mendelo

When I got the ar I was anticipating at some point replacing the air springs, especially after joining this forum. The car has about 85,000 miles and though the fronts have been done, the backs are original.

I go to buy groceries today. We had a big snowfall last night and so I missed seeing a curb in the parking lot and ran over it with the rear passenger wheel. Not too big of a jounce. Came back after shopping for about 1/2 an hour and the rear end was sitting right down, with the wheels up in the fender wells. Started the car, the air suspension light was flashing. Within about 30 seconds the compressor had it up to level 2. Drove to the gas station and in the 3 minutes it took to pump gas the rear was right back on the bump stops. Same procedure , flashing light, pumps up to level 2 in 30 seconds. I am not too upset as it was not unexpected, figure I would get it home, order the bags from Arnott and put them in. I guessed that to deflate within 3 minutes indicates a relatively serious hole. On the drive home, the compressor comes on for 10 seconds overall (though that's hard to tell, it's really quiet overall in operation). Once the car is home and parked in the garage, I figured I would hear a slight hiss from somewhere if it deflated that quickly. Nothing. I go inside, come back four hours later, it has not dropped at all.

I have searched the posts and so I think that it may be a pinhole that has somehow been exposed and now, in the course of driving, been covered up again. But I wonder if I am on the right track or is there some other valve that may account for such a drastic loss of pressure that has somehow (at least temporarily) fixed itself.

I don't have a VAG-COM to check for codes. Yet.

Thanks

jay956

If you do end up needing springs I have some that I need to get rid of. http://classifieds.audiworld.com/sho...t/8792/cat/500

mendelo

Nice, I will definitely keep those in mind. Am having it checked out on Thursday. It maintains pressure and ride height at level 3 but at level 2 will drop down in a matter of minutes. Pretty sure this is going to turn out to be a leaking bag

jay956

Sounds like a small hole to me. Had the same thing happen with mine. Basically the hole is at the fold of the rubber on level 2 causing it to open up more than on level 3 when it is flat.