Need some serious advice and help on this one..

[Ryanpnut]

Car has been a little jumpy through the first few gears especially when cold for the past month and a half-ish. Had the ECU flashed by Eurochraged with an MTM TCU and it was fine to begin with so I was assuming that was not the problem. Stopped by Audi of fairfield, for those of you in the area and asked if they could take a look and said they had no specialists there. Ended up taking it to a shop called Accurate Auto in Norwalk where the man drove it and told me for free that its just shifting hard because the transmission was "learning" because I had it chipped.

Now I was passing by Audi of Danbury and figured I would stop by and ask if they were able to look at it. On staff they have 2 25+ year mechanics who specialized in the C5 RS6 when it came out as they believe they sold the most RS6's on the east coast and maybe in the entire country.

Just got off the phone with the man from Audi after the two specialists had gone through it for about 2ish hours and here is the list of problems.

1. New remanufactured transmission from Audi; $5270 plus 25 hours of work putting that at $8600 alone.
2. New bushings on the front suspension, 2.5 hours of work for about $450.
3. Timing belt that if done during the tranny swap would be about 6 hours of work at $1700
4. Front brake pads+rotors for a total of $1750
5. New Continental tires with an alignment for $1200

Question is, and I'm hoping for the advise here form Tozo WHAT DO I DO?

He estimated the total for all of it to be fixed would be about $14000-$15000 which is insane because I bought the car in November for $25000...Thanks for any advice there is to give

[ttboost]

Yeesh..Did that quote come with a condom? I wouldn't let Fairfield Audi put air in my tires.

[Ryanpnut]

This was the man from Danbury Audi...not fairfield, they don't know anything (originally test drove a C5 RS6 there that they had and had them check the tire pressure, ranged from 52-23 between tires, no joke)

[audiprotn]

You should email Tozo (I'll pm you his email).
All this sounds way too much
You could do all the maintenance + 6 speed swap for these money.

[buster0984]

Car has been a little jumpy through the first few gears especially when cold for the past month and a half-ish. Had the ECU flashed by Eurochraged with an MTM TCU and it was fine to begin with so I was assuming that was not the problem. Stopped by Audi of fairfield, for those of you in the area and asked if they could take a look and said they had no specialists there. Ended up taking it to a shop called Accurate Auto in Norwalk where the man drove it and told me for free that its just shifting hard because the transmission was "learning" because I had it chipped.

Now I was passing by Audi of Danbury and figured I would stop by and ask if they were able to look at it. On staff they have 2 25+ year mechanics who specialized in the C5 RS6 when it came out as they believe they sold the most RS6's on the east coast and maybe in the entire country.

Just got off the phone with the man from Audi after the two specialists had gone through it for about 2ish hours and here is the list of problems.

1. New remanufactured transmission from Audi; $5270 plus 25 hours of work putting that at $8600 alone.
2. New bushings on the front suspension, 2.5 hours of work for about $450.
3. Timing belt that if done during the tranny swap would be about 6 hours of work at $1700
4. Front brake pads+rotors for a total of $1750
5. New Continental tires with an alignment for $1200

Question is, and I'm hoping for the advise here form Tozo WHAT DO I DO?

He estimated the total for all of it to be fixed would be about $14000-$15000 which is insane because I bought the car in November for $25000...Thanks for any advice there is to give

1. Is the transmission making noise or slipping? it could just need a reprogram, this happened to my 1.8t a year or so back and it solved the issue. just a thought
2. Bushing you can examine yourself to see if they are worn and need replacing, if so do it yourself and save probably over $200 easily
3. When was the timing best done last? 1700 is alittle high IMO but depending on location might be acurrate...in my area it would be closer to 1200-1400 at a dealer.
4. This price is insane, do it yourself, even if you are a first timer it shouldn't take more then 3-4 hours and you can get the parts for around 1000 tops.
5. 1200 for new mounted/balanced tired with 4 wheel alignment really isn't that bad. look for a sale somewhere and i get you can knock atleast 300 off this price though.

if you do some work yourself and shop around on the other services you should be able to save around 1300 and if you do it all yourself you could save 2100 (excluding tires and transmission).

also $135/hr is outragious...dealer rates around here around $65-90/hr. sounds like they quoted you for book prices on all that work as well. also they should be able to do the Timing belt change in 6 hours or less with the motor still in the car. sounds like they are just taking advantage of the situation to me.

my suggestion would be find a local shop that specializing in german cars and have them do a second opinion.

lots of rambling but hope this helps a bit.

also jumpy shifting and/or harder shifting can occur when the fluids are cold and just warming up, most cars are like this. you could also try a tranny fluid change with some high quality fluids...also overfilling or underfilling with tranny fluid can cause issues as well. save yourself 8600 and do other things first.

good luck. oh and sorry if there were typos and what not in here i didn't re-read it i just banged it out haha

[Ryanpnut]

Thanks for the email audiprotn and buster, I have about zero experience working on cars except for when i removed and reinstalled my TCU and ECU to have them flashed. I really appreciate the rambling though, lots of useful info, the transmission does actually make a sort of whirling noise when it goes to shift, pretty high pitched and you can hear it with the windows up just fine, so it is pretty prominent.

[ben916]

Just got off the phone with the man from Audi after the two specialists had gone through it for about 2ish hours and here is the list of problems.

