Retrofit Air Suspension to 2016 4M Q7 - Let the journey begin

[davus]

Hi All,

Coming to you from Melbourne, Australia here. So keep that I'm mind as you read this post.:) Also as but of a heads up, it might be a little wordy.

A little background before we kick off. I've recently upgraded from a 4L Q7, to a 4M. My 4L was a 2008 model, and had every option available at the time of purchase. One of which was adaptive air suspension, which is the focus of this thread.

As I was shopping around for my new car, I came to the realization that in Australia, the 4M Q7 does NOT come with air suspension. Only the SQ7 - The price of which (even second hand) was not viable for my budget.

I tow a 3.4 ton boat, with roughly a 300kg tow ball downforce. The air suspension in my 4L was absolutely brilliant at levelling the car back up when loaded, and was a beautiful ride (and tow car). Fast forward to the 4M, and the reality is the strain it puts on the standard steel suspension is just too much. The rear of the car sags significantly, which impacts steering / handing etc. So, I've made the decision that I'll be retro fitting the Adaptive Air Suspension.

I'm comfortable in my ability to do all this work, but some parts will need to more investigation and research than others. No doubt.

I see there being three main areas I'm going to need to tackle.

1) The Mechanical
I'm my mind, this is the easy bit. Turning spanners is pretty easy. I've used various resources the understand the majority of the parts I need, and have started the process of purchasing them.
Even thought not exhaustive, this is the backbone of what I've found so far.

Part Description Audi Part number Possible Superseeded part numbers
FL shock 4M0*616*039*AC 4M0*616*039*AD, 4M0 616 039 AE
FR Shock 4M0*616*039*AC 4M0*616*039*AD, 4M0 616 039 AE
RR Shock 4M0 616 031 AG
RR Airbag 4M0 616 002 AB 4M0 616 002 G
RL Shock 4M0 616 031 AG
RL Airbag 4M0 616 001 AB 4M0 616 002 G
RR Level Sensor 4M0*941*309*G 4M0*941*310*G, 4M0 941 309 H
RL Level Sensor 4M0*941*309*G 4M0*941*310*G, 4M0 941 309 H
FR Level Sensor 4M0*941*285*C 4M0*941*286*C
FL Level Sensor 4M0*941*285*C 4M0*941*286*C
Valve Block 4M0 616 013 A
Compressor Assembly 4M0 616 005 F
Compressor Cover 4M0*616*105*E

I'm still trying to figure a couple of things out to do with air lines, and how the pressure accumulator fits into the equation.

2) The Electrical
This is the bit I'm going to struggle with the most. The car does not come prewired with any of the required cabling, so I'm going to have to either build my own wiring, or try to understand if there is a standlone loom I can buy - not sure about this yet.

I have all the relevant wiring diagrams and manuals that will help, but haven't started getting into this bit yet.

3) The Coding
This bit will take work, but again I think is fairly straight forward. I have RossTech VCDS, and am comfortable in making the actual changes, i just need to do the homework on all the bits and pieces the needs to be modified.

I'm going to attempt to keep a photo diary of the upgrade as I progress, and will post here as i go for all to see.

If anyone has any insights, experience or has undertaken this retrofit before, I'd love to hear from you. There are still a lot of the gaps in the knowledge I have, particularly around the electrical and wiring.

Also, ask a bit of an ask to the group. If you have a 4M with Air Suspension, and happen to have any photos at all of the undercarriage or suspension components, i would really appreciate you sending them to me, or posting them here. I don't have a lot of photographs to reference, and i think those photos would be super helpful.

Thanks!

Dave

[SQ57]

G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the Barbie!!!
"Let's not"..
This reminds of my ol' mate Peter Graham, he would just go against anybody(or anything-including a bus), and somehow make it thru...

Seems like an tremendous project, hope to see it thru.

Cheers, mate
Happy new year too!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[davus]

G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the Barbie!!!
"Let's not"..
This reminds of my ol' mate Peter Graham, he would just go against anybody(or anything-including a bus), and somehow make it thru...

Seems like an tremendous project, hope to see it thru.

Cheers, mate
Happy new year too!

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Thanks man! - Its no doubt going to be a decent undertaking. But with three kids, a mortgage, a wife, and a job...........It's almost like I've got nothing better to do!

[davus]

Hi All,

So, first question.

As i try to determine all the parts i need, I've arrived at the homework section on level sensors. Now, looking underneath my car, i already have level sensors. I understand it has to do with the headlights.

