ThomHart

All- Front air bags are leaking and this after I "Slimed" them a few months ago. Going to put in Gen II Arnots front and rear, there's a 10% coupon here on AudiWorld- thanks Doug! Wanted opinions on Bilsteins. Have those who used them thought it was worth the money? I have a sports car (restored '88 BMW 325iC) so I use my allroad gently as a family wagon. nontheless I do enjoy driving it and would put the Biolsteins in if evryone thought it was a worthwhile upgrade. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks, Thom

GTA_Driver

Well do you want to part with more money?

With stiffer gen II bags you want shocks with dampening that closer matches the spring. Stock shocks are underdampened.

lsc2g

my front driver leaks on lev1 and lev2 (2-3 days to slowly go down) so i'm going to buy some arnott gen2s too..

just for the front tho and keep the stock shocks

found the discount thread! thx

71peitler

I had some Bilsteins & Gen II installed on my allroad recently. At the moment I'm not to happy. I thought they would give me a better ride more sporty instead every bump in the road I get a real bad wash out in the rear end. Has anyone with the same set-up experience this? Anyway the car is still in the shop & they are trying to resolve this problem. The car has new control arms, aligment, tires, brakes front & back.

01 2.7t

I have the stock set up on mine and i was getting loose in the rear when going over bumps,,, turned out to be that my alignment was off. This was a bit of a surprise to me because the car was tracking straight.

What level was the alignment done at? I only ask because by the design of the car the alignment changes (granted only a drop)when you change your ride height. Example if your alignment was done at level 3 and you drive always on level 1 you may get some play.

Granted this is what I have been told about my car.

slatebrick

I have Gen I all around. When I had a leaky bag to fix last year I decided to do Bilsteins. I was only changing our the rear so for now I only have a pair on the back with stock still on the front. The difference was still significant. The car used to squat badly under acceleration and it doesn't do it anywhere as much now. It still doesn't compare to our GTI or CRX when it comes to handling, but it is a significant improvement.

GTA_Driver

Thanks, that is very good info.

Kentetsu

Just a quick note to help you guys out:

When replacing the front air bags, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REMOVE THE INFAMOUS "PINCH BOLT"!!!

Like most everybody else, I found mine to be "welded" together and could not remove it (pinch bolt) without doing damage. However, I found that by cranking the wheel all the way in one direction (other direction for the other side of the car) you can pop the entire strut assembly out of the wheel well and perform all the work that needs to be done.

I managed to swap out the 2nd front airbag in under 30 minutes once the wheel was off.

Feel free to send me large quantities of Heineken for this huge time saver.

audi01a6

stay with the air bags,more better

dcaron9999

Also looking into air suspension repair/upgrade. My front left bag has started to sag just a bit (sits a quarter inch lower than three others after a few days of no use in my heated garage). My air pump works overtime when riding in position #2 a little more often than normal. I will be doing the soapy water test on all bags, tubes, regulator, and pump soon. Up to now (2 months ownership), there are no warning lights on my cluster. Been thinking about OEM or Arnott gen #1, as they now ship from Canada (my homeland) from what I heard. Are there other reputable third party air bag suspension providers that you guys recommend? I want to stick with air adjustable suspension which is one of the reasons this car is so unique.