I just received the replacement air spring for the front drivers side for my allroad and will be installing it myself this weekend. It all seems pretty straight forward and will let you know how it goes. $299 + $15 shipping versus a lot more at the dealer. Plus Arnott has a lifetime warranty on their air spring. Stay tuned...

 

Crap! Looks (and sounds) like my compressor is completely gone, as it was making a buzzing noise, then it just stopped. Car is riding on bump stops on rear end (and the tail dances like a drunk college girl). So, I'm at a loss at the moment. Do I replace the compressor, hope it lifts the car, THEN check for leaky bags? Or, do I just throw in the towel and convert over to the Arnott coil setup? Would a reading on the scanner tell me if a specific bag was leaking, or if the valve block was bad, or the compressor alone?

 

Update:

Had the AR in yesterday for a front brake set. They had it inside for several hours (it's been below zero here for weeks now) and they were able to lift the car!!! They sprayed soapy water on the bags, and said NONE of them were leaking. He also sprayed down the lines, and the valve block, no problemo. The issue has GOT to be with the compressor. So, as I was driving it home yesterday (it's hard to properly seat new brakes when it's icy and cold - as people drive like idiots), it dropped 1 level, and the light came on. Hmmm. So, this morning (no garage, just a carport) it was back down on the bump stops. Drove it anyway, and the tail wasn't wagging. Odd. So, when I had taken it in yesterday, I asked them to check over the rear end, to make sure everything was tight. The way it was wandering, I had a suspicion that maybe the nuts on a wheel were coming loose (but please bear with me - I am a car guy that normally does a lot of his own stuff - but it's SOOOOOOO friggin cold!!!!!!). Well, they told me everything was fine and since it isn't dancing / wagging any longer, I think my suspicion was correct. We'll never know.

So this is where I'm at. I'm thinking I'll buy a new compressor now, and make a decision possibly this summer about swapping to a coil setup, and resell all my parts, hopefully getting some of the cost back. We'll see.

 

I got the Arnott air strut replacement and all seemed straight forward except that I could not get the pinch bolt out of the upper control arms. OK... so its 10 degrees up here in VT and I'm lying on a cold concrete floor trying to get the bolt free -- and I give up before I snap it off. I take it to a local mechanic and he gets to the same point as me. Since there is only a very small amount of space in there, you can't really whack the end of the bolt to knock it loose. They gave up and I found a dealer in Latham, NY (near Albany) who will install the Arnott replacement. (The dealer in Rutland VT won't touch non-Audi parts.) They said that they have trouble all the time with the pinch bolt and that if it breaks, you simply need to replace the upper control arms. Not a killer at $135 and minimal labor since everything is already apart and right there. Anyone have any thoughts or advice? Maybe all of these easy Arnott replacements are being done by guys in Florida! 75 degree winter days and no rust/corrosion!

 

I had a problem with the front dropping on the 2 setting after about 10 hours.
I bought 4 new air bags, the Bilstein shocks and the top mount from Arnott. I had a problem with one of the new bags at the rear but they had no problem sending me out a replacement.
The rears I found more difficult to replace, having to move the suspension down enough to get the air bag in and out, took off roll bar etc.
The fronts were easier. I saw all the instructions about loosing the pinch bolt but when I tried it they felt they would snap. So I left them in place on both sides and just pulled the strut airbag etc out with the pinch bolt part still in the car. I was replacing the shock absorber anyway.
I thought it was pretty easy in the end..
Having a nice heated garage with 2-post lift certainly made it easier.

 

My advise to you is to get another opinion on your car. Find a local certified mechanic who does work on the side and become real good friends with him/her..
The audi shops are a scam!! they wanted $340 to install an airbag for me (i had the part from Arnott who has a lifetime warranty on there bags. one year later there bag broke a seal and they shipped me out a new one. beats audi's airbags that don't come with a warranty and cost twice as much) long story short i found a local guy to install it for $80.

My rear brakes they wanted over $300 to install plus parts... i did it this weekend for $50.
The reason the audi dealers charge so much is because people pay that much to get there cars fixed without even thinking about it.

I will never take my audi to a dealership anymore. They are natorious for telling you that you "need this fixed" or "need that fixed".
They told me that i needed three of my airbags fixed. I asked them how they determined that and they said they performed a soap test and that three were leaking. Well that was two years ago and all i did was replace one and they have all been working fine.

Just my two cents, and i'm sure not all dealers are as bad as the one in madison WI that i choose to no longer deal with.

 

I have owned my Allroad 2003 for 4 years. I started noticing the car was sitting lower in the front. It started slowly with the driver's side then progressed to the passenger side. Eventually getting to the point that if the car was left parked, the bags would totally deflate and I would hear the compressor running most of the time when driving the car.

I did some research and saw that many people were having the same issue. I found some basic directions for pulling the (Air Spring) bladder out and decided to give it a try. I had visions of inflating the bladder in a bucket of water to find the leak(s). However I was stopped dead in my tracks by a stuck pinch bolt. I then read horror stories about this bolt...breaking, getting stuck, etc. I also didn’t want to spend $1,500.00 - $3,500.00 to have the dealer repair the bladders.

Then a moment of pure genius struck... I thought, well, the bladder probably has a hole in it. The bladder is made of flexible rubber just like an inner tube - I wondered if I could inject some Slime tire selant into the air bladder?

Well I'm happy to report it worked!!! While it might not be a solution for everyone's situation, it seems to be doing the trick for my car.

Here’s how I did it...it was a 20 minute operation and cost 10 bucks!!!!

I jacked the car up, disconnected the 10mm air fitting at the top of the shock, used a small plunger type syringe to squirt 6 ounces of Slime tire sealant into each bladder, reconnected the air fitting. I then drove the car around on various settings to help the Slime liquid coat the inside of the bladder. Slime is a thick liquid with microscopic fibers in it. It works by getting into the hole(s) and the fibers then bind to "patch" the hole. I don't know how large the holes in my bladder were, but, I have been driving the car for 7 months now after this fix without issue with the bladders. I believe this fix will continue working for quite some time and will keep you posted.

I was so excited to see it work, I had to share this fix! Good Luck and let me know if it works.

Nathan

 

That is good to hear. It may not work for every situation, but it sounds like a excellent first thing to try.
thanks for sharing that little bit of info.

 

Natan,

I currently have the same problem you had. Both myself and my mechanic are cyclist and joked how great would it be if we just ran some"Slime" in the bag but really didn't
think it would work,because well, that would just be too easy.

Now my questions - when jacking the car up and removing the air fitting did you have any issues/tricks that I should be aware of?

What type of small plunger type syringe did you use and where did you get it?

And finally, I know I'll need to replace the bags at some point. Arnot Industries appears to have some machined replacements that are much better than the dealer ones. The cost is $800 for the front pair and the R&R is aobut 3 to 4hrs depending on who does the install so total cost about $1200.

Nathan, Thanks in advance for your help.

 

The Fix-A-Flat approach does indeed work. I didn't use the syringe approach rather I cut off the tire adapter value and placed the hose into the air hole at the top of the shock. Its a tight fit but it will work.

When using this approach be sure to use 3 sec burst, remove the hose so the air can be released otherwise you've got a bit of a mess on your hands. I used a half a can on each side.

Like Nathan I ran the car through the levels starting at the highest level and hitting 90mph to take it to the lowest level, then stopping to let it return to the highest level again. Happy to say it all worked fine.

And finally a big thanks to Nathan for "Thinking Big and Working Small"