Newbie RS6 owner from Ontario Canada

[Roots]

Hello everyone.
Recently joined the site ... and with only ~90 cars imported into Canada, it is nice to have found this site for sure. That said, as of August I am the proud owner of my first RS6 … an 04 Avus Silver Pearl with light silver interior (vin 901478). The car has 192k kilometers … but now has an engine with ~88k km’s due to an unfortunate cam shaft chain tensioner problem on the left bank. Unfortunate because this happened just about a 1.5 months after getting the car ... so suffice to say the wife is still riding the "I told you" wave. Hopefully she'll be past that by the time next summer rolls around!!!!!

Anyway, mods include MTM ECU and TCU tune(s) and the Audi Sport exhaust (complete system was replaced at 157K along with both turbos -> yah an $11k+ dealer invoice). Upgrades include light window tint, Pioneer AVIC head unit with Nav, LED interior / puddle / reverse / driving lights, and rims. Other than that it’s pretty much stock with a brand new Audi crate trans installed at 172k (another $10k+ dealer invoice) … including the DRC which has had way more $$$’s spent on maintaining it than I would of ever spent.

Roger .. aka Roots

[nene]

Welcome to the site. Your beast looks great.

[hahnmgh63]

Welcome, car pics look nice. Lot of work done on things that would eventually need it. If you post your Vin here, or at least the last 6 digits Dhall1 can check the database (he keeps the RS6 database that has most N. America cars) and might have some info on work done or previous owners.

[lswing]

Welcome! I had to deal with the cam shaft adjuster failure last year, can provide notes if needed. Just replace the pads themselves and not the $1,500 adjusters I would say, although I did the whole thing, but payed extra, around $4k with labor and other parts. My website in sig should have some extra info.

[Roots]

Gentlemen, Thank you all. Appreciate the offer ... and considered replacing just the pads, but with 192K and who knows how many bent valves (at that point) I opted to take a different path ... hense the 88k km engine. Although I remain a licensed mechanic I have not worked on the bench for 25 years now .... and do not have the access to a facility to do this kind of major work myself. So when I was looking at a R&R + hours to take part and repair, I opted to go the replacement engine path (versus rebuild) instead. Now that I've been able to tear down the engine it turns out that its just the center intake valve on cylinders 5 - 8 that bent ... so it definitely would of cost less to repair ... but at least this way I have an engine with less than half the mileage + a (more or less) complete engine that I'll likely sell either as a complete unit ... or part it out if the demand is there.

[Roots]

Oh,vin is WUAPV64B64N901478M. Not sure the early versus late production has all that much to do with trans problem(s) ... given mine was produced in March of 04 and is on its third trans ... but who knows!

As far as stuff that would of eventually been needed ... that's what I figured when I bought it. With everything the original owner did I figured what else could go wrong. In the 11 years he had the car, I have no idea how much he actually spent (he just said he spent allot maintaining the car over the years) but when I sat down and actually added up the folder of invoices he gave me (had time to do that while car was at garage getting replacement engine installed) I was able to see that "allot" actually meant over $85K. Granted a third of that was labour (which adds up quick when everything is done at the dealer) ... but still ... almost unbelievable when you stop and think about it. God, how I wish I was able to buy a car for $130+k ... and then spend $85K on maintenance ... just to then pretty much give the car away after 11 years. Maybe I should put my 07 Camry up for sale at $15K ... by these standards it should sell in a day!

[Bigglezworth]

Not sure the early versus late production has all that much to do with trans problem(s) ... given mine was produced in March of 04 and is on its third trans ... but who knows!As further discussion on this matter, I am of the understanding that ALL of the 90 CDN released RS6's are in fact part of the same 2003 manufacturing run that included the nominal 900 shipped to the US and that there was NO special '04 run brought to north america. The 90 units sold in Canada in 2004 have VIN numbers all over the map and were simply 03's that were pulled from stock and then modified to improve the side impact and bumper standards to meet Canada's Department of Transportations more stringent crash test standards. There are later VIN numbers on some of the '03 cars in the US that supports this.

[nistah]

ROOTS welcome aboard the Crazy Train! Nice looking car, seems to be up to current spec on maintenance enjoy!!


As further discussion on this matter, I am of the understanding that ALL of the 90 CDN released RS6's are in fact part of the same 2003 manufacturing run that included the nominal 900 shipped to the US and that there was NO special '04 run brought to north america. The 90 units sold in Canada in 2004 have VIN numbers all over the map and were simply 03's that were pulled from stock and then modified to improve the side impact and bumper standards to meet Canada's Department of Transportations more stringent crash test standards. There are later VIN numbers on some of the '03 cars in the US that supports this.

