Im driving a 2012 S4 that I've had air on for about 6 months. Both my front left and front right sags down while being parked. Quite a noticeable amount over an 8 hour period or so. the leaks in the front suspension are coming from the fitting from the front bag to the air line. My system has pretty much been leaking since day one. My installer in calgary told me when it was installed that all air systems are not perfect. However, it was pretty bad so I kept bringing it back and they found a nicked line. That helped a lot when they fixed that but the front has still always sagged a bit. It has recently got worse so I brought it back and they diagnosed these leaks. They claim the plastic fittings and are not sufficient for this setup in our climate and the air fitting being on the moving end of the bag means a lot more of the road bumps are transferred into the fitting and line. They claim in this cold weather in Calgary there is less flex in the line it doesn’t seat against the o-ring in the fitting as it should. They recommended to upgrade to a compression type fitting to eliminate the chance of this leaking again. The shop claimed in order to install these it requires the shock/bag assembly to be removed from the car and have the bag removed from the plate on the shock.
I talked to Accuair and they told me this is just not true. They say the fittings that they use are the same ones used on the air brakes of every heavy duty vehicle on the road today. They don't fail like that unless the internal seal gets damaged during installation, or the air line is cut so short that it is constantly tugging on the fitting. They also tell me the compression type fittings that they are suggesting are in fact the worst fitting for reliability. Accuair told me the only change that some would opt for over the current style fitting would be to do a braided stainless steel leader line that flexes with the air spring and attaches to the side of the frame. They have done this in some cars where they didn't have enough space for the plastic line to flex properly. However they say they dont know of a single B8 kit that isn't using their fitting and plumbing package as designed. In either case - swapping a fitting or going to a stainless leader hose - there is absolutely no reason to remove the strut from the vehicle. The lower plate can be removed from the air spring once the wheel is off the car and you simply RR the fitting with the air bag still on the strut.
So what do you guys think? Do these fittings leak or did my install shop fuck up?
Thanks
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