Brian Howard

Thanks for that Spartacus. I will try and remove the invoice. I understand what you're saying. The previous owners no longer at that address but I will remove it anyway. I appreciate your suggestions and I will give it all a go. Not this weekend though as I have to run some people around. I'm retired so I can do it anytime. It'll be interesting to see what's under there and I can compare it all with the links you sent. I'm grateful for your time. Brian

Hi Spartacus Many thanks for all the detail. Very much appreciated. I bought the car privately knowing there was a fault so it's a case of caveat emptor. I am still very happy with it as overall it's in very good nick. I'm just trying to assess if I should just live with the fault or, find out what the fault is then consider paying for a fix. I'm attaching the invoice I received with the car. What I can't figure out is that under labour, it says 'fit N/S/F suspension strut' Quantity of 2, but no cost? (This is the corner that drops the most). Question. Is 'suspension strut' the same as air suspension spring? Because the latter is listed as parts charged for, no listing for strut. Is either of these another name for air suspension bag? If you've had enough of this, feel free to say so or just ignore me. I realise I may be imposing on your time. Thanks A6 Allroad suspension.odt

Thanks for clarifying that Steve. I'm learning!

Hi Spartacus 68 Thanks very much for your response. I've had a look at a VCDS unit on that website. Not sure I can afford that kind of thing when I wouldn't really know how to use it to justify the cost. Thanks for explaining about the suspension unit and parts. Useful to know. It does sound like this would be the culprit. I just can't figure out why there's a 'hiss' coming from the opposite front corner though. It would make more sense for the noise to come from the F/N/S as that's the corner that sinks. Appreciate your time.

Hi Steve. Thanks for responding. Is there a suspension airbag for each corner then? If there is, and I guess that would make sense, then do you have any idea why the 'hissing' noise is coming from the F/O/S when it's the F/N/S that's dropping? Is a replacement a big job? I forgot to mention that I have had a diagnostic check done by a former VAG technician and no fault codes came up? That's why I'm trying this forum because I can't afford an Audi dealerships charges just to find a fault. Thank you

I have a 2011 A6 Allroad estate and when left parked up, after a two or three days the front end drops. When I start it up the front end lifts up without me changing anything. When it does this the green (car icon, with 'down arrow') illuminates until it has reached height. Then it goes off. When I test the raising and lowering it behaves properly. I bought this car two months ago, and it's my 2nd Allroad estate. The previous owner spent over £2770 on the air suspension in December 2023 with a non Audi garage and had the compressor, air suspension valve and air suspension spring replaced. The F/N/S drops more than the F/O/S and settles about 2cm lower. When it's parked up, and I open any of the doors there is a quick 'hiss' from the F/O/S, behind the wheel area. A bit like the air brakes on a lorry. It will do this if I continue to open more doors. It will even 'hiss' when it's parked up and nobody is touching it! Yesterday, the suspension had dropped as I hadn't used the car for about 3 days and after I had vacuumed the inside and had all the doors open, I noticed that the front suspension had lifted itself up! I had not switched the ignition on or anything. I did not hear the compressor running, but then I did have the vacuum going and it's quite noisy. The car is quite old and has 168,000 but it is tidy and runs very well. I would appreciate any opinion on what the fault might be so that I can minimise the cost of fixing it. Thank you.