Car buying from a private seller

19lottie82

To be fair I don't think you will get very far here...... The advert doesn't read " perfect condition" or "runs like a dream", unless there's something else you haven't mentioned, it hasn't been mis sold. Well apart from what the seller told you verbally, but that won't stand up in court.

To win in court, you would need to PROVE that the seller misrepresented the car at the point of sale and also, that the problems were present before he sold it to you. This would involve shelling out for engineers reports ect. You wouldn't be guaranteed a victory and even if you did win, it doesn't guarantee the seller will pay up.

You've bought a 13 year old car, so a few hundred quid to get it running OK sounds not too bad IMO.

Your best bet would be to speak to the seller and appeal to his better nature and see if he will offer you anything towards the repair bill, as a goodwill gesture

ukpete79

best to wait until your mechanic sees it then... what I would say though, these air suspension systems are really not that complicated.

basically a small pump fills a tank with compressed air, when the car needs raising, the tank expels air into the airbags via a valve block (five valves, one master, then one for each corner)
when the pressure in the tank is low (after inflating a corner) the pump kicks in to fill it up.
SO it could just be a leaking valve or air line, esp given the age....Do we know exactly what was done when the suspension was worked on?

Stephb1986_2

ukpete79 wrote: »

best to wait until your mechanic sees it then... what I would say though, these air suspension systems are really not that complicated.

basically a small pump fills a tank with compressed air, when the car needs raising, the tank expels air into the airbags via a valve block (five valves, one master, then one for each corner)
when the pressure in the tank is low (after inflating a corner) the pump kicks in to fill it up.
SO it could just be a leaking valve or air line, esp given the age....Do we know exactly what was done when the suspension was worked on?

From what was described to us all of the airbags on the suspension was replaced in the last year for the rear and 18 months for the front (we know the front isn't the problem) I'm not sure the car is safe to drive as it is? It's on it's backside but before we bought the car we looked into repair costs for the suspension incase there was anything wrong with it but when we asked him he said that everything was fine and it had been done, he seemed like a genuine honest guy.

ukpete79

if that's genuinely the case, that all the airbags are new (ish) then thats the expensive bit done, if its just the rear going down id bet its a leaking valve or airline....
Does it eventually raise or is it sitting on its bump stops al the time?

Stephb1986_2

ukpete79 wrote: »

if that's genuinely the case, that all the airbags are new (ish) then thats the expensive bit done, if its just the rear going down id bet its a leaking valve or airline....
Does it eventually raise or is it sitting on its bump stops al the time?

It's just sitting and not raising at all then a light will come on the dash which means the suspension has failed, we noticed earlier in the week that the rear was going down once the car was parked up and left for a few hours which I assume isn't supposed to happen?

I hope it's not going to be expensive to fix as the only reason he got the new car is because his other car (another audi but an A4) started falling apart and thought it was best to get him something more reliable.

ukpete79

have a look here, this might help..

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?147004-Allroad-Air-Suspension-Problems

Stephb1986_2

They say things come in threes, I got hit from behind on the motorway the other day my car is ok not much damage, this with my husbands car, my car went in for it's MOT this morning just had a call to say it needs a rear spring.

Never rains but pours

Thanks for the advice Pete you're a gem

ukpete79

no problem, heres hoping it all works out... have a good look over that forum, I use a similar one for Range Rovers, its genuinely saved me thousands of £££ just by fixing silly little things myself.