Winter is here and the air ride seems to be acting up on my a8. Tonight when I got home after driving around in dynamic mode for about 75 miles I decided to put the car at the standard setting after parking. I got no lift and a crunching sound coming from the compressor. It did this for about a minute before it gave up and flashed the yellow suspension light at me. This has happened before, but I decided to try something new this time - I shut the car off and immediately started it again, went into suspension settings, selected standard and without any drama or noise the car lifted right up! Now, I would imagine if there was anything wrong with the compressor 10 seconds wouldn't be nearly enough time for it to fix itself.. What's up? Anyone else had an issue like this? What was it? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Sounds like an air leak that caused the compressor to overheat.
The crunch could be the armature coming apart.

I would get a VCDS scan done and get the leak fixed ASAP or it will burn up the compressor.

Several threads here and at AudiWorld about it.