Hang on to it. Got one too. Love it.

Contact me if any questions. Ive done a LOT on mine.

Also can be valve block. But its usually strut.

Thanks Grant!

First of all, see if it will pump up to the high position, then put it in jacking mode and let it sit overnight. Measure it as soon as it is in jacking mode, then measure the height at each wheel in the morning. A leaking strut will show up there. It could be that the pump is wearing out as well, and won't pump up- but over time it may catch up and seem to fix itself. get a pump rebuild kit from Bagpiping Andy, rebuild the pump, and see how it acts after that. Don't forget the leak test, or you may be rebuilding the pump again.

I haven't had to do that, so sorry I don't have any words on it right now.

I didn't have to calibrate the level sensors, since all I did was replace the airsprings. As for the kit, contact Andy- www.bagpipingandy.com/ he is an engineer and tooling expert who makes the kits

If the air line is not attached, then there should be no air in it, and you can just compress it with your hands. I have not used airsprings from Rock Auto, so I cannot comment on that. Try putting it on the floor, and push it down. Measure the length of it and measure the old one and make sure it is the right size.

Neil, All the video I have are posted, no need to buy more- although it is not a bad idea! Replacing the bag is a big hassle, and in the end you don't really get ahead either financially or work wise. I had mine rebuilt by RMT. They will also sell you the bag unit, and you clean up your lower portion and re-use it- but the savings is negligible and the work load is significant. If you decide to go that way, let me know how it works out! Here is RMT's website if that helps you any. Don't buy cheaply made parts! www.rebuildmastertech.com/

Did you check and replace the relay? Also, did you connect to the car's computer and clear out all the current faults? Once you have cleared all the faults, it should be good to go unless there is a leak or another problem. Don't forget to take the car out of jacking mode- the yellow light will stay on if it is in jack mode.

Any good Audi parts supplier should have the relay. I think I got mine from either ECS Tuning or O'Reilly. They are not hard to find.

TheAmericanGarage1 Thanks. 👍🏻

TheAmericanGarage1 Finished the job today and it’s back to normal. Thanks again for your excellent video. 🎉👍🏻

Mike, I think what you are asking is the angle that I tightened the new control arms in place before I put the air-spring back in- check your manual for the details, but I figured out that mostly is is to keep them in place, and so that they are close to what will be a resting position for the wheel. There is a measurement, so check your manual- I don't have mine in front of me while I am typing today. But rest assured, I have done this a few times and it is not as critical as you think. Once the weight of the car is on the wheels, it will probably straighten itself out. I did not put the loosening of the bottom bolt on the video- sorry. Sometimes it is hard to get everything on camera. I am guessing that you have fought with it and wondered about an easier way. Well, I use a bigger break over bar when these get stubborn.

I have not had to redo my rear shocks (airsprings). Let me know how it goes.

Sorry, I don't-

@@TheAmericanGarage1 Is the front air suspension/strut disassembly to reassembly identical to the rear break down and rebuild as well? Thank you for such a simple yet descriptive video! God bless You!

I was using Carista on a tablet, but I have since upgraded to VCDS because it was too limiting. It will work fine for basic things though.

It is a little difficult to get to without removing the headlight assembly. Two screws on the top where it is easy, one on the bottom back where it is not. The best way is to take the inner fender liner out to get to it. A pain, I know. While you are in there, examine the wires inside the headlight assembly. Mine got cooked over time, and the insulation was falling off. My solution was to disassemble, take the little harness out of the headlight, and put all new wires. It is not easy but doable. Just make sure you keep track of everything if you have to do that. Any evidence of cracking on the wire insulation is your warning, go head and replace them all. If bare wires touch each other, you may be replacing more than just the wires.

Alright, I may not have an answer for this, but I can at least help you get started thinking about it. The problem does not seem to be mechanical, or else it would not work at all. If you lift the car, and then go out on the road and take it to regular speeds, then it will lower for that driving condition. By lower links, are you meaning the lower control arms? Replacing them should not affect the sensors. It sounds like you might have fault in the sensors. Did you bump one when you were in there? Get your scan tool and see if you have any faults related to the ride height sensors- or any other suspension faults. I would start there. I have not had that failure myself, so I am only guessing on this one. Start with what codes it is reporting.

Hmm. I will be guessing on this one as well- however, in tow mode the airsprings will not adjust, so that may be why it won't come down. You don't seem to have a problem with a leaky airspring, or the pump- which are the majority of the problems. If your car is older, then I would start investigating the sensors and wire connections. Or could it be a stuck relief valve? If you have rust/corrosion, then you will have to check everything very carefully. Sorry I can't be of more help on this.

