This is the one on the drivers side. Still intact, but the VW mechanic said that it will go one day soon also. Notice the oxidation around it, and even salt stains I'm supposing is what they are. But does that hose snapping off, really necessitate the complete air shock replacement as per that mechanic???

 

It sounds like they didn't lock the suspension which would have prevented this from occurring. If that is the case they should know before lifting the vehicle. So this is their problem and they are responsible no matter the cost of repair.

 

I see it the same way, if it wasn't broke going in, and the broke it while in their hands, they pay to fix it.

 

I actually threw that right back at them, but they immediately, with no hesitation, took me to the other side of the truck(post#2 picture), and showed me the one that was still intact, was hanging on by a needles head, saying that it would probably bust on my way out down the street. I then said nothing, they managed to shut my mouth...but now that the two of you's have said what you said here, I've come to realize that I'm an idiot and my negotiating skills are finished.

Now it's considered too late for me to call them up(tomorrow morning) and start giving them s*it after I gave them the go-ahead for repair. In case I didn't mention it, the egg is now in their shop, for an overnight stay, waiting for the "inner sleeve" thingys to arrive from the Toronto warehouse. The price is not TOO Bad. It's about $180 plus labour, which they claim could be anywhere from 15 minutes, to 2 hours MAX and I quote. Assuming of course that they don't bust the air shock during the procedure.

I'm suffering from anxiety now, no joke.

 

In the manual it states (in a warning box no less):
The jack-up mode must always be switched on when the vehicle is lifted by a floor jack or a workshop lift."

I think what happens is without the suspension locked the bags deflate and the suspension will sag well beyond normal travel when filled. And those air couplings ripped from their housings. I hope new ones screw in properly.

Fight this - and replace the driver side while your at it. I hope everything works out.

 

If this is true, on how vulnerable the air suspension really is if one is not careful when jacking it up, how the hell is one supposed to be able to drop off his Touareg at any dealership, simply drop off the keys, and blindly go about a days work in a naive fashion, thinking that everything will be alright? It's like, you literally have to be standing there, by the bay window watching, to see if they are doing the procedure right. Is this what it has boiled down too?

Should I really go ahead and replace the drivers side also? It's not leaking... therefore should I? I'm already having second thoughts, to call them up first thing tomorrow, and tell them to just fix what is now broken, and leave everything else alone. I don't know anymore...

Is your Touareg still under Warranty?

Excellent question. Yes..I mean no. What I mean is, I do have a 3rd party warranty, that cost me $85 to have transferred to my name from the original owner, when I bought it from a private sale a few months ago. Of course I called them up today, from the VW dealerships service department no less. Everything but the kitchen sink is written on that 3rd party warranty contract. Well guess what? You guessed it.

 

Is your Touareg still under Warranty?

 

So sorry to hear of your problem but thanks for posting those pictures. Once I read your post the first thing I checked on my Touareg was the struts. Here's a shot of my 2004 (sorry iPhone shot). It spent the first 4 years/58K miles of its life in New York and the last year or so in California. I wonder why your Toaureg has such extensive corrosion in that area.

I hope everything works out for you.

 

Excuse my ignorance. I have very little experience with the air suspension, but what's the difference between the wheel going to full droop during off-road driving and you lifting it up on a workshop lift? Does it actually go BEYOND Xtra level when you raise it off the ground if it's not in lock mode and the engine's not running?

I always thought that the lock function is there because your standard jack won't be able to lift the vehicle high enough to change a tyre when in Xtra level... :confused2:

The fact that the hose fitting broke (corrosion) is a big concern but I think blaming the tech because he didn't lock the suspension is pushing it a bit. If it is indeed his fault, I'd say it's a pathetic design from VW. While they're at it, tell them to lengthen the hoses to prevent it from happening again...

 

UPDATE!!! Good News, and Some Bad....

The fact that the hose fitting broke (corrosion) is a big concern but I think blaming the tech because he didn't lock the suspension is pushing it a bit. If it is indeed his fault, I'd say it's a pathetic design from VW. While they're at it, tell them to lengthen the hoses to prevent it from happening again...

I'm glad someone said something like this. Makes me feel somewhat better.

As for the pathetic design, it is, or WAS! Read below!

The aircanisters are ~1650 apiece and I too was told that the money end (where your hydraulic line snapped) is indeed not a separate part.