The bit thats puzzling me is, they're only on the left hand side of the vehicle (driver's side in my case).

My question is, are any of the Q7 owners with Air suspension able to confirm for me whether they have sensors on only the left side of the vehicle, or if there are sensors on all four corners?

Thankyou!

Dave

[brianlbairos]

Just a thought but since you want the air suspension mainly for towing..... does any company make a helper air spring setup... like you would install on a pick up truck and you could manually inflate or deflate the bags if you were towing? may be a much cheaper solution if available.

[davus]

Just a thought but since you want the air suspension mainly for towing..... does any company make a helper air spring setup... like you would install on a pick up truck and you could manually inflate or deflate the bags if you were towing? may be a much cheaper solution if available.

Thanks Brian. I did have a look into that, however i wasnt a fan of the solutions they had to offer. The main company in Australia that provides "helper" airbags is called "Air bag man"........to their own admission with the amount of downforce im looking at, even their high pressure solution would only lift the car about 50% of the way back up.

Plus - I have a bit of a soft spot for OEM if possible :)

Dave

[brianlbairos]

Thanks Brian. I did have a look into that, however i wasnt a fan of the solutions they had to offer. The main company in Australia that provides "helper" airbags is called "Air bag man"........to their own admission with the amount of downforce im looking at, even their high pressure solution would only lift the car about 50% of the way back up.

Plus - I have a bit of a soft spot for OEM if possible :)

Dave

Understandable and great to know.... I will be pulling a camper with my Q7 so i'm eager to see how much of pain it will be, keep us updated on how the process goes! Good luck

[jbain2]

I’m actually looking to do this in my 4L Q7 which doesn’t have factory air ride. I went the aftermarket route. But I’m going to follow this thread to see how you get along.


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[davus]

Hi All,

So - A generic question about the wiring stage of this project.*

A friend pointed me in the direction of a website called "Alldata". He pays a (pretty expensive) monthly cost for his array of jeeps. He showed me the "Interactive" wiring diagrams, and i have to say it was extremely impressive. Has anyone seen this?. You basically highlight a wire from the diagram, and it shows you interactively where that wire goes, all its connection points etc. It saves having to trace it back through each different page of a wiring diagram, and allows you to very easily trace an individual wire, and precisely where is runs and what it plugs into.*

In doing a little homework, it looks like this is something Bosch have put together (I've subsequently found other websites offering very similar products). Unfortunately they don't seem to provide anything on the Audi front.

The wiring component of this project is what daunts me the most. Its going to take the longest, and will be the most complicated.*

My question is, does anyone know of anything similar for the Audis? This interactive wiring diagram would be the answer to alot of my concerns I think. Im happy to pay a subscription or similar.*

Thanks!

[davus]

Hi All,
Im continuing to move through the project at a slightly slower pace than i was hoping, mainly because im trying to gather a full understanding of how the system works as i go.*

My next question is about the valve block. Is anyone here able to tell me the pinouts of 10 pin connector on the valve block itself (part number 4M0616013A)? I'm not talking about the wiring diagram (I have that), but the actual pinouts (positive / negative / etc). I'm wanting to try and manually activate the valves in the valve block*

Additionally, is anyone able to provide me with the same pinout data for the "Control Unit" . Its also mounted on the air suspension compressor assembly itself (part number*4M0907778). There are three connectors on it, each 2 pin.*

Attached are two photos of the parts im looking for pinouts for*






Thankyou!

Dave

[ucsbwsr]

Hey Dave,

Nice project. I am planning to do the same at some point on my wife's Q7 as the adjustability, performance, and ride quality of air suspension are very valuable to us. My personal vehicles are BMWs but I love OEM retrofits and have some experience doing projects like this, just not specifically with air suspension and not with an Audi platform. I have done general research on the project but haven't really dove into the details yet but trying to help you will also help educate me for my air retrofit. Hopefully we can make some progress together.

I have the full dealer-spec service manual, I'm assuming that's what you have too but if not let me know and I can send a DL link for it.

I took a look to see what I could find regarding your pin-out question for the valve block and control module. The Audi wiring diagrams are a bit different from the BMW ones and this link from RossTech was helpful in understanding them.

