Any Audi owners here? Specifically S6/S7

ttocs · Aug 27, 2025

I know just from installing audio/security in audi/bmw/merc that it is just not fun with how tight they make everything. Shit $2200 for the air struts I don't know if my ridetech Ir-struts cost that much now(it has been a while since I did mine). They fill every inch of those cars with something. I remember when DEI came out with a smaller siren, just barely bigger than your fist and having fits trying to find a place not obvious where it was and still have room.

joemomma · Sep 2, 2025

Yeah that $2200 was for one (!) installed with labor and an alignment. The part itself is $1200. I've put less than 100 miles on it since picking it up and was greeted with the same failure this morning. My guess is the borrowed time I was on with the other front air strut has expired. Back to the shop for diagnosis.

ttocs · Sep 6, 2025

oh hell I could only imagine walking out a couple weeks later to see that. They make nice cars for sure but no one can make a perfect car and it seems like almost every brand/make/model has one achilles tendon of some type.

joemomma · Sep 8, 2025

Yeah the fun part is it was less than a week lol. They've still got it, haven't heard from them on the diagnosis yet. Maybe I'll get lucky and it was a bad out of the box new part. It seems the air suspension for Audi is their Achilles, it's not a matter of if but when. Seems most any manufacturer that uses air suspension has the same issues.

ttocs · Sep 8, 2025

damn it was the same with the lincoln mark VIII. My neighbor had a nice black one that that air ride went out on and he just parked it. I was hoping maybe one day I could make it my next project but I have never had the time and he finally ended up selling it junk. He was the type of guy that never reved it over 3k rpms and always had the oil changed, it was cherry except for the air ride when he parked it but years later after his grandkids basketballs had been bounced all over it, it was falling apart.

joemomma · Sep 8, 2025

I had a '93 Mark 8 back in the day - fantastic car. Air ride failed in it (both front struts and the compressor). We replaced those components and I got another 100k or so out of it.

Bronco2Fan · Sep 8, 2025

I've been really lucky with my Q7. Just normal services so far. No air ride in it, but rides really nice.
S6 is the shit though, still hunting for one i really want. Hope it goes well for you.

joemomma · Sep 9, 2025

Spoke with the shop yesterday, they're still chasing the issue. Thinking it may be a bad ride-height sensor. Those aren't terribly expensive so that's good news.

joemomma · Oct 27, 2025

Updates for anyone following along:

Shop couldn't pinpoint any issues/leaks with the struts or sensors. Not sure how they tested them but anyway. I ended up biting the bullet on sensors because I was still getting codes for bad ride height sensors. Couple hundred bucks for 4 new sensors and couple hundred for the shop to install them. Air suspension seems to be sorted for the time being.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, I start getting notifications in the dash for brake pads (car has sensors that measure pad thickness in the calipers through some wizardry). A quick visual inspection shows 6mm on both rears and like 2mm on the fronts, with a gnarly lip on both the inner and outer edges. So, I order pads and rotors which came in at $500 for the cheapest rotors I could find and Powerstop Z26 pads. Nice rotors were north of $1000, so I elected to skip those. Also ordered new sensors (like $15/each).

Here's where the fun begins: in my head, "it's just pads and rotors, no big deal" translated to spending the better part of Sunday on said pads and rotors, including having a work buddy come over to help and a trip to AZ for a breaker bar to bust the 21mm caliper bolts loose. Once those were loose, it was standard stuff with getting the old pads out of the caliper. Rotors weren't too terrible - I got lucky and the T30 retaining screws weren't seized. Rotors were frozen on the hub despite being a Southern car it's whole life. Liberal application of PB Blaster and a rubber mallet got that sorted. After my best tin man impersonation thanks to anti-seize, rotors back on and ready for new pads.
THIS WAS THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING I'VE EVER ATTEMPTED WITH A CAR. The pads have to slip over two posts, so you have to go in at an angle and compress a metal tensioner type thing to slip over the posts. Nearly impossible once one pad is in. We ended up looping a zip tie through the metal tensioner and pulling down, while the other guy works the second pad in. Took us an hour each side. Mind you these are 6-piston Brembos with about 6" of brake line to work with. So they're huge, and heavy. Big ass 15.75" rotors too. Needless to say, I'll not be doing brakes on this one again.

b1pig · Oct 28, 2025

Little quirks on a car can be one of those "once you know, you know" kind of knowledge. First time you do it, it takes a hour to figure out how to do it. Once you figure it out, only takes 15 minutes.

