HeissRod

History:
Driver's strut replaced December of 2013. Cluster displayed a car too low message and the front was dumped when I came out of a store.
Passenger strut replaced 2 weeks ago. Cluster never displayed a message, but the car was sagging and would not raise the full amount. Car rode fine afterwards. STAR pressure test showed the strut would not hold more than 6psi. When I jacked up the car to replace the strut, I heard a ton of air release from this area.

Anyways, I have to use the raise feature when backing into my driveway, so I hit it as soon as I get in the neighborhood to give it time to raise. This morning, I hit it when coming home and instead of displaying "Raising Vehicle" like usual, it says "Visit Workshop", but still shows the symbol for the car raising. After that, I could not get the message to go away. Turned off the raise, still there. Choose a different suspension setting, still there. I stopped at my driveway to look at the car and it appeared to be raised. I then backed in with no scraping, so I know it was raised the full amount. I have around ½" of clearance under my front lip at full raise when backing in.

After I pulled in the driveway, I turn off the raise function, wait for it to settle and then turned the car off to get rid of the message. Turned the car back on and there were no saved error messages in the cluster. I then tried raising the car again. This time, the normal message displayed in the cluster, but the car did not raise. Tried this 2 more times with the same result. What is the internet's I'm-not-looking-at-your-car-but-I'll-diagnose-it-anyways thoughts on this? Air compressor?

.trunzx

I had similar symptoms and it turned out to be a slow leak in the o-ring of the air compressor. I used this rebuild kit and it fixed it http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-Allro...item23301545ac

equitiesguy

First, it's normal when you raise the car via jack (or lift) to hear air hiss out of the strut. There's a valve that detects you're lifting the car, and it effectively deflates so when you put the car back down it doesn't drop ALL the way down.

You'll need STAR for this next part.

Check the height values in the airmatic system through STAR. It's supposed to be zero on all three values: front left/front right/rear.

There is a pressure test for the pump in the airmatic module. Run it. Shows very clearly whether the pump is marginal and would be your culrprit.

Assuming the pump is fine, and the strut is fine, you may have a leak where the line enters the strut at the top (where the 3 nuts hold it in place inside the engine compartment). You'll have to use STAR to diagnosis a leak. You can individually check the valve block sides by telling each strut to pressurize with the Airmatic module. Should see 8+ bar.

Looking at the pressure readings will show you right away where to search for a leak. This system isn't very complicated partswise, so it's easy to track down. Hopefully you didn't damage a line.

The longer you drive the car, the more damage you'll do to the entire system if it isn't pressurizing properly with 1) a bad leak, 2) a defective pump, 3) a failing valve.

Oh, and change your airmatic filter if the pump is fine. If it's original, it's toasted.

HeissRod

I did borrow STAR before I replaced the passenger front strut. It would not hold more than ~5.8 bar while driver side went right up to 9 bar and held. After replacement, passenger side held 9 bar no problem.

After the strut replacement, height values were equal left-right, but less than zero because I am STAR lowered + washers.

I did not run the pump test. Should have, Hindsight is 20/20 and all that...

I'll try a soap water test at the line going into the strut to see if any pressure is escaping.

Do you have a P/N for the filter?

O-55

Mann wk 32/6 is the filter used for the airmatic system.

desired_speeds

check the relay

HeissRod

Ugh...false alarm. Fitting at the strut was leaking. Tightened it up and we're all good, for now.

Jawzey

Could you please elaborate on this? I'm having a similar symptom on my CLS55 and I'm hoping it's just the fitting that's bad.

HeissRod

I could feel air blowing out from around the fitting at the top of the strut. I gently tightened the line and it was fine. Maybe the new fitting wasn't fully tightened when it was shipped? Not sure. Just got back from a 300 mile trip, without any leaks.

This is a metal fitting going into a plastic housing, so you have to be very careful.

Sphinx144

Any ideas why I have zero pressure in the airmatic system?
The car dropped and wouldn't raise-- air compressor would only turn on for 10 seconds after starting the car and got the message for a leak--so I had to take the air compressor off the vehicle and check for leaks, didn't find anything, so I put it back.
Car raised up and the message went away, compressor turns on now, but now it cays the pressure in the airmatic system is 0 bar, even though the car is up and stays up and not corner drops overnight.