Please tell me I'm not imagining!

[Ozrs4]

Guys, I had 2 front shocks replaced 6 weeks ago and 2 rear shocks done 2 weeks later. As soon as I drove out of the audi garage, I heard clanking noise and I thought may be it was just me...but it has gotten worst!

So decided to lift the car up and see...this is what I found (see photos). Please tell me this ain't normal looking. Can anyone tell me if Audi would need to replace just the front ones again or ALL four shocks again? thanks.

[jackwood]

Wow, that is the worst leak I have ever seen!!!!

Did you check all 4 or just the fronts?

How long ago were those shocks replaced? They are very dirty/caked for shocks that were replaced only a few weeks ago. How many miles have you don esince those ones were replaced? Are you sure they replaced them first time oround and didn't just attempt to re-pressure the system?

[jackwood]

Oh, and this reminds me: does anyone know what those little lever-arm sensors are for that push up against the lower wish-bone? They look like they monitor the position of the suspension. Is that right?

[Ozrs4]

The front ones and a central valve were replaced 8 weeks ago and the rear ones were replaced 4 weeks ago. I checked the rear one but they have a sleeve over it so can't tell if they are leaking again also. I was told rear shocks were replaced and the valve was re-pressurised, not replaced. Now I figure why the noise was coming from the right rear as the left front one is leaking badly so the pressure is dropped on the diagonal shock and the rear are lighter than the front.

I never saw the old rear shocks but they did show me the old front shocks when they replaced them.

What I am curious is did replacing the rear ones cause the front ones to leak? or is it possible that the front ones were done badly that they leak again so soon. I only heard the clanking noise after they replaced the rear ones on the sam day I picked the car up from the dealer...so I'm thinking whoever did the rear ones caused the front ones to leak.

Does anyone one this is dangerous to drive with the shocks leaking this bad or is it just a case of annoying noise and compromised handling?

[William_Blake]

this DRC is really pissing me off... why hasn't Audi come up with a decent solution?

[P_G]

Have you bought an RS4 yet? I've now had mine over a year and it is two years old and touching wood as I write this no problems.

Like said preiously I do not believe this site is a wholesale representation of all RS4 owners, I would suggest perhaps only 100 of 4000 are on this site so although it is a highlighted problem, not quite as drastic as you make out William but a pain nonetheless and my sympathies to those who have the issue.

[Marcus-RS4]

Which seems to be the majority, on this site at least

[sonny]

Jesus!

[PetrolDave]

Which seems to be the majority, on this site at least

Don't forget the "debate" that took place a couple of weeks ago on here about whether 100 self selected enthusiast owners can be representative of the 4000+ total RS4 owners. Statistically they are not representative, but our experiences should be taken as a possible warning sign.

[hanbury]

Ozrs4

you have my sympathy but I can't say I'm surprised.

I have now had shocks replaced on three seperate occasions in the last four months/5000 miles. Most recently , my car was in this week for two new front shocks just four weeks/1,000 miles since the last time (when one of the fronts was replaced) and, because of the delay on fluid a while back, my car has spent as much time in the stealers in the last three months as it has in my possession.

Whether we are representative of RS4 owners in general I don't know but this problem is seriously spoiling my enjoyment of what is otherwise a great car. As things stand I don't feel my car is fit for purpose and am seriously considering my options.

[hanbury]

Sorry, just to pick up on Ozrs4 point about whether this is dangerous.

On each occasion that my shocks have gone I have had two symptoms, i) a knocking on rebound (normally at slow speed over speed ramps) and ii) tramlining/tracking for no apparent reason on a variety of road surfaces.

I had kept thinking that maybe it was me or that maybe it was be due to low profile tyres and/or the fact that they are not in the first flush of youth and will need to be replaced very soon. However, since getting my car back last Thursday I have done 300 miles with the new front shocks on a variety of roads and at a variety of speeds - not once have I experienced the tracking/tramlining in that time.

I don't want to say it is dangerous but when, for no apparent reason, the car suddenly appears to deviate from or doesn't want to take the course I'm steering I dont' feel particularly safe!

[P_G]

Ozrs4

you have my sympathy but I can't say I'm surprised.

I have now had shocks replaced on three seperate occasions in the last four months/5000 miles. Most recently , my car was in this week for two new front shocks just four weeks/1,000 miles since the last time (when one of the fronts was replaced) and, because of the delay on fluid a while back, my car has spent as much time in the stealers in the last three months as it has in my possession.

Whether we are representative of RS4 owners in general I don't know but this problem is seriously spoiling my enjoyment of what is otherwise a great car. As things stand I don't feel my car is fit for purpose and am seriously considering my options.

I'm curious, purely because I have not had this misfortune hanbury, but what sort of driving conditions to you encounter? Mostly country roads, high cornering forces, adverse cambers? I wonder how you have been unlucky to manage to have your shocks replced so many times yet in 17000 miles of driving this last 12 months I have not had an issue and wonder if some of it is down to how we use our cars and where?

[GardinerG]

Oh, and this reminds me: does anyone know what those little lever-arm sensors are for that push up against the lower wish-bone? They look like they monitor the position of the suspension. Is that right?

I couldn't see a reply to this Jack, so.... On the RS6 they are for the headlamp self levelling control, and they do indeed monitor suspension levels. It has one sensor on the front, one on the rear, but only on one side of the car. I imagine the RS4 B7 is the same.

Self levelling suspension cars (A6 allroad, etc) have 4 - one for each corner IIRC.

Oh, and a clanking DRC is "normally" caused by lack of pressure, again this was the case on my '6. There are other causes to suspension clanks however...

HTH

Grant

[jackwood]

These comments of "100 out of 4000" numbers not being representative of the whole RS4 picture is a point I made to Audi customer services:

OK, their number of failures so far may be "small", but is that because the problem does not exist in other cars, or is it just just because the other "Non-Enthusiast" owners haven't bothered to have theirs checked? Or, is it because this issue is not a recall item, the dealers don't even check for it when the cars come in for routine maintenance? And, as seen by owners on here, when they have been asked to check, some have failed to diagnose the problem correctly? Because it only gets reported, or requested to be checked, by owners if they are actually aware of the issue from sites such as this.

This is a real chicken'n'egg situation, and Audi are maybe kidding themselves, or more likely us, by flaunting this "small" percentage quote to us based an unrealistic straw poll.........you might even go as far to say that our small group of figures collected here are MORE accurate than the figures Audi themselves are working to.........

[Ozrs4]

Good to hear different views and opinions.
For me, it's purely annoying to waste so much time to get things repaired or replaced eventhough it's all done under warranty and when the car is making clanking noises, you feel like you're driving a Skoda or something (mind you, these probably don't even make noise). On one hand, I do think the audi tech is doing the best they can for me as I know the master tech is passionate about high performance cars but on the other hand, I think Audi has produce a high performance car with lack of reliability (whether one thinks this is a common problem or not, it still spoil the driving pleasure for those that own these lemons) and that's a let down. Also, I don't think Audi have trained the tech well enough to carry our repair correctly otherwise recurrence of leaking shocks should have not happen again so soon. Ever since I had the shocks replaced, I haven't even driven much at all and it's all city driving, so I can definitely exclude my driving style being the cause of the re-leak.
Well, it's going back to the dealer for another repair, at least the cause is so obvious now, last time I went in complaining of the noises, they couldn't find anything wrong, well they didn't look the front shocks!