That has been my trend doing equipment installation in cars. Once I figure out how I want to run wires or mount something... it takes me half the time to set up and do the work. Once I've done it a couple of times, I usually can find ways to streamline it or faster ways to get the same (or better) results.

To be fair.... I had a LOT of this as I worked through the interior on my Mustang.

joemomma · Apr 20, 2026

Checking back in with a new update. Had the rear sport diff serviced with new fluids (lifetime fluid per Audi, but I ain't buying that noise) and also with more air suspension issues! Tech said the old fluid looked/smelled fine, but it's a good piece of mind maintenance item. The Audi sport diff uses two fluids - gear oil in one side and ATF in the other side. Pretty wild setup.

This time it's the driver side front air strut. I knew it was going to fail at some point, and it finally did. Went in the shop late last week for replacement as I'm not brave enough to tackle this job - there's a pinch bolt on the upper control arm that secures two upside down ball joints, and it's notorious for being a bear. Steering clear of that guy. Anyway, they get the new strut in and it still has a very slow leak - like after several hours it will have a bit of a lean. The old strut was definitely bad, big hole in the rubber bag portion. But - the shop hasn't been able to identify the leak yet. So they've still got the car and are chasing the leak. My guess is a "bad out of the box" replacement air strut. If I could quit spending money on repairs I'd throw a tune on the thing and make it "felony fast".

joemomma · Apr 22, 2026

Update - shop couldn't find any other issue, so they were like "just send it". Went to pick it up last night, and when he was showing me what it was doing it finally threw a code. Scanned it and there was an error for default height or something along those lines - basically, it needed a default height to be set. So he's going to run through the adaptations in ODIS (the Audi dealer software) today and should be back on the road.

b1pig · Apr 22, 2026

Wife's Q3 overheated a couple months back. Had to park it till I had the time and money to fool with it. The VCDS allowed me to verify that the fan motors were done. I'm guessing it was brush material that came out of the motors after I got them out. absolute dust. New fans and a new controller just to be safe. Found the valve cover leaking now.... so that's gonna be a pain later on. However in my run through with that new VCDS, I confirmed something I found out by accident. AWD inop. Haldex pump not working. So. Thats MY next Audi job.

joemomma · Apr 23, 2026

Oh man, I do not envy you lol. VCDS is a must-have if you're an Audi/VAG owner.

joemomma · Monday at 9:00 AM

The decision was made to get rid of the S7. While it was a fantastic automobile (when it was right), it was a nightmare when it wasn't. I had been fighting an intermittent "fail safe mode" with the air suspension after the driver side front air strut finally failed. My local indy shop replaced it with a new Arnott assembly. Turns out, it was bad out of the box. Thankfully it was covered under warranty from Arnott, so another new replacement went in. Our suspicion is that this one was bad out of the box as well, causing the intermittent fail safe mode. Fail safe mode, the system basically locks in full stiff - compressor shuts off, locks the ride height where it is, and closes all valving - essentially like riding on bump stops but you are at full ride height. It was intermittent, in fact the last week or so it didn't error out at all. Whatever it was angry about it may have finally sorted out.

Last week it started having a strong gas smell both in and out of the car. Likely high pressure fuel pumps failing or something with the evap system. I didn't dive in to check it out. I had been considering unloading it anyway, but the opportunity to trade it in on a new whip for the wife came up so that's what we did. I took a bath on it with what I spent on repairs/maintenance. I did OK on the trade (a couple thousand less than what I could have sold it for) but that's OK. I was likely looking at a pretty hefty repair bill and I was just ready to be out from it. It's supposed to bring joy, but it was nothing but a stressor.

ttocs · Monday at 12:29 PM

A neighbor was just finding out how much fun it can be just to change a battery in her VW as you have to pay the dealer to reset the battery in the software or it will kill it. Of course this simple to do process only cost them $150 on top of the battery for the dealership to plug in their computer.

Makes me want to find a computer that can do it and start charging people $100 to do it