RossTech How to read wiring diagrams: https://forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/1875/

This guide explains that the connectors in the wiring diagrams should be labeled like this T10/2. Meaning the wire being referenced is #2 in a 10-pin connector and when there are multiple 10-pin connectors they are listed as T10a, T10b, T10d, and so on. With the control module only having 2-pin connectors you can see it listed as "T2aq" and "T2ar" the 3rd connector isn't listed but presumably it is "T2ap" or "T2as" The pins are designated "T2aq/1" as the guide suggests it would be but rather there is a "v1" and "v2" which I can only assume are the pin locations in the connector. So just keep in mind this is an assumption on my end.


Regarding the control module (4M0907778) which is referred to as "J1135" we can see 4 of the total 6 connections listed with wire details.
"X1" connector is power into the unit: T2aq-v1 which is a Red w/Blue =Power. T2aq-v2 is ground.
"X2" connector is power and ground sent to "V66" which is the air compressor. This isn't clearly shown in the wiring diagram but utilizing Google images and process of elimination it becomes clear.
"X3" connector received inputs from the Drivetrain control module to activate the compressor module and therefore compressor. Not sure which one does what but with power into the module and compressor hooked up you should be able to use a 12v test lead and find out.

Here is the wiring diagram I referenced above


Here we can see "X2" is directly connected to compressor which means "X1" is power/ground in.



Regarding the valve block (4M0616013A) which is "NX7" in the diagram, things are a little less clear but we can draw some conclusions. First, with the assumption "V_" refers to pin location all pins are accounted for except for #8. Pin 7, 9, 10 connect the G291 pressure sensor to the J775 Drivetrain control module. G291 is clearly listed as part of NX7 so I assume it's a small switch/senor inside that receives input from the vertical-height level sensors located on the suspension control arms which read how high or low the vehicle is, this is then sent to G291 and then passed onto J775.

To be honest I don't really know what's going on with pins V1-V6. We can see N148, N149, N150, and N151 are the output valves for FR, FL, RR, and RL struts but it isn't clear on which pin is associated with which strut. N311 is the accumulator valve which is likely activated by pin V2 or V3, again not sure. I would assume the actuator valve would need to be activated and at the same time you would need to select one of the valves depending on what strut is to be filled. Looking carefully you will notice there are 6 pins but only 4 strut valves and 1 actuator valve so there is a pin that is shown in the diagram but unaccounted for, maybe a ground?

This is all I got for know, hope it helps,
Evan

Here is the diagram for the NX7 Valve Block:


Although the diagram only accounts for 9 pins the connector does appear to have all 10 used

[davus]

Hi Mate,

Thanks for your detailed reply Very informative.

I've now collected all the parts i need, along with all the relevant and correct wire trace colors. All i need to do now is find the time to start physically getting it all installed.

The mechanical parts will be very straight forward (Shockers/ Compressor unit / etc). The challenges will be in building the wiring loom, and the routing of the air lines throughout the underside of the car.

I have a bunch of documentation, and have downloaded a fair bit of info from Erwin - however if you have a workshop manual in electronic form, and be really appreciative of that.

Thanks!

Dave

[davus]

I was sure i replied to this thread, but it appears maybe i didnt hit the post button.

Im now at the point where I only have two or three small bits to get before i have all the hardware. Once ive got everything ill move onto the next bit. These are the requirements i still have in front of me.

1) Carry out the actual mechanical swapping of parts. This is straight forward, and i dont envisage any issue here.
2) Get all the wiring done. Ive struggled to find a factory wiring loom to buy, so im going to be building my own. Once built, i need to hook it all and make sure it works. Im sure ill have a couple of fixes and tweaks with this bit.
3) Sort out the programming side of things. At the moment this is the bit that is giving me the most concern. A couple of conversations ive had here seem to indicate the rather than being dataset driven, the coding for the Air Suspension is SWaP (Software as a Product), which is apparently much more difficult to sort out (I wont be doing the coding bit myself, thats outside my capabilities)

So, I have a couple of asks for the group, and id be super duper appreciative if someone might be able to help.

1) Does anyone with expert level coding capabilites be able to provide any commentary on the programming side of things here? I'd hate to get everything installed, only to figure out i cant program it.
2) Im still keen to try and get as many photos of other Q7's with Air Suspension. Id be really appreciative if anyone could share photos of their car. The areas im looking for photos of are: Shock / Strut area, Compressor area, Any photos showing air pipe routing (entry / eixit points into the car).

Again - Thanks in advance to anyone that can lend a hand here, or provide any information. Much appreciated.

