a commonish problem). Replaced both these. To be honest even after this, only if I park on a dead flat and level road (like a store carpark) does the car sit level. Generally if its parked even slightly uphill, it seems to sink lower into the rear drivers-side arch compared to the other. If I park on the same slight hill pointing downwards, the level seems equal.
I've learnt to live with said difference.
If I would you I definately do the level/flat road with no handbrake test. Not sure I understand why. Obviously when Audi were inspecting it in there workshop - it too was deal-level.

[thommo]

Thanks to everyone who have replied to this thread, there are some really useful tips in there and certainly will have saved me some money - namely because the people who have tried to have the issue fixed have come to the conclusion or been told by the dealer that nothing is wrong.

What I will do when the weather warms up is try swapping the springs over on the rear (I have to replace the discs/pads anyway) and also take note of the fuel tank & flat surface tests - I'll post back those results later.

Once again, thanks.

[bigsiamesecat]

and the results were....?

[Baz1977]

Noticed this with mine very recently, not actually got around to having a look, just nipped out and looked....

Sorry that pics upside down...