– Make sure the battery is good, charge if necessary.
–Put car on Lift mode – then on Jack mode – Leave it for a few hours.
-The side that’s lowered than others is the leak side.
-Remove Jack mode for the pump to work again to Lift mode, spray soapy water on top and bottom strut to see where the leak is coming from with bubbles. Watch the video on my left and right fix – my left side the leak was on the top, right side the leak was from the bottom.
So, I had both of the front air spring bags leaked and replaced at 119k and 131k miles. It cost me total of less than $400 for the 2 incidents. Since I’ve read and understood a little about the system that caused much pain and money for many people who have no ideas how the system works. Again, this is how I understand the system, many will differ but then again it didn’t cost me much and I didn’t even have to use OBD2 (OBDEleven, Carista, VAG504 or VCDS) to fix mine. I’ll explain and update this post as I have time. Most of people ruin a simple air bag replacement with costly blind folded, shotgun good parts due to misunderstanding the system or depending completely on the OBD2 failure scan. Note: @131k miles and 2 air bag leaked, I haven’t replaced anything like compressor pump, the valve block, level sensors or anything VCDS would print out. I don’t replace things unless it’s proven DEFECTIVE. The problem is you can’t ask the dealers or the shops to do it for you, they don’t have time and their job is not to troubleshoot the exact problem, just base on diagnostic software and replace all components reported which is the whole system.
The Air suspension control system consists of 4 air struts at 4 corners, an air compressor pump to a valve block distributor connected to 4 struts and an air tank. There are 4 level sensors for 4 struts and a controller. The controller is displayed on the MMI screen and control panel to select. There are 2 warning indicators on the dash board – = Over inflated and = Under inflated – When , there are 2 scenarios, the e-strut wires are not connected or the relief valve inside the air compressor is faulty – the air suspension is leaking. When the Air compressor temperature is hot due to pumping for a long period of time, the controller will shut it down, hence, in normal air leak operation, the Air compressor seldom a problem.
When the car is in mode and settings, if , chances are the valve block distributor is faulty – When the car is in mode – the air compressor is by the controller.
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- A8 Air Compressor
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- A8 Air Accumulator
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- A8 Air Pneumatic System
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- A8 Air Flow To The Suspension
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- A8 Air Release Out Of The Suspension
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- A8 Air Strut Front
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- A8 Air Strut Rear
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- A8 J197 Control Unit
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- A8 Level Sensors
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- A8 Solenoid Valve Block
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- A8 Air Suspension Indicators
7 Comments
You obviously know your way around an A8 D3. Maybe you can help with a problem I’m having:
Replaced a front air spring and the whole car was riding high, like in lift mode, and wouldn’t pump down. So I bled everything front and rear, car was bottomed out. Cleared all the codes and everything pumped up, but while the rear pumped to where it was supposed to be, the front over-pumped and is now riding high (444mm) while the rears are around 355mm. The yellow light is on, and the ride height only lets me select comfort or adaptive, but nothing adjusts. Cleared all the codes again and tried the calibration and it won’t calibrate since it won’t adjust the ride height to the two positions to start calibration.
Any thoughts?