Hello All,
I bought my Allroad 1 month ago, and after 2 weeks of seeing it sitting lopsided on the drive, i decided on radical corrective surgery. I didn't want to invest / lose time and money on trying to band-aid the air ride suspension with overseas parts / repairs / and definitely no genuine exorbitant new Audi parts.
I love the look of the Allroad; however, I wasn’t worried about jacking it up and down and didn’t require the capability in any event.
The answer.... I bought a set of 4 used ready assembled suspension struts from an A6 Quattro Sport Avant low mileage vehicle, for £198 incl tax and delivery. The items swapped straight onto my vehicle and because the front struts came with the top mounting plates attached, i didn't even need to modify the hole patterns to convert from air bags to conventional coils.
For 200 quid, I’ve got an Allroad that sits low (position 1 I’d say in Air-ride terms) and that handles like it’s on rails. No longer does it feel like a saggy, half filled water bed around the bends.
I do have to replace one of the shock’s still as there is a little bit of pre-existing damage on the replacement item, but the supplier is on to that and I’ll take the opportunity to start work replacing wishbone parts and CV gator when the opportunity presents itself in a couple of days.
By the way, my Allroad’s a 2002 2.5 diesel model and when I disconnected the air ride control module, no faults developed and my ESP function still works perfectly and can be switched on & off.
ABS works fine with no errors.
Good luck with whichever courses of action you decided to embark on.
Andy.

Also - It doesn't bottom out on the bump stops, despite a gruelling test drive the over day. I'd absolutley recommend this A6 Avant conversion to anyone that doesn't require height or signifiv]cant off-road capabilities.

 

Hi, everybody. Have learned a great deal reading thru the posts re:allroad suspension issues. Am hoping someone can give me some assistance since I am getting dicked around by the dealer down here. I am happy to fix my car as long as I know what the problem is.

So, long story short. Front airbags were replaced in December 2008. Car was still under warranty. About 6 weeks ago, I noticed that sometimes when I would take a turn or come off of an on-ramp from the highway, the car would drop from level 2 to 1 then go back up to 2. Started happening more and more frequently even when I was just driving down the road. No problems w/the front or rear dropping when the car was sitting for periods of time, like overnite.

First, I was told the module needed to be re-set because there was an error. Then, I was told it had to be replaced but that that meant the compressor as well because it is all one part (of course I found out that is total BS) Took the car back in this Monday (11/28) because I refused to pay a grand for a repair that might not fix the problem. Received a call tellilng me that the problem isnt the module or the compressor but the front air bags, which had pinholes in them. Would be 3K to fix rather than 1K for the compressor. I explained that the airbags were replaced in 2008, were less than 3 years old and had less than 30K miles on them. The airbags should last longer than that and audi should pay for the replacement. (am i insane? seems like a defective part to me. called audi customer care so maybe I will get lucky w/free replacement)

Since picking up my car (which I LOVE BTW) from the dealer on Monday, everytime it would sit more than 30 minutes (would be in level 2), the front end completely drops. Sometimes I have to turn car off more than once to get the car to rise back to level 2. I left the car in level 3 today. It has sat for more than 3 hours and hasnt dropped. So, what the hell is the deal?!

I am convinced the problem is an electric one (module perhaps) along with the dealer damaged the airbags when the tech was messing around since the car is worse after getting it back. Of course, I dont toally understand the entire suspension system so could be parts I am not aware of.

my main concern is getting a diagnosis and getting the problem fixed before the compressor burns out. I am thinking about replacing w/the Arnott air springs (I know but I love that my car can go up and down depending on terrain) but dont want to take action w/o knowing what the f-ing problem is. The audi dealer did run a diagnostic and the compressor was shutting down from overheating sometimes....

Sorry for the long winded message. Just so completely fed up. Any help/guidance is appreciated.
cheers
maggie

 

Thank you all for your posts! You guys are prophets. I bought my 2003 Allroad in 2007 with 49K miles on it. In late 2008 I had to replace both front air bags and the suspension and that set me back about 4 racks (4 grand). I'm thinking the replacement should buy me another five years but just the other day I noticed the front passenger bag seems punctured again. I can hear air fizzing out of the bag when I turn the car off. A few mechanics in the East Bay (Alameda County) quoted me $1100-$1500 to fix just the right side. I think I'll purchase the parts from Arnott and try to fix them myself. Also does anyone know how to replace the front height sensor linkage for the driver's side? Thanks for your help!

