Air suspension repair cost -- $2k?!
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Audi shop tells me that the reason for my suspension problems (the front end sinks almost to the ground every time I park, and I can no longer, umm, get it up) is a rear air spring problem. I am being quoted $2k, in part because the location of the problem is supposedly hard to get at. This seems very high to me. Any thoughts about this? Are repairs to the Allroad suspension generally high cost? Many thanks.
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What are they claiming is bad?It all depends on what part it is.Where are you located?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KDL
Audi shop tells me that the reason for my suspension problems (the front end sinks almost to the ground every time I park, and I can no longer, umm, get it up) is a rear air spring problem. I am being quoted $2k, in part because the location of the problem is supposedly hard to get at. This seems very high to me. Any thoughts about this? Are repairs to the Allroad suspension generally high cost? Many thanks.
New OEM air spring is something around 700.00 alone but the labor to replace is not 1300 for sure. I swapped my rear shock (which requries taking everything apart including spring) in about 1.5h total and it was my first time in there. If I only neede to replace a spring, I would shave 15 minutes from the install time since I would be using 100% sure fitting part while new shock takes some care to make it goes in right.
Unless the quote is for both sides, $2000 is utter rip off.
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That is just not right....Arnott bags are way cheaper than OE (and warrantied for life)
So, they say a rear bag is causing the front to sag? That makes no sense to me. Best find an indy that knows what the heck it takes to repair the suspension....the dealer is setting you up for an expensive ride sounds like.
No, suspension repairs do not need to be expensive on the ar. Arnott bags are what? $300?... and maybe an hour each side to install. I've never seen a rear bag go bad either...but with age who knows.
Is the air compressor noisey? They will go bad if the bags leak and have to run extra time to keep the bags full of air. Easy to replace and Arnott sells them too much cheaper than Audi does. Arnotts are re-built FWIW, and warrantied too for a year.
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Ask the dealer what is so hard about the bags locations.
...pull off a wheel, un-bolt the strut top and bottom and its off. (OK, I over-simplified it but its not that hard really to remove, especially for a dealer tech)
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I replaced both my front bags with Arnotts a few months ago and they really are not hard to do for anyone even a little bit comfortable with mechanical repairs, and who has a decent set of tools.
Those instructions are mostly right, but the newest Arnots use a different air line hookup - you cut off the end that's on there and simply push the line into the fitting. Very simple....the instructions that come with the bags are very clear, with one exception. I could not get the lower shock bolt out far enough and wound up removing the lower ball joint - it was no biggy and let the strut move so that I could easily remove and reinstall the shock bolt. That's partly why the first one took as long as it did, fiddling around trying to get that stupid shock bolt out. Once I took the ball joint loose, it took only minutes ....
Took two hours of careful, slow going to change the left one, I had the right one done in less than 30 minutes! They seem to be every bit as good as the OEM bags, so far so good......
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Thanks all. Turns out that I need to replace both front air springs (compressor is fine), which are supposedly $750+ a pop. Labor is 4+ hours. I called around and a couple of dealerships quoted the same price and noted that the front springs are hard to do. Car is getting done in Syracuse (Burdick Audi). The frustrating thing is that there are only 53,000 mostly gentle miles on my '02 AR. Seems wrong to me that these things should fail so soon.
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I thought the same about the 45k miles on my '04 when the left front failed - and most owners do seem to get well over 100k out of theirs. However, using the Arnotts means I won't ever have to pay for new fronts again - since they have a lifetime warranty (of course, they don't say who's lifetime, do they?
My wife uses her car about 5k a year, so based on that math I should be good for as long as we continue to own the car. Now, if only the transmission and turbos hold up too!
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Take it to a indy.You can buy 2 Arnotts for one Audi.It's an easy job.For the $1300 in savings you can drive it down to my house and I'll put them in for free lol