Back on the Crazy Train!

[nistah]

I am pleased to be officially back on the Crazy Train, picked up a canadian Pearl Metallic Effect over ebony from a very cool local seller who I found here on www.rs6.com. (http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/26...ght=13000+obo) 96K miles. Canadian VIN: WUAPV64B94N901510


After sitting on the sidelines since selling my last RS6 this past March I am super happy to be back into another RS6. The car breezed through inspection and was inexpensive with regards to sales tax & registration fees.


Looking into 3/36 or 4/48 warranty to add on. Car came with some goodies including 6 extra BBS CarFax says I'm the 3rd owner. According to seller he bought from in 2010 from a Canadian national in Vegas where car was kept for years still bearing canadian tags. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of ACEs in the trunk compartment.


Everything looks really good. Passed a PPI @ Rockville Audi in Maryland with Flying colors. And my personal mechanic went through it thoroughly. This car at 96K is actually cleaner inside than the Pearl Grey one I bought w/ 64K


Does have minor issues related to service and fit & finish which seller fully disclosed and discounted purchase price accordingly (timing belt, thermostat & water pump due, needs rotors and pads all around and also front control arms)Minor damage to front bumper will be repaired shortly. And a host of small issues that I will resolve over time.


My first order of business was to peel off the black powder coating on the aluminum doorsills to bring it back to factory spec which is the look I prefer, after a liberal application of goo gone and a trip to the car wash she cleaned up very well. Next item is to get the timing belt taken care of ASAP and get a service contract warranty put on. I currently do not plan on tuning the ECU on this one due to previous experience getting ticketed up the wazoo and dealing with Trans issues related to extra HP however I may change my mind on the tune in time,. I will def go thru http://horchaus.com to do the MTM tune on the TCU as this seems universally recommended so will definitely go with MTM TCU modification soon.


I also want to have an RNS-E fit into this beast as I did with my last one, as I think that's one of the best mods for this car can someone please send me Zawa's contact info so I can inquire about placing an order thru him? Thanks. Also would love to integrate back up cam


As far as I can tell and as far as the previous owner can recall the TC/trans are original. Car was driven a total of 87k miles up until January 2010 then it saw only 9K miles run through until now by Justin Lee who drove it very seldom from Jan 2010 up until now.


I would like to personally thank hahnmgh63(http://www.rs6.com/member.php/3357-hahnmgh63) , for his thoughtful assistance and information... The car I purchased was owned by Justin Lee (http://www.rs6.com/member.php/15607-justinrlee)... & it appears very gently used and well cared for! The interior parts such as the driver window switch and climate control are not worn what so ever my,last ones were shot


This is the best shifting RS6 I've driven. The forum has speculated that later production RS6's had an updated stronger trans internals set up or some unspecified improvements, although to my knowledge nothing has been confirmed for certain. This example seems strong and the build date is March 2004 which would seem to place it at the very end of the production curve. Any other Canadian RS6 owners have build date info and trans feedback would be interested to hear. Also interested to hear others thoughts on this updated trans theory floating around. The DRC seems fine.


A few questions, related to differences or similarities between Canadian and American version RS6's:


1) The speedometer is in KM wondering if I source an american RS6 Speedo cluster will it plug and play or not? I want to be able to see how fast I am driving in MPH!


2) The shark fin on this example is matte grey & does not color match to paint. I recall my pervious example had the shark fin color matched to paint (pearl grey metallic effect) can I purchase a color matched to paint for pearl metallic effect shark fin, anyone have one?


3) The side view mirror on the drivers side appears to be tinted with an orange color film is that how all canadian versions came from the factory or was this someones aftermarket doing?
4) I do not know what options this car has, it def does have sound enhancing exhaust. Def does not have warm weather package and no nav not that oem nav would be of use anyway.
5) Finally there is a decent stack of receipts however most of them are in French and I cannot read them!!! What to do, find a French speaking female interpreter?


I am thrilled with the car and happy to be back. Will be posting pics of car and build sheet shortly so folks can alert me to what I may or may not have option wise, I am clueless on the Canadian ones…Thanks!!!

