RS6 US VIN Compilation.....

[Other_Erik]

And another 4 today

WUAPV54B03N904790 - Misano Red on White leather, wood interior, 71k miles, no known mods, Seller asking $32k spotted on Craigslist Norfolk VA
WUAPV54B53N904624 - Daytona Gray on Black leather, CF Interior, 102k miles, GIAC chip & KWV3s & Milltek & Hotchkis Sways, Seller asking $22k spotted on Craigslist Buffalo NY
WUAPV64B93N905278 - Mugello Blue on White leather, wood interior, 109k miles, no mods, Seller asking $20k spotted on Craigslist Hartford CT
WUAPV64B53N904984 - Mugello Blue on Black leather, CF Interior, 80k miles, RNS-E , Seller asking $22k spotted on Craigslist Austin TX

[cgc154]

And another 4 today

WUAPV54B03N904790 - Misano Red on White leather, wood interior, 71k miles, no known mods, Seller asking $32k spotted on Craigslist Norfolk VA
WUAPV54B53N904624 - Daytona Gray on Black leather, CF Interior, 102k miles, GIAC chip & KWV3s & Milltek & Hotchkis Sways, Seller asking $22k spotted on Craigslist Buffalo NY
WUAPV64B93N905278 - Mugello Blue on White leather, wood interior, 109k miles, no mods, Seller asking $20k spotted on Craigslist Hartford CT
WUAPV64B53N904984 - Mugello Blue on Black leather, CF Interior, 80k miles, RNS-E , Seller asking $22k spotted on Craigslist Austin TX

I'm the new owner of 904624! Just picked it up last week and I've been loving every second since. Excited to finally have a beast for myself.

[Other_Erik]

I'm the new owner of 904624! Just picked it up last week and I've been loving every second since. Excited to finally have a beast for myself.

Congrats and welcome! There are some who would warn you away from that GIAC tune - get in touch with 10secS4 for safer tuning. Enjoy those KWV3's and Hotchkis swaybars, makes for smooooooth ride. Didn't see on the seller ad whether the Milltek DP's were catless or standard with cats - I'd take a look at those if you need to pass emissions inspection wherever you are. Enjoy the beast! Get ready to lube up the wallet hole!

O_E

[lswing]

^^^As stated, nice pickup! And do log data when you can to make sure that GIAC tune isn't running lean, can cause major problems. www.ross-tech.com Categories 3, 31 , 112, 115 are good to know.

[EINHORN]

WUAPV54BX3N904733 new ACE, new valve body, Avus, Black, wood, SE less than 80k

[Gentleman]

My vin is: 904658

blue with light interior (still learning color names, but I think it's Muellgo blue and platinum?)

bone one stock for now

TC replaced under warranty

what else do you need for info?

[6172crew]

WUAPV64B83N905286 lives in Los Alamos NM now, silver with wood interior and all stock.

[C300]

5182 is in Wa. Brilliant Black/Ivory. Wood, SE Exhaust and Had Nav. Is all there but the Nav. head unit. Base Bose now. Looks like someone removed an aftermarket sound system. All seems Stock besides that. Picked it up with 63k.

Yes, a list would be nice. Is this car already on the list/thread some where ?

[lswing]

5182 is in Wa. Brilliant Black/Ivory. Wood, SE Exhaust and Had Nav. Is all there but the Nav. head unit. Base Bose now. Looks like someone removed an aftermarket sound system. All seems Stock besides that. Picked it up with 63k.

Yes, a list would be nice. Is this car already on the list/thread some where ?

Thanks. What mileage did your TC/trans have replacement?

[lswing]

My vin is: 904658

blue with light interior (still learning color names, but I think it's Muellgo blue and platinum?)

bone one stock for now

TC replaced under warranty

what else do you need for info?

VIN correlates to torque converter failure on most cars below xx5600...really main point of this info. Dave will be sending me the list soon

[C300]

ISwing, I bought the car from University Audi. Was told it was the owners. Then his sons. Wouldn't tell me anything about it. Just car fax. Guess I could bang on their home door. Not sure if they have any idea what a t/converter is. Was sold at that dealer ship originally. Guy bought it, moved to Portland. Sold it. Guy bought it. Moved to Seattle. Dealer owner bought it. Unless someone has any other information, I'm going to have to say that it's the original transmission. No information about the DRC eather. Hopefully the dealer ship fixed it under the table. All seems good under the hood. Bad thermostat, fans were on full blast when I got it. Went to the get it inspected before I bought it. That code wasn't on the list. I cleared it. Drove it.cooled it off .listened to the car with out the fans on. Got the fans to come back on and got a price reduction. Bought it. C300

[Bigglezworth]

VIN correlates to torque converter failure on most cars below xx5600...

