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Have a leak on the air suspension of my Allroad (ever since the cambelt was changed and a towbar was fitted). Front offside corner goes down overnight like a Citroen. I suspect the high pressure air line to that corner is fractured somewhere but my Audi dealer seems unable to locate it. Anyone got any ideas?
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It seems to me that if you had a high pressure air leak the suspension wouldn't hold the car up at all, maybe not even with the compressor running. The hydraulic Citroens use an oil rather than air so it leaks out more slowly from small holes (though if they are the sinking over night kind leaks are not the reason they do it). It could however be some mechanical part that is sticking or damaged in some way.
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On the Allroad each corner has its own air line back to an accumulator tank which is in the back of the car and which is charged by the pump. I don't believe the lines are directly interconnected. Only one corner is going down - so I presume there is some kind of computer-controlled non-return valve / metering system on each line.
Interestingly, if you just open the door and then close it, without starting the car, it re-adjusts all four corners, but if you do that a couple of times over a period of hours all four corners go down, presumably because the accumulator becomes exhausted. Part of the problem I suspect is that the computer isn't configured to cope with a leak.
After you start the car and the pump runs, it all comes back up no problem in about 30 seconds. I am pretty sure there is a slow leak in there somewhere. So are the dealer - they just have absolutely no idea how to locate it as they have never encountered the problem before. Audi are going to put a technical team member on the problem in a couple of weeks' time.
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I have no idea of the system Audi uses, but it just seems to me that the pressures must be pretty high and air tends to escape rapidly at high pressures even from very small holes. Presumably as on the Cit C5 the computer is constantly monitoring the system even when it's just standing. You'd imagine under those circumstances it would divert air to the leaky section and the whole car would go down over time, not just one corner--that's why I wondered about a different kind of mechanical failure, rather than an external leak. I'd be surprised if the computer isn't set up to deal with a minor leak, but I'd also be surprised, from a safety point of view, if a leak could cause one corner to go down on its own. Imagine that at 80mph.
But I'm guessing of course. My only experience of these air systems is talking to a relative whose Range Rover cracked a rear air line and the whole back end (not just the side where the leak was) went down instantly.
Good luck with it anyway.
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I'm sure this will be one for Audi's technical dept - keep us posted on what the outcome is.
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
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I own a 2002 Audi Allroad. I just started experiencing a problem with my air suspension system. Similarly, my left side front seems to go flat after a few hours of sitting , and then sometimes it doesnt at all. I had a friend who specializes in Audis, but is not familiar with the Allroads. When he connected his Audi diagnostic system to it, it showed an overheating error on the suspension system,not a leak.
Has anyone else gotten the same error message, and if so, what is the remedy ?
Joe
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Hi, I have the 2004 allroad that has recently developed a similar symptom. The FNS suspension goes down overnight. First thought it was due to the cold winter nights but still happens now we're in the summer. It's my next find when I'm next home in 4 weeks.
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Have a look on the American Audi forum Audiworld.com. This issue has been discused many times in the past.
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