New RS6 6 speed owner

[boca rat]

Picked up a 95% complete 6 speed conversion Daytona/black from Kentucky last month. Interior and body in really good shape other than below mentioned issues. Drove it home from Kentucky in one hit, leaving it running for gas and coffee....no issues. Until I got home and a week later saw the bad gas tank leak...just bad timing unfortunately


158k, with 5k on the conversion

What has been done per the seller at 153k:

- Continental Timing belt kit with all components and water pump
- Continental Serpentine belt
- Front and rear Crank seals
- Oil pan resealed and lower gasket replaced
- Valve cover Gaskets
- Intake gasket
- Throttle body gasket
- Timing chain tensioners and chain
- NGK Plugs
- Ignition Coils
- FORGE diverter valves
- 6 speed Steveken adapter plate
- Lightweight Steel flywheel
- Tilton starter
- EURO TDI DQT 01E 6 speed Transmission
- Spec 3+ clutch
- 034 Motorsports EGR block off plates
- L+ R upper 02 sensors
- Upper cats deleted w/ vband clamps
- Stage 1 auto tune from AMD (car was running this tune before conversion as I understand it)
- Rotiform R121 SPF 19x10 5x112 +35mm Black/Machined Wheel Rim with Continental Extreme Contact DW 275/35/19
- Spare set of OEM rims and Continentals
- Spacers front and rear
- KWV3 Coilovers
- Hotchkis Front 35mm +Rear 24mm SPORT sway bars
- Upper and lower front and rearward control arms
- Outer tie rod ends
- Front axles
- Front wheel bearings
- Front/rear rotors and brake pads
- Lightweight Wheel studs
- Custom Flat Bottom Steering wheel with perforated Italian leather
- Custom perforated Italian leather EBrake handle
- European Silver trim shift knob
- Custom Italian leather shift boot
- OEM Carbon Fiber Trim
- OEM BIXENON Smoked headlights w/ orange turns removed
- European license plate tub
- Paint, body, interior and undercarriage in pretty good shape, very good for year and mileage,

Issues:
- Currently running the auto stage 1 AMD tune, not running well at all. Unsure if I will give to a local tuner, or go back to AMD for the 6 speed version.
- Needs the clutch and brake pedal switches installing
- No operational reversing lights
- Had the starter heat (?) issue. Run car for a while, turn off for N minutes, won’t start for Y hours. Still haven’t narrowed down ranges for N and Y
- Seems like a lot of throw in the shifter and 2nd a little tough to get into
- Wheel vibration at 80mph even after a balance – plan to balance the OEM wheel set and retry to eliminate bent a Rotiform or bad tires or a spacer issue
- Needs raising up a good half inch and alignment
- One trashed left rear fender liner
- Side mirror switch retracts mirrors but won’t adjust them
- Climate control +/- temp controls sticky, especially the Heat + button
- Speedometer occasionally gets very jittery
- Missing two lug nuts, and studs are ugly and have surface rust.
- Left front fender wheel lip has been repaired badly, presumably from rubbing.


Need to do first:
- Address gas tank rollover valve recall and leak. At a Jacksonville dealer right now. Apparently fully covered by the recall, but 3-4 weeks for a new gas tank.
- Swap rims over and raise suspension a bit.
- Work on starter issue


Followed by:
- Decide on tune route
- Hardwire radar detector.

Interested in your comments, especially on the tuning issue. Thx to Steveken for advice so far.

[mrdave]

The AMD manual tune is supposed to be good. You could also try contacting user nubcake (http://www.rs6.com/member.php/3705-nubcake) who has a tune.

The 2nd gear is a VAG manual trans hallmark. Different fluid might help or you may need new synchros.

I found that the sticking heater buttons are actually from poorly molded plastic. There are dimples that stick out on the side of some of the buttons that cause the sticking. Sanding those dimples off fixes it.

I have a 4.2L A6 parts car that may have some of the parts you need, PM me if you're interested.

[boca rat]

Thx @mrdave for the feedback. Note 2nd gear doesn't grind at all, just tough to slot into place.

I forgot to mention on hot start issue: the general concensus seems to be to heat wrap the starter or add a heat shield, but then I saw this on the BaT 1991 V8 5 speed here: http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-audi-v8/ where a commenter states: "Was the engine warm when this occurred? If so it’s probably the reference sensors on the drivers side bell housing.it’d be just one but if one failed, the other is likely not far behind. If it starts when cooled off, then that’s the likely culprit." At the time I thought , whoah, could be me! But I just noticed that the car in question is a 1991, which is old in car years compared to a 2003.

Is this a complete red herring?

[fukinavit]

Thx @mrdave for the feedback. Note 2nd gear doesn't grind at all, just tough to slot into place.

I forgot to mention on hot start issue: the general concensus seems to be to heat wrap the starter or add a heat shield, but then I saw this on the BaT 1991 V8 5 speed here: http://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-audi-v8/ where a commenter states: "Was the engine warm when this occurred? If so it’s probably the reference sensors on the drivers side bell housing.it’d be just one but if one failed, the other is likely not far behind. If it starts when cooled off, then that’s the likely culprit." At the time I thought , whoah, could be me! But I just noticed that the car in question is a 1991, which is old in car years compared to a 2003.

Is this a complete red herring?

That's an 01E trait I'm afraid, one of the reasons I'm no fan of the 6 speed conversion. 1st is way too short, and 1st to 2nd shift collar is also a known problem. I have a 2.7t with a 6 speed, I installed jhm carbon syncros and an updated shift collar, its better but still annoying sometimes and not smooth.

[mdegracia]

Marc at EFI express can also tune for the 01e. He did my car.

Driveline vibration maybe the front axles if they are FEQ remans or other. I was able to source OES GKNs which helped. Some vibration still present, I suspect my driveshaft may need to be rebalanced.

