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So....


I did croft circuit the weekend just gone, all went fine no problems... except the cars been sat since le-mans due to it having a broken AUX radiator, so a new one fitted with new shroud, oil and filter
£356 lighter and all fixed.

I then drives it around (no issues) get to croft, start the car to warm her up for my session and before leaving notice a spot of Hydrualic suspension fluid on the floor, maybe 100ml's max.
Obviously worried i wiped down the shock (its coming from where the tube runs into the strut) and tried switching from comfort to sport and vice versa a few times, no issues at all.
So went out on my sessions, no problems for the rest of the day.
Park it up and leave it for the week, come back to use it for the weekend, again no fluid... jump in fire it up and as soon as i move backwards the car just felt wrong, like floppy.
So i stopped got out, found at least 500ml to 1000ml's of fluid on the floor out of the rear shock.

I then jump back in, no suspension warning light.... (odd i think) i then do a instrument cluster test on VCDS and the suspension light doesnt even illuminate... it also doesnt work if the coolant is low or if the oil is low i get no warning,

So a couple of questions.

1 - Is my instrument panel incorrectly coded? it has been messed with before as when i bought the car it had the "needle sweep" enabled so god knows what else has been messed with.

2 - DRC, a new shock from TPS is £356 through my friend, Does anyone know of any one with a specialist tool to refill the hydraulic fluid for the DRC in the northeast area?

3 - If i fitted the shock myself could the car be driven to my local Audi dealership or recommended garage for them to refill the fluid or would i damage the new stut driving it "dry"

4 - Do i bin off the DRC and fit coilovers?

5 - Why does this always happen to me? (you dont have to answer that one)

Mate That's really bad news! Gutted for you.

The joys of owning a super car ( Estate ) off topic but your signature pic ?? Is that the beast in question ?? Also see you have AP all round with 410 fronts ? What sort of cost was this to do? I don't have friends in the trade so cost would be to a standard punter !!!!

TomRS wrote:3 - If i fitted the shock myself could the car be driven to my local Audi dealership or recommended garage for them to refill the fluid or would i damage the new stut driving it "dry"

Betcha the answer from Audi would be that you'd damage it. Unless they categorically stated that there'd be no damage I wouldn't risk it. Might just have been coincidence, but in the 20 miles I drove mine with a split hose the spring broke.

TomRS wrote:5 - Why does this always happen to me? (you dont have to answer that one)

Not just you - I'd had mine 48 hours and 300 miles before the hose split. I'd have changed the spring myself but I was short of time and needed the car for the weekend - a £800 bill at the dealers in the first week of ownership was not pleasant.

unit 20 i know have the doc kit , not many places have it , might be a dealer job i guess you can install it and get a drc fluid change at the stealers

Tom I did a write up not too long back in regards to DRC replacement. I don't have access to my iPad or Mac as I'm in Bali at present but if you do a search for drc / suspension you will get some answers.

To answer some of your questions :
2. I went to a indie in KingsLynn and has owned a c5 and c6 ( details to be found on my post).

3. Definitely not a good idea, any vibrations or movement in an empty hydraulic will damage it, this is something that I was told by every specialist I spoke to. Again I took it to the indie in KingsLynn and his price to fit and charge the hydraulics with oil were very reasonable.

5. That's one that I too was contemplating but after speaking to MRC they said nothing beats the original drc as it's 'dynamic' suspension.

Jim Haseltine wrote: Betcha the answer from Audi would be that you'd damage it. Unless they categorically stated that there'd be no damage I wouldn't risk it. Might just have been coincidence, but in the 20 miles I drove mine with a split hose the spring broke.

Yes I spoke to Audi the other day and they told me that that a very short journey would be fine but if the suspension was to move around with no fluid it could damage the new unit, so looks like I now need to get it to a specialist… as I refuse to pay Audi prices.

Jim Haseltine wrote: Not just you - I'd had mine 48 hours and 300 miles before the hose split. I'd have changed the spring myself but I was short of time and needed the car for the weekend - a £800 bill at the dealers in the first week of ownership was not pleasant.

Great so £800 for a replacement rear shock and regass… I certainly don’t look forward to that at all! Warranty would be useless too.

skirs6 wrote:The joys of owning a super car ( Estate ) off topic but your signature pic ?? Is that the beast in question ?? Also see you have AP all round with 410 fronts ? What sort of cost was this to do? I don't have friends in the trade so cost would be to a standard punter !!!!

Tell me about it its not good at all!
The beast in question is indeed the car below in my sig pic, here’s another more high quality pic
Yes I do, the kit was made by a company called BG Developments and its around £2500 for the front.. That includes bracket’s/Bell/Callipers/Discs/Pads.

Farravi wrote:Tom I did a write up not too long back in regards to DRC replacement. I don't have access to my iPad or Mac as I'm in Bali at present but if you do a search for drc / suspension you will get some answers.

To answer some of your questions :
2. I went to a indie in KingsLynn and has owned a c5 and c6 ( details to be found on my post).

3. Definitely not a good idea, any vibrations or movement in an empty hydraulic will damage it, this is something that I was told by every specialist I spoke to. Again I took it to the indie in KingsLynn and his price to fit and charge the hydraulics with oil were very reasonable.