Pete, I am going to have to give this one some thought. My first impression is no, a low battery would not cause the front to come up but not the back. But first things first, charge the battery or get a new one if it has gone bad, and eliminate that as a cause. Once the air has been pumped into the system, there is a regulator that distributes it to the four wheels. If the front is up but the back is not, it sounds like a leak in the back. Your trunk not locking could be a low battery issue. Fix that first, and then see what happens. A low battery will have all kinds of crazy symptoms as things are trying to run with not enough electricity. Make sure that you check the alternator, and make sure it is doing its job, or you will go through batteries. The pump on your suspension does not need to run very long at all when the system is functioning with no leaks, and unless you are right there down by the pump, it is hard to detect it running at all. Check the battery level in the MMI display, and make sure you are getting 100%, and do an alternator check. Then let's see what is happening. Hope this helps.

@@TheAmericanGarage1 The situation that is going on on my 2006 A8 is my rear air suspension is not lowering although the front at times is and the lift mode sometime on the monitor screen in my car turns from red to grey and the air suspension light turns on every once in a while, could that very well be my rear air suspension is going out? And is the concept the same when changing the front air suspension the same as the rear ?

check out RMT- www.rebuildmastertech.com this is where I got my parts

here is the place I got the compressor kit- www.bagpipingandy.com

@@TheAmericanGarage1 thank you for answering in such a short time, in your video you replaced the compressor cylinder as well but looks like it doesn't come in this kit, did you order it from a different place? Any info on that would be much appreciated

@@filipajdacic9627 just tell andy that you need the cylinder as well, he has them

@@TheAmericanGarage1 great, thank you very much

It should be- but I don't know if the pump or relay will be in the same place or not. Make sure you have a maintenance manual for your year-

Is the beep coming from the back of the car? That would be the warning that the rear parking sensors may have gone bad. Are there any dash warnings associated with it?

The beeping noise seems to be coming from the dashboard and yes the parking brake letters are flashing as well as the parking button next to the shifter thanks TAG.👊

Sounds like the compressor is getting hot and turning itself off. It has that as a safety backup so you don't burn out the pump. It gets hot from working too much. If that is happening, I would try rebuilding the pump- search online for Bagpiping Andy's rebuild kit- they are about $45. If the pump is turning off frequently, it is not making as much compressed air as it should, gets too hot and turns off. Another thing to check- sometimes- not often- the temperature sensor goes bad so check it too. If you have an OBD2 unit to plug in and diagnose the car, it will tell you if it is overheating the pump. Ok, let me explain something too- The air suspension has no real way to identify a leak in a strut- so, they put a temperature sensor to flag when the pump is working too long. This will either identify a leak, or that the pump is wearing out. So, the fact that your dash lights are not coming on makes me think that it is working often enough to keep the car from sinking, but that it can't pump effectively enough. Rebuild the pump and check for leaks would be my course of action.

@@TheAmericanGarage1 Well, the problem is the compressor is turning on and off even when the system is not in use. Did I get to think that maybe the block valve is not working correctly? The car goes up very slow and at times to go down will take time too it is not like before. At any rate, thank you for your comment appreciated

@@lupecastillo7669 I haven't had any blocked valves, that would be a whole other problem. Sorry I cannot advise you on that one. However, the system is always in use, even when the car is off. The only time the suspension is not actively in use is when it is in jacking mode, otherwise, in the morning it would be on the ground every single morning. Once I forgot to put it in jacking mode when I went to get my tires rotated- well when the set it down it went all the way to the ground! I had to start it and wait 20 minutes before the car started sorting itself out, so don't forget that.

Dylan, thank you for watching! Alright, I have not worked on a Phaeton specifically, so my comments will be general. I am assuming you have an air suspension similar to the A8. If you are just replacing the front airsprings, then it is fine to just jack up the front. However, with air suspension, make sure you put the car in jacking mode so the suspension does not try to adjust while up on the jacks. VAG is great, but if you cannot get it, then you can get a bluetooth OBD 2 like Carista with an app on your handheld device. Find a device that is compatible with your car. Best wishes with your project.

@@TheAmericanGarage1 Thank you so much for taking the time to respond ! I will give it a shot and let you know how that goes. I am pretty assured they have same suspension principle but we will see once I dive in :) Have blessed holidays man !

@@TheAmericanGarage1 Actually one more, I am so sorry. This is still concerning me. I cannot have the device anytime soon as I have to order it. Is the app necessary or the car can pressurize the suspension and the new strut once placed out of jack mode. Thank you so much I appreciate your time, you are helping me a lot here.

There are several, I used RMT.