My hot start issue was resolved with a new HD solenoid. Contact Steve on this.

[boca rat]

Update. Hot start issue done, new tires mounted, new gas tank, fuel pump. Nubcake tune in place, no warning lights, one more logged pass to do, then over to Mase and his AWD dyno.

The vibration issue is the biggest issue now, general vibration between 70 and 80. Pulse Racing (who has the car) also has another RS6 (auto) in there with a similar issue, only worse. Short of just steadily replacing every drive train component, how do you go about diagnosing this?

Thx!



Marc at EFI express can also tune for the 01e. He did my car.

Driveline vibration maybe the front axles if they are FEQ remans or other. I was able to source OES GKNs which helped. Some vibration still present, I suspect my driveshaft may need to be rebalanced.

My hot start issue was resolved with a new HD solenoid. Contact Steve on this.

[bethridg]

The vibration issue is the biggest issue now, general vibration between 70 and 80. Pulse Racing (who has the car) also has another RS6 (auto) in there with a similar issue, only worse. Short of just steadily replacing every drive train component, how do you go about diagnosing this?

Check your propshaft CV joints and center support bearing. Had similar symptoms turned out to be bad CV joint on the propshaft. Straight forward replacement.

h̶t̶t̶p̶s̶:̶/̶/̶s̶t̶o̶r̶e̶.̶0̶3̶4̶m̶o̶t̶o̶r̶s̶p̶o̶r̶t̶.̶c̶o̶m ̶/̶c̶e̶n̶t̶e̶r̶-̶d̶r̶i̶v̶e̶s̶h̶a̶f̶t̶-̶c̶v̶-̶j̶o̶i̶n̶t̶-̶f̶o̶r̶-̶a̶u̶d̶i̶-̶q̶u̶a̶t̶t̶r̶o̶-̶v̶e̶h̶i̶c̶l̶e̶s̶.̶h̶t̶m̶l̶ (https://store.034motorsport.com/center-driveshaft-cv-joint-for-audi-quattro-vehicles.html)

https://www.europaparts.com/cv-joint-893521100.html

https://store.034motorsport.com/driveshaft-cv-boot-repair-kit-for-audi-quattro-vehicles.html

[boca rat]

Thx for this, will post back with what our cars eventually need!

[mrdave]

Vibration could be many things: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/426777-Vibration-at-60-70-mph

The easiest thing is to double and triple check the wheel/tire balance. If it's not that, there's a lot of metal spinning under the car.

[boca rat]

Thx mrdave. Brand new tires, rebalanced twice now, and swapped with another RS6 stock rims/tires that has the same problem only much worse apparently. No change in behavior on my car.


Vibration could be many things: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/426777-Vibration-at-60-70-mph

The easiest thing is to double and triple check the wheel/tire balance. If it's not that, there's a lot of metal spinning under the car.

[hahnmgh63]

What was the hot issue fix?

[boca rat]

What was the hot issue fix?

New starter motor, and heat wrapped it. So far so good but car still at the shop so has not been driven a whole lot. Will know for sure in 1000 miles

[GreggPDX]

You might try checking (or have the shop check) the alignment of the driveshaft. The two pieces need to be lined up straight within a pretty tight tolerance. There is a special tool (of course) that you can use, but I used a 48" level and some wood blocks to get the job done. There are also balance marks on the shaft that should be lined up with factory marks on the differential flange. Overall it's a fairly involved process to get a new driveshaft setup correctly. The factory service manual really helps too.

[kismetcapitan]

driveline vibration under acceleration - I'll bet it's an unbalanced CV front half-shaft or something misaligned with the front driveshafts. I had a mechanic rebuild the half-shaft, and somehow he screwed it up. It vibrates at 70-80mph under acceleration only. I had this issue maybe 5 years ago, and when I had the CV boots replaced, the vibration that drove me crazy and had me replacing tires and aligning/balancing wheels over and over, only then did the vibration vanish.

[boca rat]

Bad news update. almost got the car completely sorted, last step in drivetrain issue was to swap out the main driveshaft. 2 days before it was due to go into the shop I got rearended hard on I-95 in Miami, estimate was 50mph hit ( I had stopped in time for the tailback). 300 mile drive to get there, finally started to fall in love with her....

Haggling this out with the insurance company, not good as never got the stack of receipts from the previous owner as he promised. They offered me $11,300, we shall see what the revised offer is as that was based on a stock RS6 in good condition. Mine was very good to excellent and is of course modded, and I have written up all the mods. I saw a thread somewhere that estimates $8k in parts to do the 6 speed swap but can't find it - does anyone know where that is?

Sooooo, if anyone wants a set of new Michelin Pilot Sports on 19" Rotiforms and can move fast and give me their old rims, PM a.s.a.p. Car is in Jacksonville, FL.

Not clear if I can buy the vehicle back. What would you do and what would a good buyback price be? Motor is worth $5k? Tranny $1500? Black interior?

Thx

[nubcake]

Man, this sucks. :-(

[mrdave]

Dude... that's the worst.

If you want to PM your email address to me, I can send you the parts list / estimate for a 6sp swap that I got from SteveKen a while ago.

[boca rat]

I should add that nubcake sorted out the ECU, put in a decent tune and we were closing in on the final log when this happened. He is a pleasure to work with. Highly recommended. If I do another 6 speed, I will definitely be going back to him.


Man, this sucks. :-(

[Fastguy]

I went through multiple starter pulls, three different solenoids, heat wrap, heat shield, fine adjustments. Nothing worked. Finally figured it out. Add a simple starter relay, tap it from the large fuse block, feed power directly to solenoid. Will solve all start issues. Guaranteed. Steveken may already have made a diagram for this. I sent him the info and drew a diagram.