As to liability because it broke on the lift...hmmmm...dealer should cut you some slack even if it were a simple coincidence.

I was feeling slightly anxious throughout my work day today, looking at the phone from time to time, in anticipation of how they were faring on my Touareg. The anxiety was based on the what the mechanic had told me and what Jimbuffalo was told(quoted up above) about the air shock canister(whatever its really called) being a complete part with the hose fittings, which I truly did find hard to believe, and what the service manager had told me. He believed that there was some sort of TSB on how to fix it, and that there were indeed parts available from VW just for this issue to replace the fitting ends. $180 VS the $1500-$2000 parts not including labour is a HUGE difference. The mechanic who I suppose was responsible for all this mess, insisted that it couldn't be salvaged period. This was yesterdays news just to recap.

So I got the phone call at 3:00PM today from the service advisor, and guess what?! The manager was right!!! (as was I with my suspicions ) Listen to this very carefully boys! I'll try and quote briefly what was told to me over the phone. The installation of those fittings, to repair whatever had snapped on both those ends proved to be a success!! So this whole you need a new canister air shock thing was BS all along!!!! I knew it! Now here is where it gets really interesting. He went on to say that I will NEVER HAVE THAT PROBLEM AGAIN, and of course I immediately asked for the scientific explanation as to why was that? He said that VW was aware of the bad design(vulnerable to oxidation) problem, and that the new parts they had installed were redesigned. As soon as he said that, I asked what were the differences in design. Now here is where it starts to get weird. He said that my original broken pieces were and I quote EXACTLY,

"yours were some sort of white metal, the the new parts are made of what seems to be brass."

I asked him white kind of metal was the "white metal" and he said that he wasn't sure. Aluminum? Magnesium? All he knew was that the new design was brass coloured. Weird eh? I'm saying weird because Jimbuffalo claims his were brass In any case, the fact of the matter is, mine weren't.

So going back to the phone conversation and now heading to the bad news after the aforementioned good ones. He said that I still could not have my Touareg back today however, due to the fact that it needed to be realigned, and all this after I just did an alignment 1 month ago(at the same place, have a thread on that somewhere with the printout specs) I asked why, and he said because they had TO REMOVE the shock housing canister off the vehicle, in order to successfully install the new fittings. I then asked so how long did it take you(translation: what's the labour costs on all this) and he said 9 hours :crazy:. At that point, I said what I should have said yesterday to begin with, and started with my A-Z blowout, about how I felt about all this. Bringing my EGG in for a lousy headlight assembly installation, and leaving with my wallet raped. I literally played him my best tune :-({|= and said that I refused to pay 9 hours labour, and that they better the hell figure something out when they call me back tomorrow after the alignment for me to pick it up. He said that he felt confident that his manager would figure something out for me. We'll see......

So coming back to the "fix" folks. I can't wait to see it with my own eyes tomorrow. Quite frankly, this is very interesting. I'll post up the new part#'s of those new redesigned parts that they claim will be immune to a "next time. ever happening again . I'm also wondering if these new parts were installed in later model Touaregs, and NOT the 2004-2005's? I'll leave it at that until tomorrow..

 

It's pity you agreed to them going ahead with the repair as there is no going back now but I myself have no expreience with air but maybe they may come to some understanding about the other side to get the pipes longer would be a great idea, and also you must find the cause of such corrosion and if need be smear the joint with some grease to stop it happening again, PS I would still have a chat with the manager and see if you can come to some arangement sorry to hear your in this problem, but on another note to replace that tray is a pain in the ass had to do it myself and its not easy,do remmber when replacing that tray I had to remove the inside of the wheel arch to conect the back two screws and I am just saying it would seem to be very easy to hit that pipe and break it in that tight space, its funny the pipe on the other side did not break as well , yours Stewart maybe you can use this as leverage with the manager

 

Apparently - so I've been told - the fitting is brass and the canister aluminum. As another forum member pointed out, those materials oxidize, they do not rust. Search under STOP FAULT RUNNING FGEAR and read all about it.

The aircanisters are ~1650 apiece and I too was told that the money end (where your hydraulic line snapped) is indeed not a separate part.

As to liability because it broke on the lift...hmmmm...dealer should cut you some slack even if it were a simple coincidence.

Good luck. My fronts were replaced under the VW Platinum Driver's Gear Real World Warranty or whatever they call it.

 

As another forum member pointed out, those materials oxidize, they do not rust.

