Ok everybody thanks for all of your help. We wound up replacing the level sensors first. That was not the issue. Then we tried the solenoid block - no dice.The replacement was a bit different anyhow. Then we went after the residual pressure valves. I'm not sure if those were affected, but manually disconnecting the air hoses dropped the car to the ground. We replaced those anyhow, bc you know - why not.

I ran the car through the basic settings to raise her up to a normal level, then ran adaptation. The level was off by a fem mm 410 vs 405 in front/back. But at the end of the day, the car raised and lowered at the press of the button, and didn't start up w/ any jack mode issues. I havent driven her very far - but it's a definite win for VCDS and this forum. Thanks for all the help. I hope that if anybody else has this issue - the solution is simple. First identify if one axle is not lowering. I think that the out of range 01400 error (too high) indicated that somehow the axle got too high and gets "stuck". Before you order any parts - just manually bleed the affected axle. Then run adaptation or an output test.