Oooops.....

[DuckWingDuck]

So I was cruising down the freeway at a breezy 120+ today heading out to a Lexus Performance event featuring the isF when my right front tyre blew out. Luckily, neither my friend nor I were hurt and no major damage was caused (I hope!) and the car was towed to my dealership as it looks like it was the same problem that haunted me from before:

http://misha.twilightstar.net/%7Egreg/IMG_0441.JPG

Only so much worse.....

http://pictures.twilightstar.net/d/21337-1/IMG_0540.JPG

But, while I was at the dealership, my service advisor told me that another local RS6 was in for a transmission swap so you know I had to run back there to check it out! For pics of the unmounted RS6 engine and some more of my tyre calamity, click here:

http://pictures.twilightstar.net/v/greg/RS6/tyre/

[jonas21]

yay luckily noone was hurt! tyre damage is always major...once had one too but that was at 120 (km/h not miles)....no damage (besides tyre).

nice pics especially those of the engine!

[RS6-4dr911]

And what kind of tires were those? I still say the factory settings for alignment are the root of all evil here. Who's with me??

[jonas21]

my were conti sport contact 2.

those of duckwingduck look like dunlop's.

[DuckWingDuck]

The originals were Toyo Proxes and these new ones are Bridgestone RE-050A Pole Position. And I am with you, I think the factory setting for the alignment might very well be the root cause here.

However, I also heard this from my technician, he was playing around with another RS6 where the customer complained that the alignment kept slipping, it got so serious that a factory technician came out and on his test drive after an alignment in less than two miles the car started to pull. The technician things that he needs to completely swap out the control arm as he only replaced the broken bushings last time. My question/quandry at this point is, how much of the other damage will Audi cover? As the tire got shredded up, it caused quite a bit of ancillary damage, the side light fell out, the fender was damaged from the insight and the always insidious check engine light came on as well.

Bleah.

[Ellden]

Yikes! Glad to hear that nobody got hurt! :bigeyes:

[ben916]

Smokes!!!! Good to hear everyone except the beast is fine....

THAT must have been some f@#$ing loud noise at 120MPH!!!! Followed by a major pucker factor by the DWD!!!

[Benman]

Followed by a major pucker factor by the DWD!!! No doubt!

Need to check the insides every once and a while... Same happened to me, but I spotted it and changed the tire before any blowout. :cheers:

Ben:addict:

[Copper]

Hey Buddy,

I'm so sorry this happened. Glad you are all OK. It could have been much worse.


The car you saw at the dealer, doesn't that belong to 16 Wins?

[BLITZEN]

Duck, you knew that inside tread was bad. :nono: You posted a pic of it in another thread about a month ago and I commented on it (the post was about front ends). Nevertheless, I'm sorry for your troubles and headache.

[DuckWingDuck]

Well, the tyres were swapped out and took the car back thinking that it was all resolved. The puzzling thing here is, I haven't really even put that many miles on this new set of tyres! Very strange indeed.

[s42ski]

Scary - were your new rims damaged ?

[DuckWingDuck]

A little scratched up, at this point, I don't know if it's bent that I'll need to get a new one, my technician will take a look and let me know sometime next week. I'll be trooping down to the dealership, will take some more photos of the damage.

Copper - no idea man, don't know how the owner is, but it is an amazing looking car. Very nice rims and nice smoked out lights.

[Carl Lassiter]

Woh, that must have been a scary incident. Glad you and your friend are still with us and that your beast went undamaged.:0:

[DuckWingDuck]

Thanks for the well wishes. Don't know about the undamaged bit though! Heading down to my dealership tomorrow to have a chat with the technician and my service advisor :D

[Hy Octane]

Yo Duck! Those new Bridgestones and the Toyo's too (whichever size you are using).. are they XL load rated?

[DuckWingDuck]

Yup, both were. The thing about these bridgestones is that they had been on a RS6 for about 500 miles!

[ben916]

Yup, both were. The thing about these bridgestones is that they had been on a RS6 for about 500 miles!

I smell a warranty claim coming on...

[DuckWingDuck]

hehe, it's either going to be warranty claim with bridgestone or warranty claim with audi!!

[Audiphile]

Yup, both were. The thing about these bridgestones is that they had been on a RS6 for about 500 miles!

Man, I'm glad you are ok. Not so much for you car though. I've driven your beast so I hope you get back in action for me to take another spin in it. I remember you had tire issues the first time you were in my area. It is never good to procrastinate....:)

[DuckWingDuck]

LOL, ya, I took care of the issue ages ago (or so I thought!) That was when I put on the new rims. I anticipate a long protracted issue with Audi trying to get all this damage repaired.