Are you sure about this? From what I gather USA got 1200 + RS6's with VIN #'s that seem to run between 9044XX and 9057XX while the Canadian VIN #'s that I've seen run between approx. 9014XX and 9015XX.

I can say for certain that the build date on my Canadian RS6 is March 2004 and also I have noticed a difference beyond the KPH speedo and side impact and bumper modifications namely the shark fin.....look at the shark fin on any USA spec RS6 it's the nice looking color matched version, for some reason most all of the Canadian version RS6 I've seen (including mine) have the the ugly matte gray non shark fin GPS antenna. Also the XM Sirius connectors are no where to be found in my Canadian spec car.

Not sure if the Canadian run are 2003's pulled from production and then just slapped w/ later build dates once the modifications were finished but would be interesting to know for certain also would be nice to know what other differences exist between USA and Canadian spec RS6 . I am interested to learn more...

[Bigglezworth]

Are you sure about this?No I'm not 100% sure. Just what I am led to believe piecing together everything that I have read over the years is all. Like you, I would love to know the details, but doubt there is any way to confirm one way or the other these days.

[Roots]

I too can only (at this point) go by the build date on the plate ... which is where (in my case) the March 2004.


To Bigglez's point, I totally agree ... it makes perfect sense that the "batch" for North America was all done in the same run ... as doing a production run for 90 cars seems like a stretch. Actually the "north American ones" were likely produced at the same time as the ones that stayed in Europe.

So Nistah, if your obs are correct re: VINs, then that would suggest that the Canadian versions were actually the earlier ones produced ... and that could be allot earlier if you think about the ~3000 numbers between 9014xx and 9044xx. As far as being at the beginning of the North American "run" that could even make sense if you figure they would of taken the first ones off the line to send for the additional mods given the additional time requirement. Could certainly explain why the "04's" trannies (again in my case at least) may be the worst one's ... if one accepts the premise that the seals issue was addressed at some point in the production run. My previous owner went through 3 of them ... two were covered under warranty but the third one cost him a little over $10K. Anyway I would certainly like to know for sure as well. I know one could argue that the "production date" is the day the additional mods were completed ... but ... .

[hahnmgh63]

The N. America cars started in the mid to late '03 model year and ran into early '04. They were still labeled by Audi as '03 model year cars in the U.S. because they didn't have a new fuel system that required by the NHTSA that mandated no fuel return lines beginning in the 2004 model year and Audi wasn't willing to do this mod for such a limited production car shipped in even smaller numbers to N. America.

[LaserSVT]

Great looking beast! welcome aboard, lots of great info around these parts. I dig the wheels too. :)

[Roots]

More than likely exactly this "kind of stuff" that dictated which cars got "badged" 03 versus 04's -> as opposed to which cars were actually produced when. ... and the fact that the finn (my opinion) if definitely the later tech (versus the antenna). Not to mention that from that I've read in the various posts many with 03's installed the Nav systems using the existing wiring. In my case when the Pioneer AVIC with Nav & Sat radio was installed they had to use separate antenna(s) for both the Nav and Sat radio (previous owner said it was because there was no cable. Again, just another little indicator that (Per below and nisbah's observation on the VIN sequence) those sent to Canada may have actually been the first one's produced. In the end we'll likely never really know the "exact" story ... but certainly interesting to think about.

Here's another little twist. The original engine in mine was numbered BCY009320. The replacement engine (from an "03") is numbered BCY006813. So although the VIN's appear to indicate the Canadian cars were produced earlier in the sequence the engine numbers appear to reflect the opposite. Go figure

[Roots]

Great looking beast! welcome aboard, lots of great info around these parts. I dig the wheels too. :)

Thx so much. Lots of great info ... an understatement for sure. The knowledge, and willingness to share it, on this forum is unbelievable. Can't hardly come up with words to describe how reassuring it is for a newbie owner of one of these "beasts" to find a community so willing to share knowledge and lend a hand whenever possible.

Rims are (as I sure you probably know) the older Oz ultra legerre in 19x8 ... So although the 255 35 19 boots do an excellent job in protecting the rim from any dreaded curb rash I find them to be a little wide for the 8". Not all bad though, when I bought the car I also got two other sets of rims ... one being the original rims that have snows mounted on them (that I'm selling as I'll be storing the car winters) and the other a set of MTM bimoto in 9.5 X 19. My issue there is those boots aren't quite wide enough for those. So, may look to sell the Oz as well and get a set of either 265 35 19 or 275 30 19 (dcsweet's MTM set up looked pretty sweet) for my MTM's. Then again the guy at my tire shop here says 285 30 19 will fit ... but based on everything I've read on the forum I think he way be off ... although that size could be pretty sweet as I'd basically keep the same sidewall as with the 35's (for ride comfort) ... but really add some width to fill the wells!