A6 Allroad 2013 Air Suspension and scary start-up.

[Nibbersandbeebers]

Hi All,
Like buses, after 5 years of trouble free ownership, a few things came along at once. Just wondered if anyone can offer any insights into two of them please? I have a 2013 (I think that's C7) 241hp V6 diesel, I think all Allroads are diesel so you knew that!

1. After watching the car sink to its knees on the drive and prepping to sell an organ to meet the likely bill, I found out I needed a £6.00 fuse to keep the compressor happy. Phew. I paid £150 for that diagnoses mind you. Now the car is back up and running, Comfort and Dynamic modes feel unusually similar, or perhaps I just think so and it's just in my head. The question is, when looking at the Drive Select graphic on the screen, the indicator that has a stack of bars that fill red to indicate 'height', both Comfort and Dynamic have x2 bars filled... should they be different or is that standard? I can't recall.

2. So scary start-up. Yesterday after perhaps 60 miles of motorway driving, on a restart the engine shook violently, making the bonnet tremble and the car's structure vibrate. I hit the engine off at triple speed. 2 mins later I restarted. All normal, settled to an idle and I then covered 100+ miles with a few stops and restarts and everything purred happily. Anyone had anything like that and did it ever repeat? I can see timing belts entering my nightmares. 

Thanks if anyone can enlighten me please?

[Steve Q]

I'd recommend a diagnostic check to see if any fault codes are stored regarding the start up issue. Sounds like it might not have been running on all cylinders maybe? 

Regarding air suspension is think level 2 is standard. Wouldn't 1 bar be dynamic and 3-4 off road etc. 

[Entwood]

If memory serves me right, can't get to the handbook right now to check however ......   in "dynamic" mode the ride height self-adjusts with speed, so starts off at 2 bars then as speed increases it "lowers" to 1 bar to improve handling at higher speeds .... I'll be able to get to the handbook tonight to check my, probably failing, memory !!

[Nibbersandbeebers]

Thanks @Steve Q  for the advice. I'll see if I can find someone who can run a check. Frustratingly the car (for the previously mentioned fuse) has just come back from the dealer and given a clean bill of health on checks. They did run a recall software update to "change the engine management to improve emissions"... and then I get an odd rumble that like you say, did feel like a misfiring cylinder in the mix.

The car sits 'on two bars filled' in Dynamic currently. I'll keep my eye on it.
 

[Nibbersandbeebers]

Cheers @Entwood that's a thought. I'll have a look next time I'm at motorway speeds to see if the 2nd bar reduces to one when on the move. 

[Entwood]

Have the handbook now, and the info is on page 128, and quite long so I won't type all of it ... relevant bit as far as I can see is :

"The adaptive air suspension is an electronically controlled pneumatic spring/shock absorber system. The set-up is adjusted according to the selected mode, steering movements,braking and acceleration input by the driver, road surface quality, road speed and vehicle loading.

The vehicles ground clearance depends on which mode is selected and how fast you are travelling. If you drive in auto or efficiency for  longer than 30 secons at over 120km/h the motorway ride height is selected. If the speed dropsbelow 70 km/h for over 120 seconds the ground clearance is automatically raised  " 

Mine is a 2014 Allroad and presently is set to "efficiency"  mode and shows 2 bars .....

Hope that helps .....

[Nibbersandbeebers]

Thanks @Entwood pretty reassuring that you are seeing two bars in 'Efficiency'. I had a quick look in the handbook earlier and didn't find the text you are highlighting, but will look again. Happy travels and thanks for the taking the time to post. 

[K3v]

Just to muddy the waters  on  this, I've just driven in my 2015 allroad in town traffic and dynamic mode drops to one bar, I've swapped back and forth a few times and it always goes to one bar. 

 

 

 

 

[Nibbersandbeebers]

Thank you @K3v that would have left me puzzled apart from a discovery this morning that I think solves this.

I had look around the 'car settings' and found an air suspension setting that said something like (sorry not near the car) 'air suspension towing', which was set to 'on'. I changed that to off and went quickly over to the Drive Select screen with the graphic on it and aha, the second bar was busy flashing and going white until it disappeared leaving just the one bar, the setting was Dynamic by the way.

I just drove home and the single bar stayed on in Dynamic and the floaty 'Comfort' sensation had gone. I guess that towing setting must stop the car dropping too much during driving. As they say, "who knew?"
 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Nibbersandbeebers

[K3v]

Ah cool, glad you got it sorted. I know the tick box you mentioned, but I've never  done it, logical that the car wouldn't go so low when towing. 

[Nibbersandbeebers]

Thanks all for any insights, enjoy your driving.