5. That's one that I too was contemplating but after speaking to MRC they said nothing beats the original drc as it's 'dynamic' suspension.

I’ll have a look mate thanks for that much appreciated!

great pic did you livery the car up for Le Mans ?

With the track days etc you do just bin the DRC off Tom. Get some good coils that have adjustable damping and not worry again.

Trups

Would replacing the shock yourself, then transporting on a flatdeck to a workshop for the regass be an option?

Bilstein don't do a specific RS6 kit, only a S6 one (B14 and B16 kit) for around £800 (B14) to £1500 (B16).

KW do their V3 "street Performance" kit - pt no 3521000S (needs to be the "S" for DRC cars, not the cheaper "L" version) for around £2200 to £2500.

PS - I just spent about 5 minutes watching the first 20 seconds of this video on repeat, I may need help!

Boingy boingy boingy

TomRS wrote:

Jim Haseltine wrote: Not just you - I'd had mine 48 hours and 300 miles before the hose split. I'd have changed the spring myself but I was short of time and needed the car for the weekend - a £800 bill at the dealers in the first week of ownership was not pleasant.

Great so £800 for a replacement rear shock and regass… I certainly don’t look forward to that at all! Warranty would be useless too.

If it had been for a shock I wouldn't have minded quite so much - £800 for a spring, hose, fitting and repressurising.
"Would you like us to wash your car while it's here?"
God knows what they'd have charged for that.

swifts engineering in Westerhope (newcastle) have the kit to repressurise the DRS - i have now had 3 hoses wear through and loss of pressure, NO dash light warnings!
driven very carefully with no issues, other new hose and fluid

Swifts are VERY good and look after my RS6, wife's Audi tt and my T5 van

Ross

GBR1198 wrote:great pic did you livery the car up for Le Mans ?

Yes mate the livery was for le mans and I’ve removed some of it and left the side decals as I quite liked them, will probably pull them off back end of the year but for now they make it look a bit cooler on track.

Trups wrote:With the track days etc you do just bin the DRC off Tom. Get some good coils that have adjustable damping and not worry again.

Trups

This is the idea im toying with but as Ian points out below it’s a LOT of money to go onto a good quality coilover, and would I not adversely affect the resale value? As surely no ones going to want a C6 RS on coilovers?
Don’t know I’m in two minds, I fear it’s at the age now where the rest of the DRC system may fail.

bhprs4 wrote:Would replacing the shock yourself, then transporting on a flatdeck to a workshop for the regass be an option?

That could work yes, but its not a great deal of effort to change the rear shocker so for the hour’s charge id get at a garage to do it would be offset by the cost of a flatbed.

IanH755 wrote:Bilstein don't do a specific RS6 kit, only a S6 one (B14 and B16 kit) for around £800 (B14) to £1500 (B16).

KW do their V3 "street Performance" kit - pt no 3521000S (needs to be the "S" for DRC cars, not the cheaper "L" version) for around £2200 to £2500.

PS - I just spent about 5 minutes watching the first 20 seconds of this video on repeat, I may need help!

Boingy boingy boingy

Well that video also made me laugh, what coilovers are being tested? And whats your honest opinion? Coilovers or fix the DRC? I know I track the RS a fair whack but I also use it on the road a lot too.

Jim Haseltine wrote: If it had been for a shock I wouldn't have minded quite so much - £800 for a spring, hose, fitting and repressurising.
"Would you like us to wash your car while it's here?"
God knows what they'd have charged for that.

Jesus.. that’s bad, kinda worries me a little… £800 is a lot, I thought that included a strut as well! I think I need to investigate further and make sure its not a split hose before I bang £356 on a new strut.

RossH14 wrote:swifts engineering in Westerhope (newcastle) have the kit to repressurise the DRS - i have now had 3 hoses wear through and loss of pressure, NO dash light warnings!
driven very carefully with no issues, other new hose and fluid

Swifts are VERY good and look after my RS6, wife's Audi tt and my T5 van

Ross

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Oh really? Could you possibly give me a number? I’ll give them a call, Newcastle isn’t too far from me and if you’ve had your own car in a few times that would be great place to start for me!

TomRS wrote:

Jim Haseltine wrote: If it had been for a shock I wouldn't have minded quite so much - £800 for a spring, hose, fitting and repressurising.
"Would you like us to wash your car while it's here?"
God knows what they'd have charged for that.

Jesus.. that’s bad, kinda worries me a little… £800 is a lot, I thought that included a strut as well! I think I need to investigate further and make sure its not a split hose before I bang £356 on a new strut.

I don't rate the Service Department at my dealers very high. My mistake was to go via them rather than the Parts Department who know me (they're about 200 yards apart at my local dealers). This meant that they ignored my diagnosis of the fault (even though a wheel arch liner coated in fluid isn't easy to mistake) in favour of performing their own check with the result that they had the car for 24 hours longer than they should have.
Don't know if a comment from the parts manager to the service manager (along the lines of "This gentleman has been buying parts from us for 20 years - when he says what is wrong with his cars, THAT'S whats wrong with them") will be remembered if I ever have to resort to them again.
They also quoted a lady friend what I considered a bloody fortune to replace the water pump on her A1 - it took me half an hour and most of that time was spent locating and recovering a Torx bit that I'd dropped.