Rust is oxidation of iron in the presence of water. It's exactly the same as what's happening to the aluminium. It's just not called rust because it's not iron/steel. The green stuff that forms on copper is also the same thing.

 

I like the idea of cleaning in there and maybe coating them in some grease to keep the salts and other crud away...the problem I encountered was attributed to an air leak...diagnosed via the old soapy water spray bottle technique...after they were replaced, the fault warning reappeared, so they then replaced the compressor and a distribution valve...lending additional credence to the earlier post in this thread that a subtle air leak could likely cause your compressor to overwork itself and fail.

 

I have the same problem. I bought a 2004 V10 recently and was really discouraged that after owning it for 3 weeks a front suspension went and then a couple days later the other front went too (it was not cheap to fix and I have had no luck with the warranty company. I get the fault running gear workshop warning light on and its driving me nuts. I don't recommend this for areas where they apply road salt until they come up with a solution to prevent the corrosion

 

Thanks, AndrieK for the metallurgical clarification!

The VW Platinum warranty excludes repairs where the culprit is determined to be "rust". Since the components are (allegedly) brass and aluminum - not iron - the point was made to me that brass and aluminum don't "rust"...hence denying claim for the presence of "rust" isn't possible? Have to do a wikipedia search now....

I never had to explore the rust vs. oxidation argument: My dealer handled it on my behalf, saving me a ton of money.,,,new canisters up front, plus a new compressor and distribution valve was close to 6K USD.

That said, vwdude's got some issue. I'd question the design of a suspension component so prone to "oxidation" that it could snap right off, much less easily leak. Those connectors should be designed to be field replaceable.

Hopefully we are not witnessing the start of some sort of airsuspension canister failure pandemic. I am lucky my dealer values my business.

Carry on.

PS....the green stuff on copper is called verdigris
PPS...if we keep this up, VW Real Driver will catch on and change their exception clause to "oxidation"!!

 

PPS...if we keep this up, VW Real Driver will catch on and change their exception clause to "oxidation"!!

Ha ha, good one Jim...

All Touaregs in SA are sold with a 12 year anti-CORROSION warranty. I would assume this goes for the US vehicles as well.

Rust, oxidation, verdigris, call it what you like. It's all corrosion and should really be covered by the FACTORY warranty. I'd seriously consider exploring this route.

BTW, diesel4me, I agree. The fact that they have an aluminium housing with a brass/copper/whatever fitting is probably what's causing the corrosion. Poor design IMO.

 

the way I understand this problem, from my sailboat experience, is that the problem is two dissimilar metals create an electrical charge. The problem is called electrolysis. The presence of salt, ie road salt would probably make it worse. I've had to deal with this on the boat and it can get expensive. As far as I know, the only way to permanently solve the problem is to have a non-conductive barrier between the two metals. Seems like it was not too well thought out in the planning process. Cheers!

 

It's actually called galvanic corrosion or corrosion between dissimilar metals. Lots of folks mistakenly call it electrolysis, which is another process. I've run across lots of discussion about this in chassis design and manufacture, such as one of my cars which uses a steel tube chassis with aluminum panels attached by rivets. Same potential issue. You are correct that things like salt can greatly increase the ionic migration that causes the oxidation, and your solution is spot-on as well.

Cheers, John

 

P.S. I would think that a diagnosis of electrolysis would possibly negate the rust issue. One can hope. Good luck.

 

Confused & Concerned

My intent is not to derail this topic, but this recent issue has raised a concern.

It is my understanding that the 'jack mode' was a safety issue and failure to use it could only cause damage by the vehicle falling off the jack/lift.

However in this thread and others there is the assertion that failure to put the car in jack mode will cause damage because of excessive suspension travel.

Maybe I have that wrong, but if that is the assertion, then how do the air suspension Touaregs survive the rock crawling events where we see the wheel completely off the ground and evidently at the limit of suspension travel?

Like I said, I didn't mean to derail, but as an owner of an air suspension Touareg I'd like to understand the risks of operation.

Thanks!

 

My intent is not to derail this topic, but this recent issue has raised a concern.

It is my understanding that the 'jack mode' was a safety issue and failure to use it could only cause damage by the vehicle falling off the jack/lift.

However in this thread and others there is the assertion that failure to put the car in jack mode will cause damage because of excessive suspension travel.

