Jack88

So, I'm a bit irritated. The shop I was recommended to quoted me $700 to replace the bushings on the front control arms, labor only, $600 to do the half shafts, and then suggested I do the front brakes, for a cost of $900. I declined his services, told him I couldn't afford it at those rates, and when I went to pick up the car last night, the battery was dead. What the hell is going on here?!

MP4.2+6.0

As you probably know from experience, leave tunes on a long time and it eventually gets balky. Leave MMI screen up a long time, same answer. Leave key on in ignition (common when doing mechanical stuff), same answer on steroids. Dumb stuff like leaving lights switch on in D3 (not D4) or hitting it with your knee, same answer. No, not what should happen at a shop.

Meantime, watch your battery. My rule is one unexplained issue like this, it's on probation. One more in next few weeks and it is summarily replaced--even just a slow start or something power mngt system cuts out early like keyless entry, or deeper down discharge wise the regular remote.

Jack88

I had to get a new battery, the other one load tested bad, I guess it was on its last legs. New problem. I got the car picked up and the suspension light quickly came on, options grayed out. The following codes resulted;

01772 - Signal from Level Control Pressure Sensor (G291)
008 - Implausible Signal - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00101000
Fault Priority: 3
Fault Frequency: 18
Reset counter: 94
Mileage: 244616 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2018.04.19
Time: 12:27:52

01598 - Drive Battery Voltage
002 - Lower Limit Exceeded - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100010
Fault Priority: 4
Fault Frequency: 1
Reset counter: 95
Mileage: 0 km
Time Indication: 0

01400 - Suspension Level Control
002 - Lower Limit Exceeded
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 11100010
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 2
Reset counter: 56
Mileage: 244869 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2018.05.16
Time: 14:18:02
Clearing the codes allows the options to reappear, so I tried to put it in lift mode, and I do not hear the compressor kick on. Shortly after options are grayed out again and the lower limit exceeded code returns. I'm baffled! This one is new on me. No overtemp codes for the compressor appeared, which is what I expected. I'm worried because I do have a leaky strut, although it is very slow right now, it won't last a lot past a week before it bottoms out.

MP4.2+6.0

Hmmm.

Playing with fire on not addressing the leak directly as far as burning compressor risk, but again you probably know that.

Do you know meanwhile that the pump is cycling for sure?--at any point? When I had my D3 flare up of late, it turned out to be bad fuse. Relay looked pretty worn when I replaced it and broke open the old one; my guess of what took out the fuse to start with. As soon as those were replaced, compressor kicked right back to life. In that situation, it was holding height generally, yet both lift and dynamic were greyed out. But the system was airtight at the time so it was not so obvious compressor had the blown fuse. If you are familiar with it, the fuse for most of them is buried under the dash long with the relay, so you have to deal with that diassembly hassle. Not saying this is your scenario but offering it up if it helps.

Jack88

For the record I'm not driving the car! I know the leak needs to be dealt with, I'm working on it. It's a very slow leak, makes it hard to be 100% sure what it is. I consider the torn CV boot a more pressing issue at the moment, since it just tore and I don't want to take out the whole joint. That repair is going to be done as soon as I can, the shop was supposed to handle that and the upper control arm bushings but the quote they came back with after looking at the car was $1300 for the job, with me having already provided the parts. They also wanted $900 to do the front brakes, since I have still not figured out why that light is on, and they just assumed it needed pads and rotors. It does need rotors, but it's not critical and the pads have lots left.

Edit; I do hear a click from near my left knee when I tried to put it in lift mode and another click when the car threw the light and grayed out the options.

Jack88

Slight update! My brother suggested since it was a lower limit exceeded error to jack it up a little and see if that helped. So, I jacked up the passenger side, the one with an issue, just a couple inches and tried to put it in lift mode and I'll be damned, it did it and held the height just fine. It's worth noting that the car takes about a minute to finish putting itself in lift mode, which seems like too long. The compressor may be a bit tired, but it does seem to function still.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

You should go back to basic, do the simple test, lift-mode then jack-mode to see what's lower after a few minutes - just like my video. If the G291 valve block is bad, both front or rear or all will be lowered.
If you keep running VCDS, then trust it, G291 is the valve block, you can't replace the G291, replace the whole thing.
Cheers,
Louis

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

If you live near Fremont, drive your car here I'll help you to replace control arms and boot cover.
Just buy the whole thing. You don't drive much why the bushings?
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/vw-...ont-4e0407505b
I've been using combination of Karlyn and Delphi, my car has been fine.
Don't over complicate thing.
Find out the suspension leak and fix it once and for all.
Since I don't drink beer, only cognac and liquor and I do have them stocked so you don't have to buy anything. Yes, I do things for fun.

Cheers,
Louis

Jack88

Louis, I really do appreciate the kind offer! I live near Los Angeles, a bit of a drive to Fremont! I wanted to keep OEM parts on the car where possible, and I do intend to use the car as a daily driver, which sometimes means a spirited canyon run, so a well sorted suspension is important! I intend to replace all of the CV boots on the front, since the driver's inner boot doesn't look long for this world either, and replacing the outers shouldn't be much extra if I'm doing the others. Maybe pressing in new bushings is complicating matters, but OEM cost around $230 each for the uppers and the bushings a tenth of that. I have no idea why they cost that much, they should be $80, at most, it's not as if it's a complex or precision part.

The leaky suspension is a recent development, it was bottoming out over a 48 hour period last December, so I had a used strut installed and it was 4 months before I saw the little green suspension light illuminate for no reason while driving. Interestingly, it will clearly lose height if left in lift and jack mode from the front passenger over 3 days, but left alone for 10 days, it still doesn't bottom out.

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

CA: after installing the cheap version I had 1 bad one but I believed it was my fault for not settling it correctly.
Suspension; it's definitely the g291 for lowering both front in jack mode.
Boot: it's cheaper and less labor cost if replacing the whole shaft imo.
It would take less than 2 hrs to replace CA.
Cheers,
Louis