[BillDrs6]

DWD,

Did you ever figure out the root cause of this problem? I had my RS6 up on a lift and I noticed some wearing on the inside corner of the sidewall of one of my front tires and thread was starting to show. My tires still have a lot of tread left on them and it looks like I am wearing more on the inside (on the front) than outside which is alignment issue. However it does not look like an alignment problem would have caused wearing where the thread is showing, but more like the tire is rubbing against something. Could this be suspension problem?

Bill

[DuckWingDuck]

Bill,

Yes, I think everybody's on board that this is more than likely a suspension issue. Take a look at the control arm bushing. And of course LU-RS6 also shaved a bit off his control arm too.

Here's the thing, initially, when I first had the problem (damn, can't find the picture right now), it was just a lot of wear, like completely through the rubber and I could see the metal threading in the second level. At that time, we thought that it was just a alignment + control arm bushing problem.

Then I suffered the giant tire blowout: http://pictures.twilightstar.net/v/greg/RS6/tyre/ which shredded the inner third of the tire completely off and caused untold damage to the car.

I am at the point where if you're seeing similar rubbing to mine, GET THE DRC SWAPPED!!!!

[DuckWingDuck]

Hmm, so I gave a brief update on another thread but here's the final situation....

Car went into comprehensive claim with the insurance company. My technician and service advisor was able to talk the insurance company into getting me two DRC shocks/coilvers. However, they shortshipped the parts and only ended up with some springs, therefore, at their recommendation, I bit the bullet and just went with the KW V3 solution that quite a few on here have raved about. Now I'm just waiting for the KW V3s to ship from Germany to be installed by my technician at the dealership.

FINALLY this whole ordeal is coming to an end and hopefully I'll have my car back soon.

[HeadShot]

Oh the suffering Greg!! Hope she is all back together and better than ever soon!!
Great info as usual.. No one should have any excuses about suffering the same fate. One of my shocks is starting to leak - thats all i need.. time to upgrade.

[DuckWingDuck]

Nick, ya, for Steve whose DRC is still generally intact, I would definitely recommend that he take a ride in my new car first but if you're already leaking then it's time to get that swapped out! Don't want what happened to me to happen ot anyone else. As I said to my service advisor, to be honest, I really do want to swap out the DRC because I don't think I will ever truly feel safe to open the throttle on the car with the DRC because I just won't know what might happen.

[DuckWingDuck]

Update!! Apparently my KW V3s have been sitting at the dealership since last week and my car's already been towed back to the dealership for the final bits of work and if all goes well, by the time I go home this weekend I will have my car back. yay!

[BLITZEN]

Wow. Have you been waiting for it since the blowout? BTW - I had a DRC malfunction last month effecting the front drivers side and rear apssenger shocks. My dealership fixed it - no charge. It wasn't under warranty - They took care of it as Goodwill!

[DuckWingDuck]

Damn, that's pretty good. And it's a long story. But ya, I've been without my car since early June. However, I've been on the road so much that it didn't really matter that much ;)

[DHall1]

Hmmmm, might I see you next week? If so, a good comparison between stock DRC and KWs are in order.




Update!! Apparently my KW V3s have been sitting at the dealership since last week and my car's already been towed back to the dealership for the final bits of work and if all goes well, by the time I go home this weekend I will have my car back. yay!

[DuckWingDuck]

Dave, most def. I will be in town for around a week or two, so we will definitely get together so you can check out the KW V3s for yourself. I just hope I get the damned thing back in time!!!

[DHall1]

Stop, hold the presses. Lexus and performance event were used in the same sentence. :noshake:

Having come from 10+ years of driving Lexus and 20+ years of Toyota... I dont know if you can use those two words in the same sentence. :-)

I did drive an IS-F a few months back. I passed.



[quote=DuckWingDuck;132572]So I was cruising down the freeway at a breezy 120+ today heading out to a Lexus Performance event featuring the isF

[DuckWingDuck]

lol, we were bored, what can I say :D

[jbtexas]

this is all very scary for a new buyer....with plans to have kids in the back...

once I have my car, will definitely need to go through the decision process on the DRC... I want my car to be safe from day 1, so many horror stories about DRC, this is the first one I have heard that could've had caused physical harm, I am glad that you are ok

[DuckWingDuck]

Jonathan, most people don't have their tire blow up as a result of the DRC. Mine was a very extreme example. Basically, my DRC failure (and I believe that this is the first of this kind I've seen) caused my right front tire to camber negatively which resulted in the inner third of the tire rubbing against the control arm. This problem was first seen here:

<img src=http://misha.twilightstar.net/~greg/IMG_0442.JPG>

At the time, because I didn't seem to have the other classic DRC symptoms (though I've always thought my car had extra "bounce" whenever I would hit a hole on the freeway), my technician and I just thought that it was a misalignment (and also my control arm bushing was worn). So, I got an alignment and had the bushing replaced and everybody thought that was the end of it.

