Allroad Air Suspension Compressor strip & repair

[bagpipingandy]

Ok my friend, sorry bout taking so long to respond! U really have been G-d sent and your wisdom on these matters will always be appreciated.
I finally got around yesterday to raising the car on wood blocks at all 4 corners about 3". Low and behold after clearing codes on 34, I went to check "measuring blocks" and finally had values for the 3 groups. Then went about starting the calibration and after raising the channel value to 1, I heard the compressor kick on after 6 weeks of NO LUCK. The car leveled off at what seems to be level 2 but won't go up anymore than that. Car drove great but I still have the level error light on in the dash. So now that the car is driveable, what would the best way of getting out of this "frozen" actual level 2 state?
thanku Andy and at least I know that with your kit I can breath new life into this compressor!

hi ertatta, no problem..... but its not fixed yet

1. ok does it sit at level 2 or sink overnight?

2. what fault codes are stored now after clearing codes and then read codes?

3. post up screen grabs of the measuring blocks for groups 1, 2, 3, then a screen grab or groups 4, 5 & 6, we want to look at the values to see what is working, or not, it doesn't fill me with confidence yet, now it is working, either that or your flat battery is/was not helping things.

please answer all the questions above, as in the past you may have been slightly guilty of only answering 1 or 2 parts/steps, we need all the data and answers to above help understand what is happening

Also I recommend to stop calibrating it for now, that is potentially what locked it into this position the 1st time!! lets try to see what's is wrong, fix it and then hopefully get it calibrated

best regards

Andy

[Duggy72]

Hi Andy,

very informative thread. As you are obviously the resident expert on this subject, can I ask if in your experience the C6 allroad suffers from suspension airbag failure too.

many thanks.

[adamss24]

... can I ask if in your experience the C6 allroad suffers from suspension airbag failure too ?

They are not old enough or done any real off roading so it's a bit early to condemn them but i heard of a few failures...

[Duggy72]

They are not old enough or done any real off roading so it's a bit early to condemn them but i heard of a few failures...

Thanks, I read on Honest Johns reviews that there are now a few reports of this on the C6. Just thought some forum members would have some info too.

thanks.

[bagpipingandy]

Sorry no expert , or even any experience with the C6 , I see a few allroad posts in the C6 section, one mentioning sinking symptoms, I guess through time the sympoms will be similar the the older allroad unless they have invented rubber that doesn't perrish, but then they wouldnt never need fixed

regards

Andy

[Dscotty]

Sorry no expert , or even any experience with the C6 , I see a few allroad posts in the C6 section, one mentioning sinking symptoms, I guess through time the sympoms will be similar the the older allroad unless they have invented rubber that doesn't perrish, but then they wouldnt never need fixed

regards

Andy

Hi Andy,
just read all through this post, and amazed at the time and effort you put into helping people. top bloke. I myself am hoping for some info on my C6 allroad 126k mls, which is dropping to bump stop on n/s rear, from position 1 overnight. It has got worse over last weeks and now the fault light comes on the dash after ~5 miles.
Presume the bag is perished and as its got worse the compressor cannot replenish it.
Arnott do not supply bags for the C6 which is not good news. Do you know of anyone else?
Does your kit fit the C6 compressor?
Many thanks, Darren

[bagpipingandy]

Hi Andy,
just read all through this post, and amazed at the time and effort you put into helping people. top bloke. I myself am hoping for some info on my C6 allroad 126k mls, which is dropping to bump stop on n/s rear, from position 1 overnight. It has got worse over last weeks and now the fault light comes on the dash after ~5 miles.
Presume the bag is perished and as its got worse the compressor cannot replenish it.
Arnott do not supply bags for the C6 which is not good news. Do you know of anyone else?
Does your kit fit the C6 compressor?
Many thanks, Darren

Hi Darren, I dont know of anyone for the C6 Airbags but i have never looked to be honest, there is now a company in china selling only the rubber and crimp rings and you can fit the rubber to your existing top and bottom shock yourselve!!! Crazy!! and probably near impossble without tooling, but my kind of thing!!

have you got a price yet from audi?

yes my kit will fit the compressor on the C6 also

also get a code read to see whats up.

before buying anything soak it with soapy water and look for bubbles forming, to confirm it is the airbag, it could also be the fitting leaking but ussually the airbag but, check 1st. ussually the lower half of the rubber and the car needs to be sitting at level 1 (or lowest level to create the same scenario)

regards

Andy

[Dscotty]

Thanks for your help and advice Andy. Bit of a mystery as to what is going on. The front antiroll bar links were in poor shape, so we have changed them and this appears to have cured the orange light problem, presumably as there is a height sensor on it?There are no fault codes showing at present, and we have spent 8 hours with the car at level 1, spraying very soapy water on and around the bags, connections etc. with no leaks found.Thursday night, we parked it on level 1 and the rear nearside corner dropped. Last night I parked it in level 4 and it has not gone down at all, which is in line with your advice for a buggered airbag!

On start up, the green light comes on, it lifts quickly to level, and if you ask for 4, it takes no more than about 20 secs. Whilst driving, it changes levels automatically quickly and without any delays.Obviously there is a leak, just a very very slow one. Perhaps need to live with it for a few weeks until it gets bad enough to detect. I was tempted to take it to Audi and see if they have 'special kit' to detect leaks? Just a little bit afraid of the bill they might deliver without diagnosis! If I cannot find it, why should they!

Thanks again, Darren.

[bagpipingandy]

Hi Darren,yep sounds like a leak and if very small can be very difficult to find, I wouldn't bother with audi I guess they would only replace it with no diagnosis, good news is your compressor must be healthy if it lifts fast so that's good, but be aware it will combat the leak tiring it out over time so best to fix ASAP,it can be hard to find the leak as it only leaks with the suspension sitting at level 1, and it must be a very small leak as I assume it takes hours to sink, so it is not doing too much harm for now, one option to help look is with the wheel removed VERY CAREFULLY use a suitable trolley jack and suitable jacking point on the lower suspension arm/lower ball joint to simulate the cars suspension sitting at level 1, this at least allows you to use a sponge with soapy water to soak and look for bubbles at the same time, usually the lower area of the airbag leaks on the fronts anyway, if it were an airline or fitting it would leak at every level so your description does point to the airbag,if it sinks every time left overnight at level 1 this is 99.9% the airbaggood luck best regardsAndy

[Phutters]

I was tempted to take it to Audi and see if they have 'special kit' to detect leaks?

They do.

It's a bucket of water big enough to put the whole car in.

And a factory-issue yellow wax crayon to draw a circle round the leak, and some special glue to stick the patch on, and a special grater to grate the special chalk on to it to stop the glue sticking to something it isn't supposed to stick to...