Rear air suspension goes down

[watronik7]

I have had the same problem with my Audi A7 2010 and I have managed to sort it out.

Unfortunately this is a typical issue with Audis rear suspension. One of the rear (rear left in your case) air spring (also called air bag) is damaged and has to be replaced with new. Part No. for rear right is 4G0616002K and for the rear left is 4G0616001K. Approx. part cos is £326 per unit. (side)

When one said fails is good to replace another said too as soon or later another will break as well. I have used a third party local garage and paid £780 for replacement of both air springs including labour and parts cost. If you decide to use Audi dealer be prepared to pay significantly more perhaps over a £1000

Typical symptoms relating to this issue are:

• Air suspension goes down after vehicle parked for some time. Depending on the scale of damage, suspension drop can be visible just after an hour. Suspension is back to normal once car unlocked and during driving.
• Suspension drop can vary depending which drive select mode is currently selected. I my case suspension drop was only present in Dynamic Mode (or Individual with dynamic settings). In Auto and Comfort was fine.
• Typically one side fails at the time.
• Air suspension failure lamp can be visible on the dashboard either temporarily or permanently. I did have it temporarily during driving on motorway, then I stopped the car, turned the engine on/off and dashboard lights were gone.
• Very occasionally air spring can explode during driving; I have read about it on a different forum, it has happened to one of the A7 user driving on motorway, likely with low speed due to traffic so he did not crash the car.
• Unless light on dashboard is present VCDS does not record any errors.

Air spring damage typically allows to drive the car for some time. Depending on the scale of damage you can still drive for days or weeks if an air leak is minimal. The easiest way to roughly assess the scale of air spring damage is to check how often air suspension compressor is kicking off. The compressor is located in boot in spare wheel compartment. It can be typically heard (if running) during driving. If you cannot hear it then fold down back seats and/or lift up spare wheel cover. If you can hear that compressor is running almost constantly or for several seconds every few minutes this may mean go to the garage asap!

See below photo of an air spring from from Audi A7, 2010 replaced at 78k miles.

20170625_163531.jpg

[samiam]

Squirt some tyre repair goo into that airbag (through the fitting). The stuff they use on tractor and lawnmower tyres etc. It works a treat.


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[Vrs_MAJ]

On the MMI, press the CAR button. On the screen that shows a pic of the car and the various driver modes (comfort, auto, dynamic, individual), cars with air suspension have a option in the top left corner to "RAISE" the car (or "LOWER" it, if it is already raised).

Then I don't have air suspension lol. Thank you for your time

Maj

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[mReen]

It seems I have exactly the same issue. 2012 A6 C7 (sedan, not AllRoad), and every morning, after 10-12 hours parking rear of the car is extremely low. After unlocking it raises by itself in few seconds and is back to normal.

I've tried to leave car overnight with RAISED and locked suspension - no difference, in the morning rear suspension is down. So it sinks overnight in any mode - raised or lowered w/e.

If it was air spring - why BOTH sides sink, right and left?

[SMK_C7]

It could also be a damaged air feed pipe or fitting that is leaking rather than one of the bags.
Apply soapy water to bags, lines and fittings to check for any leaks.

[mReen]

I've monitored car over the Sunday, to see how it's loosing air pressure. Before I just saw car in the morning with both right/left rear side sunk, so I thought they loose pressure simultaneously, but after watching it over day, I've noticed that one side is loosing pressure much faster than another. So I lifted one side, pulled up a little bit the dust shroud and sprayed soapy water on the air bag, and there were tiny bubbles around it.

So I've ordered 2 air springs, gonna replace them asap, seems pretty easy and straightforward.
The only question - will I need to apply some coding/adaptation with VCDS?