 

Hi,
Im over on the peninsula and have been running on the Arnott GenIIs for 18mos or so. My mechanic is now recommending these to his customers after he first installed them in my car. I read about them on this forum and got them online from the Arnott website
AUDI Air Suspension Parts - allroad quattro 2000-2006 (C5)

I even see them on Amazon now.
Best of luck with them I dont think you'll regret it.

 

I have a 2004 Allroad and recently replaced the air suspension with the Arnott coil spring replacement kit. We still hear the compressor coming on when starting the car which eventually shuts off. The battery is also draining and after testing the battery we can see that something is still pulling power from the battery when the car is off. I couldn't find a fuse for the compressor and am not sure how to disable it. Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

In your conversion kit, they should have included instructions for disconnecting the compressor from the sensor. This is done in the rear of the car in your cargo area. I looked on the Arnott site but can't find the pdf. you should call them and i'm sure they'll email one to you. It takes about 1/2 hr to do since it requires removing some trim and paneling. Real easy, just go slow so you don't break the main panel.

 

Worked like a champ. I am back in business! Took me about 20 mins as advertized. I used an 8oz bottle of slime. Jacked up the car on side needing attention (driver's) as it was sitting down on the stops. Removed wheel. Removed 10mm air fitting from the top of the air shock (connecting red air line to the shock). I just used the cap that cam on the bottle of slime and stuck it in the threaded hole and squeezed. I was able to get about 5 oz of the 8oz bottle to go in. Then I used a Q-tip to clean out the threads before reattaching the air fitting and snugging it up. After reinstalling the wheel and dropping the car back down to the driveway, I fired her up. She raised right up to level 1. All warning lights went off (they had been on), and away I went to get the suspension some movement on the highway. Took it up to level 4, and then let it drop itself back down to level 1 when I got on the highway. We'll see how long it lasts, but I am pleased at this point! I say give it a try before you burn up your compressor if you are having a leaking air shock problem.

 

Hi All,
Some very interesting reading regarding putting slime in the airbags!! I currently have an '03 2.5TDi Allroad with 115k on it. The air suspension has done some odd things over the 7 years ive owned it - one time the front pumped itself up to what seemed 'over' level 4 while the rear dropped to 1 - at the same time and as i was driving - making turning fun! :-( i pulled over went thru the levels, it finally reset itself! That was 2 yrs ago! Now other real problems til about 8 months ago, when the warning lights would come on regarding suspension.

Currently the warning lights have been off and on regularly, while going a few days/week without any warnings, then constant for a few days! So wile im considering the slime/TyreWeld (UK) option i want to know if anyone has experienced this - my car is sitting really low on one corner! The passenger side rear, and its VERY low! The rest are sitting at level one. After a couple of minutes with engine on it comes back up - i take it this one must have a leak? As ive been getting warnings for quite a while now - what else might be wrong?

I should also add - that actually there have been a few weeks recently that after about 2 minutes of driving EVERY warning light on the car would come on! Anyone else get this? The car still drives fine, but i get the engine management light, heater plug light, abs light, suspension light altogether - it freaked my X5 driving brother out a little!!

Any answers suggestions much appreciated!!

Well thanks to the info on this site - i will attempt the slime fix this weekend!
Fingerscrossed! Thnx

 

Ok - just need to add - i just went out to AR to get the power lead for the laptop. And yes the one rear corner was sitting on the bump stop, i unlocked the car, opened the door grabbed the lead, and - listen - the shock pumped itself up!??!

My surprise is because it didnt do that this morning! Nor this afternoon after work! WTF?
Im sure its reclining back to the bumpstop as i type but . . . just needed to update you!

Again - any thoughts?

 

I would not change to springs because I think the airsprings are one of the coolest features of the car. But to those that don't want the air adjustment, be sure and realize that for the arnott kit price you are also getting four bilstein shocks!

I put green slime in both of my leaking front airsprings. It was a great temporary fix for the sagging. My sagging had progressed from overnight to so bad that the compressor could not keep up during driving. A few months later, I ended up putting one arnott standard air spring on the drivers side. About eight months after the initial slime, my passenger side front started sagging again. It dropped on the highway and I drove home on the bumpstops. This bumpstop trip finished off my already bad front axles. I replaced the axles and the passenger spring and all is good again.

I want to add that the total cost was less than $1,000, and the swap of springs and axles was easy. Some of the work is the same, so doing both at the same time saves work. Reading back over that word easy brought to mind some difficulties. The work was easy, but the gathering of tools was not. The air springs require a bit called a tripple square, and the center of the wheel requires a very large allen type wrench. The axle bolts to the transmission are also tripple squares, and very deep so you need an extension, or a special long socket.