Dave

[davus]

Hey Dave,

Nice project. I am planning to do the same at some point on my wife's Q7 as the adjustability, performance, and ride quality of air suspension are very valuable to us. My personal vehicles are BMWs but I love OEM retrofits and have some experience doing projects like this, just not specifically with air suspension and not with an Audi platform. I have done general research on the project but haven't really dove into the details yet but trying to help you will also help educate me for my air retrofit. Hopefully we can make some progress together.

I have the full dealer-spec service manual, I'm assuming that's what you have too but if not let me know and I can send a DL link for it.

I took a look to see what I could find regarding your pin-out question for the valve block and control module. The Audi wiring diagrams are a bit different from the BMW ones and this link from RossTech was helpful in understanding them.

RossTech How to read wiring diagrams: https://forums.ross-tech.com/index.php?threads/1875/

This guide explains that the connectors in the wiring diagrams should be labeled like this T10/2. Meaning the wire being referenced is #2 in a 10-pin connector and when there are multiple 10-pin connectors they are listed as T10a, T10b, T10d, and so on. With the control module only having 2-pin connectors you can see it listed as "T2aq" and "T2ar" the 3rd connector isn't listed but presumably it is "T2ap" or "T2as" The pins are designated "T2aq/1" as the guide suggests it would be but rather there is a "v1" and "v2" which I can only assume are the pin locations in the connector. So just keep in mind this is an assumption on my end.


Regarding the control module (4M0907778) which is referred to as "J1135" we can see 4 of the total 6 connections listed with wire details.
"X1" connector is power into the unit: T2aq-v1 which is a Red w/Blue =Power. T2aq-v2 is ground.
"X2" connector is power and ground sent to "V66" which is the air compressor. This isn't clearly shown in the wiring diagram but utilizing Google images and process of elimination it becomes clear.
"X3" connector received inputs from the Drivetrain control module to activate the compressor module and therefore compressor. Not sure which one does what but with power into the module and compressor hooked up you should be able to use a 12v test lead and find out.

Here is the wiring diagram I referenced above


Here we can see "X2" is directly connected to compressor which means "X1" is power/ground in.



Regarding the valve block (4M0616013A) which is "NX7" in the diagram, things are a little less clear but we can draw some conclusions. First, with the assumption "V_" refers to pin location all pins are accounted for except for #8. Pin 7, 9, 10 connect the G291 pressure sensor to the J775 Drivetrain control module. G291 is clearly listed as part of NX7 so I assume it's a small switch/senor inside that receives input from the vertical-height level sensors located on the suspension control arms which read how high or low the vehicle is, this is then sent to G291 and then passed onto J775.

To be honest I don't really know what's going on with pins V1-V6. We can see N148, N149, N150, and N151 are the output valves for FR, FL, RR, and RL struts but it isn't clear on which pin is associated with which strut. N311 is the accumulator valve which is likely activated by pin V2 or V3, again not sure. I would assume the actuator valve would need to be activated and at the same time you would need to select one of the valves depending on what strut is to be filled. Looking carefully you will notice there are 6 pins but only 4 strut valves and 1 actuator valve so there is a pin that is shown in the diagram but unaccounted for, maybe a ground?

This is all I got for know, hope it helps,
Evan

Here is the diagram for the NX7 Valve Block:


Although the diagram only accounts for 9 pins the connector does appear to have all 10 used

Hi Mate - Have you made any progress on yours? I have a pretty solid understanding of what needs doing now, and about to start putting together the wiring loom. Ive got hundreds and hundreds of reference photos ive gathered. I also found a guy over int he Ukraine selling a complete air suspension kit. I didnt want to pay the thousands and thousands he wanted for it, but i did pay him $100 USD to send me masses of photos and videos (connectors, plugs / part numbers etc), which i used to gather all the relevant plugs etc. I have chosen with plugs and pins to source aftermarket as Audi prices on simple plugs / pins and connectors are just highway robbery.

I need to get hold of a few more level sensors, and then ill start building the wiring loom. I still need to sort out programming, which im starting to think will be a real challenge.

Dave

[jbain2]

I was sure i replied to this thread, but it appears maybe i didnt hit the post button.

Im now at the point where I only have two or three small bits to get before i have all the hardware. Once ive got everything ill move onto the next bit. These are the requirements i still have in front of me.