Then a few months later, while my friend and I were tooling down the freeway at 150+, my tire burst. As you can see from this:

<img src=http://pictures.twilightstar.net/d/21334-2/IMG_0528.JPG>

It's almost 100% the same problem, tire rubbing against control arm causing the tire to malfunction. Because I was going at such a high speed, that's why it burst so spectacularly.

At least this is what I "think" happened.

So, as a responsible parents with kiddies in the back, I doubt very much that you'll be driving like me ;)

[jbtexas]

well, i cant afford for that to happen to me either...who would bring home the bacon :D

as i read through all these threads, i am trying to determine what i should do when my car lands at the dealer on Monday...its already getting the carbon fiber put in, new PS2s, and overall checkup... maybe i will mention this control arm rubbing/alignment problems issue and have him take a look...

but what is the alternate alignment answer to factory specs? are there other specs that are recommended vs. what the factory recommends?

i have just spent a lot of money between the car, transport, CF, Nav, tires, etc... i really was hoping to wait at least a year or so before worrying about the DRC replacement

[DuckWingDuck]

jonathan, my car went 50k before anything happened. Ben's RS6 is still okay. So while DRC is a concern, it's not like every single car that rolled off the line has this problem. I think you'll be okay, I mean, having that check up done at the dealership will be important but please do make sure that your dealership put an RS tech on the inspection and not just some random snot nose technician. I would also mention the DRC specifically. It wouldn't be that big a deal since they are already pulling the wheels off to install your new tires.

The alternative to the DRC is H&R (as far as I can determine, unavailable in the US), Stasis (generally good reception but complaints of squeaking), and Bilstein (also squeaking and some other problems), and the KW V3.

One note of caution, and I mentioned this on Richard's thread too, is that with these aftermarket suspension, the car will be tighter and the ride stiffer. My dad already doesn't like to ride in my car with the DRC and stock 18". Now that I will have KW, Hotchkis, and 20", he will probably never ride in my car again. I don't know how much of a concern this is with kids.

[jbtexas]

jonathan, my car went 50k before anything happened. Ben's RS6 is still okay. So while DRC is a concern, it's not like every single car that rolled off the line has this problem. I think you'll be okay, I mean, having that check up done at the dealership will be important but please do make sure that your dealership put an RS tech on the inspection and not just some random snot nose technician. I would also mention the DRC specifically. It wouldn't be that big a deal since they are already pulling the wheels off to install your new tires.

The alternative to the DRC is H&R (as far as I can determine, unavailable in the US), Stasis (generally good reception but complaints of squeaking), and Bilstein (also squeaking and some other problems), and the KW V3.

One note of caution, and I mentioned this on Richard's thread too, is that with these aftermarket suspension, the car will be tighter and the ride stiffer. My dad already doesn't like to ride in my car with the DRC and stock 18". Now that I will have KW, Hotchkis, and 20", he will probably never ride in my car again. I don't know how much of a concern this is with kids.

my boys love riding in the Porsches w/ pss9...so i think that they will find this ride just fine :incar:

thanks for the info

[DHall1]

Jonathan,

My .02c here....

After having driven several (4) RS6s and 3 of them more then once. Also, having driven a RS with the DRC shot. I can tell you that long before you have a situation such as DWDs you will notice the ride and suspension problems. Also, DWDs problems did show up by such extreme tire wear on the inside of the tire. So, visual as well as performance of the suspension will keep you on the safe side. Plus, if the tire is rubbing the control arm....I would know it.

Its interesting really, the one RS with the shot DRC drove like crap and it too had tire issues. Hmmm:eye:

I can also say that a DRC in good working order is a thing of beauty.

My STI went down the road tonight. Craigs list is a wonderful thing.

Bring on the German muscle. I am tired of my wife having a faster car that everything I drive.

:addict:


well, i cant afford for that to happen to me either...who would bring home the bacon :D

as i read through all these threads, i am trying to determine what i should do when my car lands at the dealer on Monday...its already getting the carbon fiber put in, new PS2s, and overall checkup... maybe i will mention this control arm rubbing/alignment problems issue and have him take a look...

but what is the alternate alignment answer to factory specs? are there other specs that are recommended vs. what the factory recommends?

i have just spent a lot of money between the car, transport, CF, Nav, tires, etc... i really was hoping to wait at least a year or so before worrying about the DRC replacement