Maybe I have that wrong, but if that is the assertion, then how do the air suspension Touaregs survive the rock crawling events where we see the wheel completely off the ground and evidently at the limit of suspension travel?

Like I said, I didn't mean to derail, but as an owner of an air suspension Touareg I'd like to understand the risks of operation.

Thanks!

I completely understand your concern. In reading the manual (I believe but its not in front of me right now) it mentions locking the suspension at certain points (I think it was high ground clearance requirements) while off roading. In a past life I had an allroad (which I bet is similar in ts design) while changing from summer to winter wheels in my garage on a floor jack I had an unpleasant surprise when the suspension dropped. I quickly put a small hand jack under the suspension (but never read the manual).

The manual clearly states that:
"The jack-up mode must always be switched on when the vehicle is lifted by a floor jack or a workshop lift."

 

As far as I'm aware "hyperextension" is not the issue, the issue is that if you don't press lock the vehicle tries to re-level itself. This would cause a severe and dangerous situation for obvious reasons if you're trying to jack the vehicle. the LOCK function disables this self leveling....case in point my V8 has steel springs and V10 has air, when I switch over to winter tires (I do this myself) both the steel and air extend the same distance.

It can't hyperextend otherwise the airlines/brakelines and any other connection would snap off every time...there is afterall a brakeline, airline, driveshaft, and steering components (in the case of the front) attached to each corner.

 

Question: If VW is willing to admit it was bad design in the first place, why is it up to the customer to pay for both the poorly designed parts and the labour for the repair?

This seems more like a recall issue?

 

I don't know about recall legalities, but you make valid points. If these things are sucseptible to corrosion, and - as I was told - only replaced as an entire unit - then I agree. Knowledge of that "design flaw" should be understood "eyes wide open" by any potential customer.

If VWdude's garage was able to fashion a repair - whereas my garage repaired via replacement - then I look forward to sharing that info with my garage. I would have pursued repair if the warranty claim didn't solve my issue.

Still curious though...I hope to learn that these are repairable (my brain says they SHOULD be) whether they are made of aluminum, brass, gold, frankincense or myrrh....

 

Sorry I didn't do a final update on this last night, as they did call me to pick it up. I'm on the road now, so when I get back home, I'll break down the price and even post up some part numbers. The TOTAL price including labour and taxes was $2610CDN. This included the actual repair on the broken passenger side, ALSO repairing the other side(drivers), which was still not broken(preventive maintenance you can call it), AND installing new headlight buckets on both sides of the Egg, with the new hex screws. I made sure to tell the mechanic to lube them up WELL so that they never seize again, and he was suprisingly already doing that when I went to see him. They lubed up all my door latches(for free they claim) so that they never stick again, and got a free wash out of the deal.

The only "break" they gave me was 10% off on all the parts, and a deduction of 4 hours labour. Total labour was 13 hours not counting the minus four hours. I'll post back later with the actual price for the AiR Suspension repair job.

 

Glad to hear everything is fixed and your back on the road. I'm curious to know if you ever showed them the owners manual and the warning box around the requirement to lock the suspension before raising the vehicle?

 

I am very interested to learn how they fixed the canisters. That is good news as new ones cost 1600.00.

 

After The Repair Pictures, With New Redesigned VW Parts

Good news indeed, but it still is labour intensive, although I can't help but wonder if they are inept and out of practice, since this procedure is not too common....yet. Many of you reading this down the line have to remember, that Montreal, and I ain't talking Ottawa, Toronto, Buffalo, New York and all the rest... Montreal's salted, super sized pot holed laden roads, are a true test of how well I car can last. It really is pathetic here. So we Montrealers are the front line to all this, so take note! What happened to me here is a free glimpse into the future for the rest.
You Californians probably shouldn't even bother reading this thread..

Here are pictures with the new redesigned parts. Compare them with my initial pictures. It would also be cool if some of you could report back here, with which design connector is on your Touareg, and what year.

The ones coloured green are on the passenger side(where it initially snapped), and the pink ones are the drivers side, that I ended up changing, for the sake of preventive maintenance. And don't forget to click on the picture up to 3 times for better magnification of the iPhone pics.

 

Glad you were able to get it fixed. I sure checked out mine after you first posted. So far, so good. Cheers!

 

Can somebody please be a sport, take 10 seconds to go look at their Touareg, and tell me which style connector is being used on theirs? White metal or brass fitting? You should be able to easily see it, without even having to raise your suspension.


