I noticed by 06 GT Passenger rear suspension lowered when the car sat for a few days. Eventually the driver side also dropped. I followed the steps in a previous thread, did a soap test and found a leak at the top connection to the strut where the brass connector connects to the strut.

Strut ID

Strut Leak

Is there a chance the connector can be tightened or a seal replaced or should I just order a new set of struts. If the connector can't be repaired or tightened, I would prefer to have the new strut on hand befor removing the old one.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I have learned so much from this forum.

Bigdog63

 

Hello @Bigdog63 ,
I am not 100% on the rear fitting, I can see about removing the fitting in the morning on a unit I have, but I believe that the rear has the o-ring just like the front, the fittings look exactly alike as pictured below, so if I were you I would remove the air line fitting, then unscrew the residual valve brass fitting to check the o-ring.

Johnny

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Rear unit

Rear unit

Rear unit

 

Thanks Johnny. Is there a special tool to remove the fitting? The fitting looks like it has two notches that a tool would fit into. I hate using pliers and marring up the fitting.

Thanks again. Your knowledge and willingness to share it is incredible.

 

Very interesting. My Rear axles will not lower even when VCDS issueing the BLEED command to the rear. Is it possible that these valves are bad?

 

I will leave that question to someone with more knowledge. It seems to me that the bleed command would go through the valves that are electronically connected. These residual pressure holding valves appear just to hold some pressure in the strut so that the vehicle does not fully drop if the supply lines are leaking. I ordered 2 to try to see if this stops the leak I am experiencing at the base of the valve. Apparently there is an o-ring involved and the leak at the base can occur if the valve is over tightened and the o-ring moves. I also ordered the tool to remove and tighten the valve. It looks like a socket with 2 nibs on the inside to grab the indents in the valve. It was kind of a rip-off at $65 but I didn't want to risk over tightening the valve and creating the same problem. I will let everyone know if this fixes the issue.

 

@Bigdog63 Can you share a link to where you got the valves? thx

 

Here you go. It looks like the front are the same part number.

https://aerosus.net/bentley/continen...2003-2012.html

The tool I got on ebay. it is supposed to be here tomorrow. This says it is for an Audi, but the VW part number is the same.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/166925204636

 

Thanks Mayne!

Do you happen to know whether the 2013 - 2018 FS/GT have the same air suspension/parts as the Gen1?

Everything looks so similar. I saw @Johnny Hotspur GT awesome post that Arnott does not actually "remanufacture" their struts at all. I'mn wondering whether anybody has used the "cheap" $400ish NON-OEM air suspension struts. Any success? or do they fail quickly?

 

Not sure on the newer years. I am sure Johnny would know.

I had good luck with Arnott on my 2012 Mercedes CLS. I replaced the rears once and never had a problem again. I did see where Arnott has an OEM rebuild option. It looks like you buy them and send the old ones in and get a core charge refund. It brings the price from $960 down to $720 after the core charge refund. If I need to replace the struts I may go that route. My 06 GT only has 27k miles on it and I do not plan to drive it much, maybe a few thousand miles per year. I wonder if the new Arnott's would be worth it. My independent mechanic said that Arnott is the way to go.

I am a little skittish of going with a cheaper rebuild. Too many horror stories. I am sure there are good ones out there but I don't want to spend the time to replace something just to have it fail again.

Hopefully the o-ring on the residual pressure holding valve fixes the leak and I can put off the strut replacement for now.

 

I got my 2015 FS with 65k on the clock. Prior owner put legit Arnott on all 4 corners at 45k miles. I have the receipts from the work, and you can clearly feel the difference between ll 5 comfort/sport settings. I was on the Arnott website and see that they no longer offer lifetime warranty on their struts. As such, I'm just thinking "worst case" if I need to replace a strut to solve my issue. Happy Labor day.

 

Well good news. I was able to remove the airline and pressure holding valve without removing the strut and found that the o-ring had a crack in it causing the leak. I replaced the o-ring and reinstalled the valve and it has been a week with no height change.

Some interesting observations:

1. Always do a soap test when issues arise. Johnny's recommendation to replace the o-ring was spot on and saved me from replacing the struts. At least for now.
2. The socket needed to removes the Residual Pressure holding valve is VW part number T10158. I originally ordered the part number T10158/1 from ebay but it had a larger inside diameter and was too big. I ordered the T10158 from Snap-on and it was delivered in a few days.
3. When I had the leak, the rear end would drop down in 3-4 days. When I opened the door the rear end lifted up to normal height. I did not need to start the car for the rear end to rise.
4. I was able to remove the valve without removing the strut. It was a bit tight and I had to use channel locks to turn the valve. The socket prevented damage to the valve from the pliers.
5. I also ran the VDCS after the repair and there were no suspension errors.

Here are a few pics.

Valve with old O-Ring

O-Ring crack

I hope this helps.