1. New remanufactured transmission from Audi; $5270 plus 25 hours of work putting that at $8600 alone.
2. New bushings on the front suspension, 2.5 hours of work for about $450.
3. Timing belt that if done during the tranny swap would be about 6 hours of work at $1700
4. Front brake pads+rotors for a total of $1750
5. New Continental tires with an alignment for $1200

First off, you are going to have to this maint anyway but it doesn't mean you have to do at THAT location:
1. I sure as $hit hope you have or plan on purchasing a warranty for this one... or you just go 6speed and call it even. Something else to consider is a flush/filter on the trans. I would recommend that AFTER you get a warranty. If Tozo does the work, you are fine.
2. This is about right and typically this work is excluded from warranty as it is considered wear items.
3. Check your records and see the last frequency but that price is competitive. Make sure the t-stat and water pump are included.
4. Shop around and DON'T get the OEM front pads (search this website for photos)
5. Gotta have fresh meat for the kills!

Good luck!

[ttboost]

You should email Tozo (I'll pm you his email).
All this sounds way too much
You could do all the maintenance + 6 speed swap for these money.

We pay a penalty here for living in Fairfield County, CT.

[ttboost]

Thanks for the email audiprotn and buster, I have about zero experience working on cars except for when i removed and reinstalled my TCU and ECU to have them flashed. I really appreciate the rambling though, lots of useful info, the transmission does actually make a sort of whirling noise when it goes to shift, pretty high pitched and you can hear it with the windows up just fine, so it is pretty prominent.

Yeah...we should probably meet up and go for a ride, so I can hear what's doin.... I converted my car to a manual for less then that...

[lswing]

Tozo trans and TC, $3500, labor at indy shop, $2k. I did a few other things and was around $6500 for trans/fluids/stuff. You basically need to find a good shop as the dealer is charging almost double per hour...

[ttboost]

Fairfield County Motorsports, Fairfield, CT.

[buster0984]

yeah the manual swap is a good point. you could probably do the whole swap for less then they wanted to charge you for the rebuilt trans and that include buying the manual trans, all associate parts (Steve's conversion kit, clutch/flywheel) front axles, rear diff, drive shaft, pedal, clutch master and slave and shifter linkage). but then you would have to wire it for manual and re-code the ecu for manual. Once you accumulate all the parts it's not a bad swap, actually pretty straight forward. I've swapped a manual into a 1.8t in a weekend working on and off with 2 friends in our home garage.

[ttboost]

Can easily be done for half of what they want... assuming that you do it yourself....the OP has already said he can't do it though.
517 transmission in New Jersey can rebuild the RS6 transmission to handle whatever power level you want.

[lswing]

Hmm, my impression is the autobox is limited due to design. I've got Tozo upgraded clutches, and still recommends no more than 500hp, 550tq. Problem is the discs are small, I believe...so no matter the strength, not enough contact area.

[DHall1]

We need more info here.

What exactly is wrong with the transmission to cause this problem?

What is the mileage on your car and service hist?

Buy a Rosstech Vag and learn how to use it.

Those prices are more than fair for dealer quotes. Actually very fair.


Pick the car up and thank them. Buy the Rosstech and start learning to data log.

Post some additional info.

Car has been a little jumpy through the first few gears especially when cold for the past month and a half-ish. Had the ECU flashed by Eurochraged with an MTM TCU and it was fine to begin with so I was assuming that was not the problem. Stopped by Audi of fairfield, for those of you in the area and asked if they could take a look and said they had no specialists there. Ended up taking it to a shop called Accurate Auto in Norwalk where the man drove it and told me for free that its just shifting hard because the transmission was "learning" because I had it chipped.

Now I was passing by Audi of Danbury and figured I would stop by and ask if they were able to look at it. On staff they have 2 25+ year mechanics who specialized in the C5 RS6 when it came out as they believe they sold the most RS6's on the east coast and maybe in the entire country.

Just got off the phone with the man from Audi after the two specialists had gone through it for about 2ish hours and here is the list of problems.

1. New remanufactured transmission from Audi; $5270 plus 25 hours of work putting that at $8600 alone.
2. New bushings on the front suspension, 2.5 hours of work for about $450.
3. Timing belt that if done during the tranny swap would be about 6 hours of work at $1700
4. Front brake pads+rotors for a total of $1750
5. New Continental tires with an alignment for $1200

Question is, and I'm hoping for the advise here form Tozo WHAT DO I DO?

He estimated the total for all of it to be fixed would be about $14000-$15000 which is insane because I bought the car in November for $25000...Thanks for any advice there is to give

[hahnmgh63]

The one that really bugs me is 6hrs for the timing belt if done with the tranny swap? That means the engine is already out of the car on a stand. With the engine out on a stand it should be no more than 1hr for the whole Timing belt/water pump with all of the tensioners and rollers? 6Hr for a complete job with the engine in the car maybe?
Front brakes can probably be done by and independent if you bring them the parts for less than $200 and you can get the front rotors for $600 and pads for less than $200 for $1000 at the most.
Tranny work standard dealer price (Overpriced). As others have said see 517 as they are close or contact Tozo on the list here.
Front Control arms are a common and weak wear point. The C5 is heavy and the bushings go. This is the going dealer rate. Less from and independent though.

[ttboost]

Hmm, my impression is the autobox is limited due to design. I've got Tozo upgraded clutches, and still recommends no more than 500hp, 550tq. Problem is the discs are small, I believe...so no matter the strength, not enough contact area.

I have spoken to and met Sam at 517. I asked him about this on my last visit and he said he custom builds all the parts he needs, thus the longer lead times for his rebuilds.

[lswing]

I have spoken to and met Sam at 517. I asked him about this on my last visit and he said he custom builds all the parts he needs, thus the longer lead times for his rebuilds.

Sounds good, maybe he's upgraded those sandpaper discs even more. That was my impression for the weak point, looking at a trans diagram, those clutch packs are small, so better material is the only option. I think Tozo stays on the cautious side, maybe I could put, 600+ hp/tq into his new trans, but he basically said any amount of power above stock can still tear the trans up, or nothing is indestructible.