Here is a list of the part# used to make the repair. Remember, I did both sides of the vehicle, so some parts are x2. Sorry that the names are in French. Prices are in CDN$.

D-322-000-A2 Spray Cir Net:$27.38 Total:$27.38
7L0-616-813-B Soupape Net:170.93 Total:$341.86
N-910-956-01 Baguejoint Net $5.38 Total: $5.38
N-101-277-07 Vis Net: $1.81 Total: $14.48
N-909-413-01 Ecrou Net: $3.80 Total: $7.60

TOTAL parts: $396.70 MINUS my lousy 10% off: $34.00 = $362.70
TOTAL labour: $1276.80 labour rate: $96/h
TOTAL parts+labour: $1639.50

 

Can somebody please be a sport, take 10 seconds to go look at their Touareg, and tell me which style connector is being used on theirs? White metal or brass fitting? You should be able to easily see it, without even having to raise your suspension.


Here is a list of the part# used to make the repair. Remember, I did both sides of the vehicle, so some parts are x2. Sorry that the names are in French. Prices are in CDN$.

D-322-000-A2 Spray Cir Net:$27.38 Total:$27.38
7L0-616-813-B Soupape Net:170.93 Total:$341.86
N-910-956-01 Baguejoint Net $5.38 Total: $5.38
N-101-277-07 Vis Net: $1.81 Total: $14.48
N-909-413-01 Ecrou Net: $3.80 Total: $7.60

TOTAL parts: $396.70 MINUS my lousy 10% off: $34.00 = $362.70
TOTAL labour: $1276.80 labour rate: $96/h
TOTAL parts+labour: $1639.50

Mine appear to be brass looking connectors, so them more in likely did an in line upgrade as the went along.

 

I have looked this afternoon but only looked for corrosion. Mine is an earlier 04 with experience (121k miles). it spent 29k miles in dallas before it came to SW Missouri where it saw some salt but I have not a spec of corrosion visible

 

What colour is the metal?

 

My front air suspension blew out at 65mph.

(EDIT by spockcat: The way to repair this problem is now posted on page 7 of this thread: http://www.clubtouareg.com/forums/f...om/forums/f44/my-front-air-suspension-blew-out-at-65mph-33585-7.html#post193537 Replacement of the entire strut should not be necessary.)

First and foremost up until my conversation with the soon to be departing vw manager has been one of we get along but since the last time my truck was in the shop for 5 weeks, its tense.I had the dealership pull my folder for my truck today its as thick as the phonebook.. From 04 until 08 my touareg visited the dealership not once for a malfunction or issue. From the time the first recall was done on my truck my truck on average is in the shop once a month with an average time of 3 days. Fact is and its simple to see. Until Dorschel began actually physically pulling the truck apart, it was problem free. Since then I have had all the wheel bearings done, two of them had to be redone. One due to the tech installing the bearing backwards and the other for failure not even 8 months later. I have had the transfer case replaced, the drive shaft the battery, both hids, the interior trim, the from and rear differentials the stepper motor and the all elusive blown engine.... The engine blew when I replaced the coil packs with new ones. $4,100 and 5 weeks with no car and no loaner because we couldnt exaclty figure out what was wrong with it, a conversation was had that if they had installed the coil packs had been installed in the shop by them the blown engine would have been the responsibility and liability of the dealership and not me. Remember that last sentence.

Today I met with the soon to be departing mgr whom I feel thinks that I want too much. What do I want? To not pay for them to figure out a problem. For them to realize that when I dont have a car I lose money that when I am writing checks for 7k in the past year to have a car running (almost 45k new) and I get the reliability of a pinto in a pretty shell, I have a right to be pissed. I also would love to not have to sit in the wifi lounge and find the tsb's and the service bulletins pertaining to my "one of a kind" issue and then tell them what parts I need to circumvent my advisor that thinks we all are paid hourly and enjoy walking around the dealership for hours on end, praying that we get our car back and the part is not back ordered from Germany and it will take 9 weeks to get here. I guess I trusted the service manager when he stated that any tech that is certified on vw can work on a touareg. How wrong I was. This is the end of the line for me and the dealership and vw. I have written the owner/ceo of vw and the voa northeast manager. Following is my phone conversation I had with the manager on the phone. Please understand that I own a good sized company and I have to deal with not only customer service but also I am responsible for everything. Payroll, taxes, insurance, liability and what is missing from the manager Common business tact and delivery. Basically if your going to screw me over, make it feel good with words like. I will see what I can do, I will try to get something done for you. What I get after literally spending 7k on a car that is "German" engineering at its best is. No, we cant do anything for you and my new favorite. If there is a liabilty to us for the work we are about to perform, then I wont do it. Basically I learned that my vw service manager wants all the rewards in life without the risk. Like the risk I take bringing my car to the dealership for work.

