Aceler8

Last April I ordered a A1 CARDONE manufactured strut for the front driver side. Installation was fine, but immediately it threw the error below and made crunching sounds over bumps. Very annoying.

00142 - Left Front Dampening Adjustment Valve (N336)
012 - Electrical Fault in Circuit

I contacted the company and sent them the code and they said to send it back as defective. Well, life gets in the way and i just replaced it with another one. Installation was straight forward and the crunching sound is gone, but the code remains. I've tried to clear with VCDS software, but it immediately returns.


Just before i switched them, the passenger side strut gave way. This time i ordered a Arnott 'new' strut for $140 more than the CARDONE (both from rockauto).
This strut appears better quality based on appearance. However, once everything was installed i went to give the finishing touch and the plugs wound not mesh. The Arnott plug doesn't have the proper gap to fit the Audi plug.
I had to splice the old OEM plug to the new Arnott wire and it connected.

Moral to the story, buy Audi parts. As i continue ownership and read senior advise, it appears the OEM parts are far superior. So buyer beware.

I'll report back if any of these struts fail or i find a way to clear the code.

richard-tx

Buy an Audi strut and I'll bet the code will go away. If not, then I suspect that the Cargone strut blew out the controller.

Mister Bally

You know my line....

milellie111

Unfortunately, many including myself do not have a big dummy sticker on our foreheads to pay $1800 per strut new from Audi on a 10+ year old vehicle. D3 A8's are now only worth about 7 to 10k so it is quite insane that Audi would expect an owner to drop half of the value of the car (not including labor) in a set of struts. Sadly, the only other sensible and cost effective alternatives are aftermarket rebuilds which unfortunately are a roll of the dice with all sorts of noise and clunking issues (RMT) or new aftermarket from Arnott which disables adaptive dampening a key feature of OEM struts.

There is absolutely no reason why Audi has not lowered the price of new OEM struts on a vehicle 2 generations old which is why you see many of these cars junked now. This alone can ruin the brand as many owners do not see long term ownership as reasonable. You're telling me that if I had to replace all the struts on my A8 I'm looking at 8 grand? Even the rich who can afford an A8 brand new are smart with their money.

You can find genuine new rebuilt by Mercedes OEM Airmatic shocks for an S550 for 1k each.
So why can't Audi offer the same rebuilding of their own struts at lower cost for loyal customers who would like to keep their cars for 10, 15, 20 years? This is why Audi still lags behind the German big dogs in the states in regards to total ownership satisfaction, longevity and resale value.

Mister Bally

I don't think I have a big dummy sticker on my forehead either.

There is a reason Audi doesn't lower the price; greed. Also, Conti may not have made as many struts as were made for the Mercedes you mentioned so a reman program may not make a good business case.

My '04 has 271.000 miles on it. Still has three original struts. The right front went out on me about six or seven years ago. It cost about $1400.00 for the part back then. I wouldn't think my car is even worth $4k these days but I have no problem doing repairs and buying the right parts for it. I've put in over $2500.00 in parts in the past year after my wife damaged it by hitting a new in box hot water tank laying on the highway in a snow storm at night. She was ok but the car was damaged. It still made it 150 miles to home. I put the money into it as I would never get one in the condition mine is in. Plus, I know what went into it over the past 11+ years.

milellie111

271,000 miles on original struts? You are quite the exception. In your case, they are worth $1400 new. Impressive, I take it 90 percent highway driving/long roadtrips? A lot of regular use vehicles around here myself included mix city and highway driving these struts fail/leak around the 100-120k mark. According to Audi keeping their prices overinflated, if they care about value to the brand by customers hanging on to their vehicles proving their dependability to 200,000 miles, that would mean 2 cycles of strut replacements on the vehicle totaling $15,000!

You said it correctly, greed!

Jack88

Remember, when questioning whether or not a repair is worth it, the question isn't always what the car is worth but rather what is the worth of what it provides you. Usually you see this in classic cars, people put loads more into them than they ever see back, but it's worth it because they enjoy the results of that investment. If you put $6000 over 4 years into a $5000 car, but got another 80k comfortable miles out of it, was that not worth the investment?

Tstealth32

Current mx cost for me is $86/mo. That's over 19 months. DIY.

G28 RPM sensor
Right Fuel Pump in Gas Tank
Fuel Filter Change
Front Brake Pads (EBC Reds) Front upper control arm bushing (Moog) C-Links sway bar (Moog)
Oil Filter, 0w-30 Mobile 1
oil Filter, oil change Rotell T6
right rear air strut replaced, spare tire replaced, spare tire TPMS replaced
cabin air filter replaced (Hengst, tight fit, use OEM), Left upper rear control arm replaced
right side, upper control arms replaced.
3 tires and tpms replaced, mounted and balamced
oil and filter changed Rotell T6
4 wheel alignment and tires balanced/Rotated


Paid just under 15k. At $86, this car is heaven.

Aceler8

Why can't these companies get it right?

1st CARDONE = crunch sounds over all bumps and yellow suspension light ON
2nd CARDONE = yellow suspension light ON & 1 of the male bolts on top of suspension was bent. We had to modify to fit Audi mount
1st Arnott = female wire connector does not fit Audi male connector

so what are the odds to go 0-3? This isn't rocket science and it appears they make many of these struts. And I do all this as DIY projects. Cannot think about paying garage to mess with all this stuff.

Tstealth32

Buy a used oem strut online. Find a lower mile car or you will find a high miles car with a newer replacement. I have a complete oem set for less than 800, all low mileage. Keep looking at eBay. These cars can be cheap if you're proactive and ready to purchase commonly failed items before they fail.