[SensoRS6]

Congrats on coming back to the family!

[lswing]

Sweet glad to hear it! Glad you finally got back into an RS6! question though, can you actually get a warranty on one with that many miles?

[DHall1]

Welcome back.

The theory goes on the trans update due to repeated events of early failure on early VIN production date vehicles. Of which I owned 2 that blew transmissions by 40k. I also have the US VIN list to compare notes. Lastly, I also have a later production RS6 that has never had a trans issue since day one and continues to perform and shift perfect to this day. The cutoff seems to be 9-03 pre/post and would make sense that if torque converters were updated along with whatever inside...those units would last longer.

I have a complete US spec RS6 speedo with 7700 miles if you need one.

Canada spec cars had some safety updates. Maybe Biggles can chime in on that part.

I am pleased to be officially back on the Crazy Train, picked up a canadian Pearl Metallic Effect over ebony from a very cool local seller who I found here on www.rs6.com. (http://www.rs6.com/showthread.php/26...ght=13000+obo) 96K miles. Canadian VIN: WUAPV64B94N901510


After sitting on the sidelines since selling my last RS6 this past March I am super happy to be back into another RS6. The car breezed through inspection and was inexpensive with regards to sales tax & registration fees.


Looking into 3/36 or 4/48 warranty to add on. Car came with some goodies including 6 extra BBS CarFax says I'm the 3rd owner. According to seller he bought from in 2010 from a Canadian national in Vegas where car was kept for years still bearing canadian tags. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bottle of ACEs in the trunk compartment.


Everything looks really good. Passed a PPI @ Rockville Audi in Maryland with Flying colors. And my personal mechanic went through it thoroughly. This car at 96K is actually cleaner inside than the Pearl Grey one I bought w/ 64K


Does have minor issues related to service and fit & finish which seller fully disclosed and discounted purchase price accordingly (timing belt, thermostat & water pump due, needs rotors and pads all around and also front control arms)Minor damage to front bumper will be repaired shortly. And a host of small issues that I will resolve over time.


My first order of business was to peel off the black powder coating on the aluminum doorsills to bring it back to factory spec which is the look I prefer, after a liberal application of goo gone and a trip to the car wash she cleaned up very well. Next item is to get the timing belt taken care of ASAP and get a service contract warranty put on. I currently do not plan on tuning the ECU on this one due to previous experience getting ticketed up the wazoo and dealing with Trans issues related to extra HP however I may change my mind on the tune in time,. I will def go thru http://horchaus.com to do the MTM tune on the TCU as this seems universally recommended so will definitely go with MTM TCU modification soon.


I also want to have an RNS-E fit into this beast as I did with my last one, as I think that's one of the best mods for this car can someone please send me Zawa's contact info so I can inquire about placing an order thru him? Thanks. Also would love to integrate back up cam


As far as I can tell and as far as the previous owner can recall the TC/trans are original. Car was driven a total of 87k miles up until January 2010 then it saw only 9K miles run through until now by Justin Lee who drove it very seldom from Jan 2010 up until now.


I would like to personally thank hahnmgh63(http://www.rs6.com/member.php/3357-hahnmgh63) , for his thoughtful assistance and information... The car I purchased was owned by Justin Lee (http://www.rs6.com/member.php/15607-justinrlee)... & it appears very gently used and well cared for! The interior parts such as the driver window switch and climate control are not worn what so ever my,last ones were shot


This is the best shifting RS6 I've driven. The forum has speculated that later production RS6's had an updated stronger trans internals set up or some unspecified improvements, although to my knowledge nothing has been confirmed for certain. This example seems strong and the build date is March 2004 which would seem to place it at the very end of the production curve. Any other Canadian RS6 owners have build date info and trans feedback would be interested to hear. Also interested to hear others thoughts on this updated trans theory floating around. The DRC seems fine.


A few questions, related to differences or similarities between Canadian and American version RS6's:


1) The speedometer is in KM wondering if I source an american RS6 Speedo cluster will it plug and play or not? I want to be able to see how fast I am driving in MPH!