That being said I finally have an understanding of the business method for Dorschel VW. Its "if we fix it and it breaks something, you are paying for what we broke". If I said that to anyone in the real world business wise, I would not be in business. Here is our conversation.

"Well Todd, he is not sure about this. It might break the other 4 million dollar part and from what I heard you say to him today "hey at least this time your putting the parts in not like the vw part I put in that blew my engine, its on you". My relationship with the mechanic himself has actually been pretty solid up until today. I am sure he is going to read this as I gave him the weekend to research the issue and I trust his abilities if he thinks he can do it, he will. Well apparently this risk scared the tech because I guess removing the flawed designed bolt it might break that other part. A: I have repeated issues with this truck. There is a history that its become a piece of ****. Its not like this is my first problem. Here is what is sad. Apparently we as VW owners are not bright enough to figure a few things out. Like with this forum we cant be bullshitted by them. I will never forget that today I was given a quote of 1400 plus 300 in labor for a part for me to go sit in the wifi lounge login to the site and Jesus there it was. A TSB for a $140 repair for this issue and not almost 2k and there are actual instructions from VW. Holy crap. I find myself thanking God himself for this site. My cost to date on this would easily have gone past 10k last year.

Todd pick it up and have it done someplace else because if the bolt does break (on the obvious flawed design that failed while I was driving almost causing an accident) then we dont want to pay for that other part and the alignment and basically your putting the responsibility on us. Well Holy crap, thats how business works. If that bolt breaks then I would assume a person with half a brain would go to vw for the part. I mean Jesus, they tell you what to do and note that it could break. Well every time I drive this POS I roll the dice that its going to be heading to the shop. I often chase my service advisior down around 4:45 to find out where the hell things stand. Usually he has forgotten me and its forced me to learn that I need to stay at the dealership all day to keep on top of him otherwise I simply get lied to.

I do plan on litigation this time. I cant believe the audacity of one the tech to be worried about breaking a part (apparently its ok on my end to roll the dice an pay a bill and not have it fixed right) but when they could have to pay for it, its not feasible.

I am done with this dealership and actually talked to holtz porsche. I know the gm for the entire company its self and I guess the reason I dont see any out of warranty touaregs at my dealership is because its hard to roll the dice on 1k average repair bills. This suspension is flawed by design in so many ways. How the hell do you have a major component that provides driver control and safety completely fail at highway speeds. Where the hell is your common sense. Jeez did you have the tires ever changed someplace else? Well of course its half the price of you. And yes I understand "jack" mode.

All I can say is that I am tired of this POS truck. Major suspension parts should NOT be failing on such and expensive car. Its not "acceptable" to have corrosion eat through parts that are critical. We take this crap all the time that its simply the way it is and we have come to accept it. I am not.

P.S. I cant comprehend the fact that I have a vw tsb for this fix and my departing (wonder why) gm is afraid that in repairing this part that I will hold them responsible like I was held with my VW parts I put in from that dealership and it cost me 4.100 stress, money loss, and my time. Something I learned from VW is worth more than anything. To be so frustrated with not having a car for 5 weeks that you simply pay the bill is not status que. We do not need to stand for this. Its not how its really done.

 

Mine appear to be brass cylinders as well....they were just replaced. Will take a closer look and see if they match your pics. Not sure if mine have that same big nut on the end or not

 

Jim can you pm me your mechanics info. I am done with my dealer. I am in Rochester so not that far. Thanks

 

Not sure I completely follow your thread, but we're having a ball lately discussing air suspension canisters and frustrations over various service departments.

Air Susp: VWdude had his rebuilt and I had fronts replaced by RealDriver Warranty. What did yours do at highway speed?

Apparently you also replaced your own coil packs and that caused your engine to seize?

I do not believe that very VW certified wrench is necessarily a Touareg certified wrench...and your wheel bearing example might reflect that.

Sounds like a dysfunctional service department to me. What does the GM say? I'd start there.