1) Carry out the actual mechanical swapping of parts. This is straight forward, and i dont envisage any issue here.
2) Get all the wiring done. Ive struggled to find a factory wiring loom to buy, so im going to be building my own. Once built, i need to hook it all and make sure it works. Im sure ill have a couple of fixes and tweaks with this bit.
3) Sort out the programming side of things. At the moment this is the bit that is giving me the most concern. A couple of conversations ive had here seem to indicate the rather than being dataset driven, the coding for the Air Suspension is SWaP (Software as a Product), which is apparently much more difficult to sort out (I wont be doing the coding bit myself, thats outside my capabilities)

So, I have a couple of asks for the group, and id be super duper appreciative if someone might be able to help.

1) Does anyone with expert level coding capabilites be able to provide any commentary on the programming side of things here? I'd hate to get everything installed, only to figure out i cant program it.
2) Im still keen to try and get as many photos of other Q7's with Air Suspension. Id be really appreciative if anyone could share photos of their car. The areas im looking for photos of are: Shock / Strut area, Compressor area, Any photos showing air pipe routing (entry / eixit points into the car).

Again - Thanks in advance to anyone that can lend a hand here, or provide any information. Much appreciated.

Dave

It seems like the biggest barrier is going to be the coding/software. Can I ask why you felt comfortable buying all hardware before you sorted out the feasibility of the coding? I have all of the components for an aftermarket air ride install with airlift components. I’ve had a couple maintenance things creep up shiv I had to tackle first before installing the air ride


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[davus]

Hi mate. Fair question.
I’ve used the same person to do quite a bit of coding on my car, and in my initial conversations with him, the coding never came up as a concern.
It’s only been in our recent conversations that things have started coming to light.
I don’t hold that against them though. They’re confident it can be done….and this seems to be a retrofit I haven’t found anyone else undertaking that I can see.

[ucsbwsr]

Hi Mate - Have you made any progress on yours? I have a pretty solid understanding of what needs doing now, and about to start putting together the wiring loom. Ive got hundreds and hundreds of reference photos ive gathered. I also found a guy over int he Ukraine selling a complete air suspension kit. I didnt want to pay the thousands and thousands he wanted for it, but i did pay him $100 USD to send me masses of photos and videos (connectors, plugs / part numbers etc), which i used to gather all the relevant plugs etc. I have chosen with plugs and pins to source aftermarket as Audi prices on simple plugs / pins and connectors are just highway robbery.

I need to get hold of a few more level sensors, and then ill start building the wiring loom. I still need to sort out programming, which im starting to think will be a real challenge.

Dave

Hi Dave, No update on my end as I am far from tackling this Q7 project. I have a garage remodel to finish, then an BMW E39 Touring build, and some projects on my X5 which will happen first. As for the coding, when I was posting some speculative air suspension retrofit questions/comments in some Q7 Facebook groups there was a 4L owner that chimed in and said he had previously completed the retrofit, I can't seem to find the post where this comment was made but pinging the Q7 FB groups to see if this guy surfaces might be useful. Technically I don't know how the 4L and 4M air suspension systems compare but I would assume there is a fair amount of similarity.

I have also seen some posts on Facebook from people who specialize in OEM retrofits for the Q7, they commonly share projects where they added adaptive cruise, nigh vision, etc. and seem to have a handle on more advanced coding, I assume with VCDS. Connecting with them might be useful for guidance if they aren't able to assist with coding themselves.

Sorry, I'm not more helpful!
Evan

[mistaleung]

Hi Dave. Did you finish your air suspension project?
I have found a coding guy to do the job on my Q5 B9 and I am starting to source all the parts and now stuck with the harness.
Would be great if you have any insight to share with :)

[davus]

Howdy all.
So its been a while lol.....but this project is now underway.
Ive stripped the interior of the car, and am installing the internal wiring and airlines first. I've got tons of reference documents and photos, so they are helping alot as i move through.
Getting my head around the FlexRay network that runs through the car has been a challenge, but i think ive got it sorted now. There is one point where you have include the Air SUspension module into one of the FlexRay branches, so figuring that out required some thought.

I am looking for the groups help if possible please? One thing i dont have any reference photos of is where the front right air line exits the cabin. I've been searching for some documentation online, but havent been able to find anything thus far.

Could I please ask someone with a Q7 4M that has Air Suspension to please take a few photos of the front right wheel area, specifically showing where the green airline runs from the shocker itself, back inside the car. I need to know the entry / exit point.

Thanks very much guys. I'll post up some photos etc over the next few days.

Dave

[davus]

Almost complete with running the wiring and air lines. Had to gut the interior to be able to run the Air Suspension wiring loom.