2) The shark fin on this example is matte grey & does not color match to paint. I recall my pervious example had the shark fin color matched to paint (pearl grey metallic effect) can I purchase a color matched to paint for pearl metallic effect shark fin, anyone have one?


3) The side view mirror on the drivers side appears to be tinted with an orange color film is that how all canadian versions came from the factory or was this someones aftermarket doing?
4) I do not know what options this car has, it def does have sound enhancing exhaust. Def does not have warm weather package and no nav not that oem nav would be of use anyway.
5) Finally there is a decent stack of receipts however most of them are in French and I cannot read them!!! What to do, find a French speaking female interpreter?


I am thrilled with the car and happy to be back. Will be posting pics of car and build sheet shortly so folks can alert me to what I may or may not have option wise, I am clueless on the Canadian ones…Thanks!!!

[SensoRS6]

Sweet glad to hear it! Glad you finally got back into an RS6! question though, can you actually get a warranty on one with that many miles?

I got one on mine with 92k miles. EFG Company's, but good luck getting them to pay for things. Their contract is "total failure" and can be normal wear, I think they could get out of anything.

[nistah]

I got one on mine with 92k miles. EFG Company's, but good luck getting them to pay for things. Their contract is "total failure" and can be normal wear, I think they could get out of anything.

Right on I had EFG extended service contract on my last RS6 called MAPS Classic Used, I did not buy it - that one transfered from previous owner for $50 fee. I ended up making a major amount of claims on it, well over 15K worth

For my new ride I did get a quote from EFG but the contract is different called "Simplicty" and costs btwn $4,500-5,000 depending on term and amout of miles, however when I got the contract it limits their payout to between 7,500-10,000 depending if you select Powertrain(7,500max) or Powertrain plus/choice(10,000max)

I also generated quotes from CarChex (36 months / 36,000 miles for $3992 or 48 months / 48,000 miles for $4657) which appears to be a subsidiary some type of joint venture with Carfax as well as a quote from the Auto Warranty Agency (36 months / 36,000 miles for $3495 or 48 months / 48,000 miles for $4180 . Interestingly enough when I asked to review the sample contract on these two quotes it was the EXACT SAME contract administrated by Royal Administration Services out of Massachusetts. I checked Royals reputation and they have numerous complaints for giving people the run around, requesting excessive & exhaustive diagnostic work and also insisting people have their transmissions done at AAMCO after the cars had already been diagnosed by the dealer. I think if you pick a capable service advisor and let them deal with the warranty co then you eliminate headaches and denials people refrence, I never had an issue with EFG, it's just that the contract attorney's have gotten very good at tweaking the terms and conditons in favor of the underwritters of these policys.

Also all the contracts call for LKQ parts replacement (think used from junkyard) Does not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling, although I suspect having one of these contracts would increase resale value to potential buyer. I am toying with the idea of rolling the dice & self insuring since I have a late VIN but may just bite the bullet and pick the offering from the warranty agency since it was the lowest priced.

Will keep everyone posted...

[nistah]

Welcome back.

The theory goes on the trans update due to repeated events of early failure on early VIN production date vehicles. Of which I owned 2 that blew transmissions by 40k. I also have the US VIN list to compare notes. Lastly, I also have a later production RS6 that has never had a trans issue since day one and continues to perform and shift perfect to this day. The cutoff seems to be 9-03 pre/post and would make sense that if torque converters were updated along with whatever inside...those units would last longer.

I have a complete US spec RS6 speedo with 7700 miles if you need one.

Canada spec cars had some safety updates. Maybe Biggles can chime in on that part.

Thank you Dave - appreciate your input here on the trans update speculation. Can anyone with internal knowledge at VAG confirm this? I'll PM you on the speedo cluster

[DHall1]

Someone at ZF in Germany may have this info but good luck getting them to admit anything. Blown torque converters and transmissions were the norm back in the day. Maybe it was heat from Audi having to pay warranty claims thru the roof that finally made something happen.

