C5 RS6 Avant advice

[Pieman]

Hi there,

I'm writing a feature on the C5 RS6 Avant for Piston Heads and would love to know your opinions on the following please...


Servicing and maintenance - what are the most important service points and what are the key things that can go wrong?

Buying advice -what should buyers watch out for?

Tuning - what are the most popular tuning choices?


Many thanks,

Guy R Baker

[Other_Erik]

Hello Guy

While (most of us) can't give any opinions/advice on the Avant specifically, this forum is a wealth of information on the C5 RS6 that came to the US (2003 model year). I can speak some to your point but am sure others are more in-tune with what's out there.

Servicing and maintenance -
Timing belt service (belt, idler pulleys, thermostat, water pump, etc...) every 35k miles is an absolute must (the water pump can last 2 service intervals or 70k miles)
I think most everyone is on the same page with oil - brand of choice, full synthetic, every 5k miles
We've had terrible luck with the first generation DRC (Dynamic Ride Control) suspension, even after recall work replacing seals and refilling, these seem to need service every 15k miles or 2 years, whichever comes first.
Cam adjusters every 75-100k miles - $2k-4k depending on shop labor rates and etc...
BRAKES - See the "What can go wrong" for more info on brakes

What can go wrong - we do tend to focus on the negative, since noone is going to post up on here "URGENT: Everything is fine!"
Torque Converter - on US VIN's before the 905500 or so mark, it seems the torque converters were not up to par, seals failing caused many a transmission to give up the ghost.
DRC - mentioned earlier, again with seals, some folks had near-accidents when their DRC suddenly discharged at speed and the out-of-balance caused their vehicle to swerve without steering input
More seals - Valve Cover Gaskets (just had mine done, 2nd time on this vehicle, at 131k miles), Cam seals and plugs (again, just had mine done, 2nd time on this vehicle at 131k miles), Rear main seal, front engine seal - all have been known to go from dry to seeping to pouring oil quite quickly
Cam Adjusters - a simple lope can lead to catastrophic engine damage before the check engine light (CEL) even lights up
Brakes - List price for brakes made my jaw drop the first time I saw it. Anyone getting more than 40k out of OE rotors must be doing a lot of long highway drives where there is no stop&go traffic. My next set of rotors will definitely need to be cryogenically treated for longer wear life. Brake pads are per preference, though others have noted the wear pin in the OE Fedoro pads is set deeper into the pad than the rivets used to hold the pads to their backing. The rivets can/will gouge the rotors long before the wear pin ever sets off the brake replacement sensor. At least one member here has also had EBC Redstuff pads disintegrate under load, causing quite a lot of damage.

Buying advice - Buyers should look for a car with full (or at least recent) service records. They should watch out for anyone who's tried to get 50-70k out of their timing belt. My advice to potential buyers - buy a real diagnostic tool. The de facto standard for us is the VCDS (Vag-Com Diagnostic System) - which runs between 200 and 400 dollars depending on options, and has so far saved me _thousands_ of dollars with maintenance I was able to do myself. One 10-minute scan can give you the knowledge you need to know whether a car is worth buying or not. For those who are less mechanically inclined, or are trying to buy from someone not geographically close, have the seller take the vehicle to an Audi dealership, and the buyer can pay the dealership 1-2 hours labor cost to perform a Pre-Purchase Inspection (PPI). If the PPI comes up clean and terms are favorable, the buyer MAY decide to have a full inspection performed by the same shop, but the cost is more in the 4-6 hours of labor range. The full inspection covers every point of the car that a dealership would inspect to sell the car as a "Certified Pre-Owned" vehicle, so this can be simplified as the CPO inspection.

Tuning - Everyone seems to have their favorite, but there are a few options available
10SecS4 (a member on this board) offers and ECU tune at the lowest price of the bunch
...
...
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Others can fill in these blanks, the names of the tunes escape me at the moment but I know the advertised prices range from $700-$2600 for a canned tune, and a full custom tune (where the tuning shop need the full vehicle instead of just the ECU/TCU), can range from $1000 and up.

Hopefully you'll have a more knowledgeable member here flesh out more to what I've said.

O_E

[Pieman]

Many thanks for this.

Guy.

[Other_Erik]

Thanks for the board mention on PH, Guy! Full article here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=31225

O_E

[Pieman]

Hope you enjoyed it!
Cheers,

Guy.

[hahnmgh63]

Nice well written article. Nice job