Just based on your statement, I would check the control arms- especially the uppers. They tend to wear out on Audis-

@@TheAmericanGarage1 I’ve already changed upper and lower I’ve also done sway bar bushings and drop links I’ve done track rod ends also still same sound

@@jimbrown9967 Hmm. At this point I would go to a trusted suspension guy, and get a second set of eyes on it. Perhaps where you get your alignments done-

Well quite simply because my control arms were bad, and needed to be replaced at the same time.

@@TheAmericanGarage1 Well that makes sense..lol

if you look very carefully you can see a paper on my windshield that says RMT- that is who I got my air-springs from. And no, they are not paying me to say it- but hey! Tell them where you heard it and maybe they will! I think they are in Florida as well.

@@TheAmericanGarage1 That's the one I was looking at. Are you happy with them still? I need to call them to figure out which ones to get since I have an S8.

Mike, I have an app on my tablet with a bluetooth OBD2 connector from Carista. It will allow you to reset many different functions. There are other brands too- but this is a handy thing to have in working on modern cars.

Hi there learned a lot from your video I replaced front passenger air strut and leveling sensor on my 05 Audi A8 4.2 D3 . I have OBDELEVEN pro how do I reset computer

My name is Taurus Groves thank you so much!

That doesn't make sense- get a second opinion. Try this- put the car in lift mode, let it raise all the way up. Then put it in jacking mode, and let the car sit overnight. If the struts are bad, it will be sitting on the floor in the morning. If this is the case, then your pump is still working, but the leaky struts can't hold air. If this is happening, then your pump will not work right for very much longer, as it is being overworked. Find out if you have a leak first.

TheAmericanGarage1 I put the car in raise mode and then when it stopped I put it in Jack mode and these are the readings I got at each wheel well. Left front 16 1/2 Right front 16 1/8 Right rear 16 3/8 Right rear 17 even I will check again in the morning to see what happens

I meant the left ear is at 17 even

TheAmericanGarage1 I’ll let the car sit overnight in the suspension did not drop at all.

@@jsmith05403 Okay Jeff, if the car was in jack mode overnight, and it did not drop, then there is no leak in the air-springs. What happens normally is the car actively adjusts it's height all the time- even when it is sitting overnight. Jack mode turns off the car's ability to adjust and stays in one place. The pump will not turn on to pump the car up if it sinks. The reason we have a jack mode is because of this active suspension. Ever forget to turn off jack mode when you go to the tire store? I did once. The car gets jacked up and the tires are taken off- the car sees that the ride height is too high and lets the air all out. They put the tires on and let the car down and the car goes all the way- or nearly so- to the ground. Of course I had to turn the car on and let it sit there 10 minutes while it set itself right. When jack mode is on, none of this happens. The pumps does not turn on to right the car if it gets low, and it doesn't let air out if it senses too high. So, with jack mode on overnight and no drop, there are no leaks in the system. I check mine from time to time to be sure. I have noticed that sometimes the dash lights will come on showing the car is low. I noticed that if I raise the car semi-regularly, then this doesn't happen as much. I tend to raise it when I go to the car wash so I don't hit the bottom on anything. Have a trusted mechanic double check you, but it sounds like your air springs are fine. Remember there are basically three things that typically go wrong in the air suspension- leaky strut, worn out pump, or the relay goes out. I just reread you initial comment- forgetting to turn on jack mode will not ruin your air-springs when the car is lifted- but it is a damn annoyance because the car will be on the ground. Reset the computer, put it in lift mode, wait for it to come up, put it back in automatic or dynamic- whichever you like, let the car sit and get itself back together while it is running. Don't go on down the road until that green light turns off though.

It is hard to say the exact problem, but since the pump is working 30 seconds and turning off, this is a good indication that the pump is working too hard and overheating- so the computer turns it off. This is probably an indication of a leak in an airspring. Look up Bagpiping Andy- he makes a rebuild kit that fixes the pump- then you need to find the source of the leak. Look at the beginning section of the video- you will need to see which corner of the car is lower than the rest- that is probably the leak. With a leaky system, the pump is going to work too hard. If this is your problem, then rebuild the pump, and get a new relay as well. It is best to replace airpsrings in pairs- I replaced my front ones as you have seen- the rear ones last a lot longer than the front ones. I used rebuilt units and saved a bundle

If you had the problem long enough for it to no longer raise, you both have a leak AND a worn pump piston ring. I have 2 of these cars at the moment and am on my 5th and 6th air ride car. All of them but 1 I bought because owners couldn't pay the repair bills. You MAY only have a huge air leak but it doesnt take long to burn the pump.

@@Veikra Agreed.