You just dont hear about torque converter issues with 04 and later vehicles....A4s, A6s, Allroads, and our late production 03RS6s that should have been O4s but the EPA madate to eliminate fuel line returns caused Audi to make "2003"s up to December 03.

Thank you Dave - appreciate your input here on the trans update speculation. Can anyone with internal knowledge at VAG confirm this? I'll PM you on the speedo cluster

[nistah]

Someone at ZF in Germany may have this info but good luck getting them to admit anything. Blown torque converters and transmissions were the norm back in the day. Maybe it was heat from Audi having to pay warranty claims thru the roof that finally made something happen.

You just dont hear about torque converter issues with 04 and later vehicles....A4s, A6s, Allroads, and our late production 03RS6s that should have been O4s but the EPA madate to eliminate fuel line returns caused Audi to make "2003"s up to December 03.

Did some research on the ZF5HP19 FLA tq converter issue:

"Here's the nuts and bolts technical explanation of the root causes: ZF and Audi's original converter design utilized two rubber seals inside of the torque converter that were of questionable quality.

The two seals are responsible for sealing the hydraulic pressure that allows the torque converter clutch to engage and hold. One of the seals is a "lip" type that seals on the transmission input shaft and the other "o" ring type seal seals against the piston.

The material originally used was not up to the task when it came to dealing with the tremendous heat and pressure that occurs inside of a torque converter. Although Audi did release a second design input shaft lip seal, failures have been observed with those as well.

When the hydraulic pressure that is required to allow converter clutch application cannot be contained because of the faulty seals, the clutch will start to slip and usually destroy itself before too long."
cited from http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-art...ns-350850.html

Looks like there was an update along the way, not sure when but even the "new" design is still not fool proof....

[DHall1]

While not really a source from ZF making these statements....this guy has seen the problem first hand.

Tozo could add some interesting notes here. Such as if later model A6s and A8s are having torque converter problems. 2004 and later.

I only know that many original owners that have even flashed from an early age have seen 120k from the late VIN transmissions before a problem comes up. I will take those numbers any day.

Did some research on the ZF5HP19 FLA tq converter issue:

"Here's the nuts and bolts technical explanation of the root causes: ZF and Audi's original converter design utilized two rubber seals inside of the torque converter that were of questionable quality.

The two seals are responsible for sealing the hydraulic pressure that allows the torque converter clutch to engage and hold. One of the seals is a "lip" type that seals on the transmission input shaft and the other "o" ring type seal seals against the piston.

The material originally used was not up to the task when it came to dealing with the tremendous heat and pressure that occurs inside of a torque converter. Although Audi did release a second design input shaft lip seal, failures have been observed with those as well.

When the hydraulic pressure that is required to allow converter clutch application cannot be contained because of the faulty seals, the clutch will start to slip and usually destroy itself before too long."
cited from http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-art...ns-350850.html

Looks like there was an update along the way, not sure when but even the "new" design is still not fool proof....

[nistah]

Here are the pics of the build data sheet & sticker. If any one knows how to read these please advise what options etc I have here. Thanks in advance!

[MaxRS6]

Welcome back...

[lswing]

1510 VIN, hmmm, trans and TC should be toast by now, this is very early correct? Did the Canada cars get built that much earlier or am I reading it wrong? I'm 5035. So many middle numbers stayed in Europe?

[DHall1]

EZ PZ there....

Different model year.

Look at the production date.

1510 VIN, hmmm, trans and TC should be toast by now, this is very early correct? Did the Canada cars get built that much earlier or am I reading it wrong? I'm 5035. So many middle numbers stayed in Europe?

[lswing]

Got it... I'm 7th month of 2003, restart of the vin at 2004. So there are a lot of these in Europe, would be interesting to find their main forum.

[DHall1]

everyone in europe is on

rs246.com

Got it... I'm 7th month of 2003, restart of the vin at 2004. So there are a lot of these in Europe, would be interesting to find their main forum.

[Ruergard]

Welcome back!