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Hello everyone
Having my cambelt and a new radiator fitted to my RS6 C5 Plus. Decided to take it to my local Audi dealer rather than indies. MRC were out if it due to busted radiator and distance so I went for thee next best option.

Cambelt done, no problem but the oil cooler pipeworks so corroded not able to refit ( alu on alu fittings don't work and i'm not an engineer)

Anyway Audi parts are £1950 and with the other costs I need to remorgage.

Question is, has anyone sourced cheaper parts or had a local enginee fabricate the parts cheaper than the costly Audi ones?

Have to say the Audi garage have been terrific and are sending photos of the parts and part nos which i will add later.
Any suggestions much appreciated.

Now have these images




Chris

Check this thread out by MattV8 which works out much cheaper than Audi! - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=113332&p=744584&hil ... er#p744584

And >12 months on is still pukka.
Just suggest you do use teflon hose - it's smaller so should be a bit easier to work with.

My in-progress engine pull has suffered with this.
Timely advice, thanks Matt!

Looking at the pics above, a bit of careful use with a needle file (with the end's plugged with some blue Shop towel - not a rag) wouldn't go amiss.
Also looks like you may need to replace the hard line with a hose too - shouldn't be too much of a big deal though.

Looks like the top thread is mostly stripped. Maybe damaged inside the nut, too. That's probably why Audi don't want to fit it.

Sounds like they're charging you full retail for parts. Maybe try negotiating the price down a bit?

Or you could try recutting the threads but I bet Audi won't want to do that.

I wonder why they removed it. Don't think it has to come off for either cambelt or rad but haven't checked the procedures so could be wrong about the rad (but not the cambelt, definitely).

Shoppinit wrote:I wonder why they removed it. Don't think it has to come off for either cambelt or rad but haven't checked the procedures so could be wrong about the rad (but not the cambelt, definitely).

Not that I distrust all the stealers I've used (yes I know there's a few good ones left, *somewhere*) but I wouldn't put it past some stealers to disconnect the fittings knowing that the cooler will *probably* need replacing afterwards because, to be honest, how many Audi drivers are going to know exactly what gets taken off during a cam belt and rad replacement, making it an easy "money making" job for them.

However like Shop, I don't know exactly whats involved in a rad change so it may have been necessary?

You should be able to have the oil cooler reworked by someone with a little welding talent - cut the old ends off the cooler and fab some new ones.

Without really knowing too much what I'm looking at with that cooler, why couldn't something like the below be useful? It's a fraction of the cost, and it's "only" an oil cooler, so not exactly the most complicated piece of engineering known to man.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231828570453

AUDI RS6 C5 (2002-2005) - CUSTOM HEL PERFORMANCE OIL COOLER KIT

Strike that, it seems it's something you ass to a car without an oil cooler, rather replace one that's in the car..

"Reworking" - yes, technically possible. I know a man who is an awesome fabricator & tig welder. But I figured, to cut the end off would be with a hacksaw, which'll create lots of debris, some of which you won't be able to avoid getting inside the cooler. And debris in the the cooler is a bad thing.

"Replacing" - yes, also considered this. Quite easy to do, although struggled to find one of pretty damn close to the right dimensions - and I didn't want to rework all the front end ducting. Remember our coolers are dual core - 1 for engine oil, the other for gearbox, so you'll need to buy 2, then build brackets etc to mount them and so forth.