It would be nice if you guys could get some substantiated proof from Audi on this matter vs. implying to many a new-to-be-RS6-owner that their ride is any better off than the others. I concur it's an interesting stat that you've been keeping track of over the past few years, but still believe it to be entirely speculation from what I've been able to discern. TQ quality/construction didn't magically get better halfway through production of these cars. Yes Audi/VW knew they had a problem with the design, but it was only after a bunch of failures occurred. Just as high a percentage of the 90 '04 models offered for sale in Canada have the same tranny/TQ failures as the '03 models. Also, there are the same type of TQ failures on other Audi/VW rides around the same era including the base A4, A6, S6, Passat, BMW's, Jaguars, the list goes on. Ultimately all rides that used ZF product.

For those that don't understand, here's an excerpt from another post on-line about 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.

The fact that the RS6 had an external transmission cooler on it to address the additional power the engine put through the TQ/clutches - which automatically equates to extra heat generation - speaks well to why the seals in the TQ didn't stand up to the test. That aside though, I have searched high and low for more than a couple of years on this and can find no indication of dates/production model/VIN numbers on when the change occurred.

[DHall1]

Most of if not all of our 03 RS6s in the USA should have been 2004s due to build dates after 5/03

Only the very end of the line production in oct, nov, dec of 03 had the updates.

So many off the shelf "04s" had early design seals. Who knows maybe they updated RS6 first due to the rash of early failures andhigh cost of repairs. That would motivate Audi because RS6s were blowing trans at 40k.

Can i prove all this? Nope

Do i care if anyone else believes this? Nope

[Other_Erik]

It would be nice if you guys could get some substantiated proof from Audi on this matter ...... Ultimately all rides that used ZF product.

here's an excerpt from another post on-line
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.

Most of if not all of our 03 RS6s in the USA should have been 2004s due to build dates after 5/03
Only the very end of the line production in oct, nov, dec of 03 had the updates.
So many off the shelf "04s" had early design seals. Who knows maybe they updated RS6 first due to the rash of early failures and high cost of repairs. That would motivate Audi because RS6s were blowing trans at 40k.
Can i prove all this? Nope
Do i care if anyone else believes this? Nope

Edited both for brevity.

Biggz - It'd be nice if we could get substantiated proof that Audi knew the DRC system wasn't ready for production, either - but it's not going to happen. I think the most damning evidence that ZF was in way over their heads was their claim of "lifetime" fluid - "You'll never need to change your transmission fluid or filter. Ever. For at least the life of the car." Became "Welllllllllll, let's just say that 100,000km's is about the limit." - sorry, but if you're not testing your equipment for the 80th percentile of use, you have enormous problems.

DHall - I'm concurring with you for a couple reasons
1) I have 905530 - Production Date 10/10/03 - no TC issues.
2) The 90 or so '04 RS6's that went to Canada have build dates mostly in the June-August time period.
2a- Once Audi and Quattro GmbH realized they couldn't release the C5 RS6 as a MY04 in the US, they dumped all their resources for the remainder of the calendar into US-spec models.
2b- Audi and Quattro GmbH knew it was a money-losing proposition to continue building MY04 RS6's only for Canada, so they only produced factory-ordered RS6's for Canadian orders - none were built and shipped to dealers for public offering after 1/1/2004
3) Europe had C5 RS6's from MY2000-2004, using the same TC and transmission. I'll give you 3 guesses what constant issue they had with everything up through the middle of MY04.

I'm not trying to bash anyone, all of this is based on what I can glean from extensive reading here, at rs246, etc...

Long story short, let's get this back on topic. If you want to debate the pros and cons of ZF's equipment, let's do that in a thread dedicated to the issue (we do not have any shortage of those, by the way...)

O_E

[Renn Sport]

I picked up this one in July, had it shipped to Colorado. Seems in great shape and was pleasantly surprised to find it has KWV3's although had to dial them back a bit to get the ride more compliant. Otherwise no issues. I'm all the way up to 53k miles! I sold my B5 S4 Avant with 220k on it and decided to upgrade, although I confess the Avant aspect came in handy at times.

WUAPV64B73N905294, Avus Silver on White Leather, CF interior (cracked), unknown if any mods, 51k miles selling at $28k - spotted on eBay in Pennsylvania

[Huzrjim]

Good Morning - New member from Bloomington, Indiana. Just acquired my first RS6 - 130,000 miles. Ebony Pearl with black leather interior. REVO Stage I tune with Milltek exhaust. Still has working DRC system which was replace under warranty at 49K miles. New transmission installed at 69K miles.

VIN: WUAPV64B13N905372

[lswing]

Good Morning - New member from Bloomington, Indiana. Just acquired my first RS6 - 130,000 miles. Ebony Pearl with black leather interior. REVO Stage I tune with Milltek exhaust. Still has working DRC system which was replace under warranty at 49K miles. New transmission installed at 69K miles.

VIN: WUAPV64B13N905372

Welcome! Sounds like a solid running example. If you feel the Revo tune is lean, and can log data with Ross-Tech VCDS, I can help with extra software.

[Huzrjim]

Hey thanks - I don't have a VCDS, yet, but I have already looked into getting one.