I bought an air suspension wiring loom from a guy I found in Ukraine, and man did it make it easy. I needed to figure out the right path to route the air lines and wiring, but the guy i bought the loom from also sent me a whole bunch of videos and photos which made things a whole lot easier as well. There were 5 connection points i needed to make, which required quite a bit of examination of the wiring diagrams for the car, which is relatively straight forward.

Starting from the front of the car, I bolted in the control module, plugged in the connector, and then ran everything from the front of the car first, making my way towards the rear. There were 5 connection points i needed to make as i worked my way back.

1) One earth point in the front left footwell. THis was a low current earht point, i asusme primarily for the module power.
2) Needed to add the Air Suspension control module into the correct FlexRay branch at the J533 Data Bus Diag Interface (under the front right seat - which is the front passenger seat where i live). Understanding the flexray branching was the trickiest part. I ended up drawing it out on paper, and realised that i just needed to de-pin and re-pin a few connectors, adding in at the right point of the branch.
3) Needed to tap into the positive power for the rear raise and lowering button. This was near the tunnel in the middle of the car.
4) Connect up the fuse for the Air Suspension Module itself (SR3 fuse block in the rear left of the car)
5) Connect up the 40A fuse for the air compressor motor / valve assembly (Also in SR3 fuse block in the rear left of the car). This was a bit of a trick as i wanted to find the right Positive power junction point in the car, which is buried in the main loom running down the entirety of the left side of the car. I had to unwrap the loom tape, tap into the junction point, and then retape it.
6) One heavier earth point in the rear right of the car for the compressor motor.

At the same time as doing all the wiring. I also ran all the airlines, and installed both air receiver tanks which sit under the front seat left and right carpet.

I put all the front and mid interior and trims back in (so i could drive the car again), but still have to drop the wiring and air lines through the rear part of the car to where the compressor motor will bolt in............so the rear interior is not in yet. Once i figure out the correct exit points for the loom, ill get that done, and then the should be it for the interior work.

I'd add a few photos, but the site doesnt allow uploads from my laptop, and i havent uploaded them anywhere else yet, so ill do that later.

[davus]

Howdy all. So I’ve been doing a lot of work on this lately.

I’ll share my updates, and have a few questions for the group that I’m hoping I can get some help with.

All mechanical installs are now complete. For each of the corners of the car, I have swapped out the steel suspension with then OEM airbag setup. I have connected up the pneumatic air lines to each air bag shock, and have run the back to the compressor area where instead of plugging them into the compressor (because the system isn’t “live” and coded yet), I have simply attached a bike type Schrader valve to each air line giving me the ability to pump up each corner individually. This allows me to test the air lines, connections and mechanical component independently as well.

The interior is all back in, and all wiring is hooked up to power, with each shocker being wired up also (but not yet live). The suspension control module is part of one of the flexray branches, so for the time being I have left the module connector unplugged and simply jumper the flexray pins to keep the branch complete.

But, I do have a few things I would really appreciate help with.

1) At the very rear right of the car, is where the main wring for the compressor exits the cabin and runs to the compressor itself. I am uncertain of how this routes, and how it exits the cabin. I can see where it’s meant to go, but there’s already wiring running through there. I would really appreciate if anyone with factory air suspension might be able to take a look under the car in that rear right corner and take a bunch of photos for me of this wiring so I can see where it routes, and what it looks like when it comes out of the car. Even better if anyone felt like removing that trim to take some pics of the wiring from the inside that would be very very much appreciated.

2) as I mentioned, I now have the ability to pump up each corner of the car individually until the system is programmed. I have done so using my pump and have pumped up each corner to 80psi. Now obviously when there is no air in the system, the car just sits down on extremely low, but when I pump each corner up to 80psi, it really doesn’t raise it that much. For reference, with no air in the system, the highest arch point of the guard sits 730mm off the ground, yet when pumped up to 80psi, the only lift by 3cm to 760mm off the ground. I would have expected with 80 psi they should lift up a lot higher than that.
Before the air bag swap the guards sat about 820/830mm off the ground, so we are a long way off.
Keep in mind then electronic shockers are not yet active and are not powered in any way……however while I can see this impacting “stiffness” of the ride, I wouldn’t have thought it should be impacting ride height.

My thoughts are that it’s one of three things.
1) The lack of power to the snickers is in fact impacting things.
2) Im just not pumping the air bags up with enough pressure (online reading seems to suggest 80 psi should be about right though)
3) There’s something wrong mechanically…….eewww.

Does anyone have any other suggestions.

Thankyou all.

[davus]

Hi All,

It is now time to close out this thread. The project is complete, and the Air Suspension retrofit is now fully functional. I apologise that some of the below info is double up, but I wanted to summarise in one post for folks to read.

I wanted to close out by giving an overview of all the parts used, the steps taken, and some of the absolutely awesome people that helped get it over the line.

List of parts.

I know I posted a list of the parts I thought I would initially need. The list below is the exhaustive list of all the various bits and pieces used, or needed for this upgrade. I bought all the below electrical and mechanical pieces second hand from all over the world. I live in Australia and its very difficult to get most of this stuff, so I’ll admit, I paid a little bit in postage for this project . All in all, it took me a number of years to collect all the parts, and find the time to get the fit underway.

Mechanical
Rear Left and Right Electronic Shockers 4M0616031AD
Rear Left and Right Air bags 4M0616001AA and 4M0616002AA
Front Left and Right Pneumatic Shockers 4M0616039AC
Rear Right Upper wishbone 4M0505398P
Rear Left Upper Wishbone 4M0505397P
Rear Right Lower Track Rod 4M0501529L
Rear Left Lower Track Rod 4M0501529L
Right Side Air Accumulator Tank 4M0616204
Left Side Air Accumulator Tank 4M0616203
Front Right Level Sensor 4M0941286
Rear Right Level Sensor 4M0941310
Air compressor Assembly 4M0616005G
Air Suspension Control Unit 4M0907777

Electrical
Second hand compete wiring loom with Air Lines
Rear lowering load button 4M0959511

Other
Plenty of Loom Tape
Wiring Diagrams
Soldering Iron, Solder, Heat Shrink
Cable Ties
Multimeter


Stage 1 - The internal pieces.
First stage was to install the wiring loom, air lines and accumulator tanks inside the car. The aim of this stage was to complete the wiring to the extent that I could put the Interior of the car back together and continue to be able to drive it.

I studied the official wiring diagrams, and a many many photos I had heavily before starting any work on this stage to ensure I understood what needed to go where. I gutted the entire interior of the car to make sure I had free access to install everything. For me personally this was the most challenging piece. The loom I purchased had come from an existing car, so once I laid it out, the "memory" of the wires certainly helped me understand where things should be going, in addition to the photos and videos I had. It took me about 3 days or so to get this par completed. These are the steps I needed to perform.

1) Install the accumulator tanks under the rear of the two front seats.
2) Install all airlines
3) Lay wiring loom in place and cable tie so it didn’t move around.
4) Tap into the existing third row seat buttons, for power to the rear raise and lower button
5) Tap into the main heavy current power for the compressor motor.
6) Tap into the ignition wire for the ignition trigger for the air suspension control module
7) Install the fuse and wiring for the control module into the fuse holder.
8) Install the 30 AMP fuse and wiring for the air compressor motor.
9) Hook into the relevant FlexRay branch, making sure the Control Module was being added in the right sequence. I had to bridge the relevant pins in the air suspension control module temporarily to complete the FlexRay branch until the module itself had stable power.

During this stage I also ran the airlines, and wires for the level sensors and electronically controlled shockers from inside the cabin, through their respective exit points / grommets to their outside locations, and tied them up close to where they would need to go when the air bags / shockers would be installed. This was so they were easily accessible once the suspension components were installed. It took me quite some time to figure out where to run the airlines. I wanted to keep it as close to factory as I could, so I trawled through loads of YouTube videos and photos I had to piece it together.

To get the wires through the relevant grommets in the firewall etc, I had to cut the connector off. I knew this would mean I had to resolder them back on later on, but that didn’t fuss me.

I left the tail of the power loom for the compressor rolled up in the boot at this stage (IE: I didn’t run it outside). I wasn’t sure where it ran, so I wanted to keep it protected inside the car.

I also bolted up the air compressor assembly under the car, which realistically was a 10 minute job.

Stage 2 - The external pieces.
This stage was to install the mechanical suspension components, external electrical bits and pieces, and external air lines. I installed the rear airbags and shockers first which took one day, followed by the two front shockers the next day. The suspension component installs whilst time consuming, were not overly complicated. Given the programming was not yet done, and I needed to be able to keep driving the car, I hooked up the electricals and airlines, but did not run the airlines into the valve block on the compressor assembly just yet. Instead, I connected the airlines into each of the relevant shockers, and then attached some bike style Schrader valves at the compressor end so I could use my compressor / or a hand pump, to pump each individual shocker up manually / individually. This also gave me a chance to test each air line independently to the others.

Interesting note here. I pumped each shocker up to 100psi, which didn’t raise the car to anywhere near where it sits at its factory level. To me that indicates the pressure in the system must be significantly higher than that, particularly when put into "Offroad" mode. I didn’t want to overdo things though, so I just kept it at 100psi which meant I could drive around as needed.

I ran the remainder of the compressor loom through a hole in the rear right of the car, and plugged those connectors into the compressor assembly. The existing hole was occupied by an existing loom, so I picked a spot next to it and drilled a new hole through to run the compressor loom.

Stage 3 - The programming
So, now I was at a point where all the mechanicals were installed, air lines run (and installed at the shocker ends), and electricals run. I fired up VCDS to ensure I was able to see Module 74, which is the air suspension control module. I was super happy to see that I could see it. This proved that the power was working, and the module was ready to try and program it up.

I reached out to the guy who has been doing my programming for some time. He logged in remotely and started first with parametrization of the module. This all went pretty smoothly, and things were looking good. We ran into a bit of an issue with the module thinking the ignition wasn’t turned on (even though it was), which I traced back to a piece of incorrect wiring on my part. Over the next few days, we worked through the programming side of things.

We had to setup all the parameters and correct data, along with working through the large amount of errors that were generated (but expected). EG: My car has matrix headlights, which use levels sensors that were already installed on the left side of the car only. The air suspension uses all 4 level sensors (the two existing ones, plus the two new ones I installed). Because I had to unplug the existing level sensors for the matrix headlight in place of the suspension connectors, this caused the headlights to error.........which required more programming.

We used ODIS (engineering and system) to activate MMI menus, setup some other parameters (such as the correct fuel weights, airbags and ABS) and to run through a whole bunch of basic setting programs which setup the correct levels of the car, and the headlights.

And that’s about it. Job done! I now have a fully functioning, OEM retrofitted Air Suspension setup. All components work, and function as expected.

The last thing I would like to do is take a moment to call out a few people who were absolutely instrumental in this retrofit being a success. I hope this does not breach any forum rules, but without the assistance of these people I would not have been able to get this project completed. I have put a link to each of their websites, so that people can visit them to see what they can do for themselves. This is not meant to be a massive plug for their business, but a well-deserved callout for the level of respect and thanks I have for both these guys. If anyone has any questions about either of these guys, I'm happy to answer them in private chat.

Simon Leigh from YSW Retrofits in the UK - https://www.yswretrofits.co.uk/
Simon is another amazingly skilled person. Simon has for some time now been doing the programming on my car, and was the one who did the programming and configuration to get this suspension working. He works very hard to ensure a top level of service, and won’t put the lid of his laptop down until a problem is solved, and the customer is on their way. Simon is another legend of a guy, and extremely knowledgeable in his field.

Andy from Audi Upgrades in the UK - https://www.audiupgrades.co.uk/
Andy was instrumental in helping me understand the complexities of the wiring and FlexRay for this project. He is extremely highly skilled when it comes to understanding not only the wiring schematics themselves, but Audi's in general, and does some pretty heavy retrofits, upgrades and programming as well!. Andy's advice and guidance were an absolute necessity for me to get this project completed, and I cant thank him enough for everything he did. Andy is an absolute legend of a bloke on top!

Oleg Vikulov from Adapt_Vag from Ukraine - https://www.instagram.com/adapt_vag/
Oleg provided me with hundreds of photos and reference videos from a Q7 he was doing work on himself. These photos were absolutely essential for me to get this project done. He helped with answering many questions, and was the one who provided me with the suspension wiring loom, which made the job so much easier than having to build the loom myself!.

Below are a bunch of install photos. I didn’t take as many as I probably should have. I got a little carried away getting it completed.

[ucsbwsr]

Hi All,

It is now time to close out this thread. The project is complete, and the Air Suspension retrofit is now fully functional. I apologise that some of the below info is double up, but I wanted to summarise in one post for folks to read.

I wanted to close out by giving an overview of all the parts used, the steps taken, and some of the absolutely awesome people that helped get it over the line.

Thank you so much for taking the time to put this information together. Long live the forums and people like you!

Cheers,
Evan