New here - Plan on buying.....

[Nobby]

Any engine bay pics?

[Mark-RS]

Nope, no pics of the Bay. It was never a special place on the car sporting only a polished manifold and very little else.

The plan was to plate it all and smooth everything, reroute all the wiring etc..... But I decided against all that when I started looking at the RS6.

Maybe approaching 38 I want something a little different... A little more... dare I say.... Grown up ?

My hope is to get it sold in the next month or so and then by Xmas have myself a nice RS6 for the winter.

Are there any things I should be looking at when buying ? Aside from a good service history, do they rot in places ? Any subframe issues like the M3 ? Basically common faults that I should keep an eye open for.

[Shoppinit]

Check the roof channels for corrosion. They can bubble up. Check around the window rubbers, too.

Check the plenum for blocked drains, corroded 200A fuse and wiring there. Under the plastic cover that hides the wiper mech.

Check the carpets for damp. Can cause havoc with the electrics.

Make sure the undertray is present.

Make sure the A/C works.

Check the TPMS is working.

Make sure that you get the nice yellow OK in the DIS when you start the car.

If the owner lets you, scan for DTCs. I wouldn't let someone scan my car, so don't get upset if they don't want you to (but I would do it for them).

Check the DRC if present. Any weird drumming sensations going over imperfections in the road, ABS like vibrations, clonks, etc. are a sign of knackered DRC. I wouldn't let this put me off buying the car though, I'd just negotiate a bit off.

Gearbox... hard to test unless you know how slush boxes behave. Change from 5 to 4, 4 to 3 and back, etc. and make sure it's silky smooth, not clunking or banging into gear. When it changes up, be alert for excessive rpm increase, but like a slipping clutch on a manual.

No particular rot issues. No major structural issues like the one you mentioned on the M3.

Then just the usual checks.

Other people might have other things to suggest.

/edit: make sure you drive the car a reasonable distance. Stop at least 2 times and turn the engine off. Some faults need to be present on 3 consecutive starts before the ECU lights the MIL.

//make sure all the airbag, MIL and EPC lights come on briefly when you start the car.

[Shoppinit]

Where are you based? If not too far from MRC or Unit 20 it might be worth getting a health check done if the owner agrees.

[Mark-RS]

Based in Northampton area so a little far from them.

Some superb info there for me to keep in mind when looking.

I am not terribly mechanically minded either so getting an external body to check the car over is something I would really like to do. Would an AA check or RAC check be thorough enough on a car like this ? Or does it require a specialist ?

[Shoppinit]

Mmm. 30 miles. Not so far.

The RS6 needs specialist knowledge IMO. Those checks are for people who know nothing at all about cars. You've done some car work so you know what a tidy / looked after car looks like no doubt. And vice versa.

[Mark-RS]

Would it be wise or unwise to buy one with a gearbox fault ?

I am looking to spend no more than £13k in total on the car but I have seen a couple now that say they have a gearbox fault, but they seem to be for sale for between 5 and 6k. This would leave me a seemingly large chunk of money to do everything if needed ? Gearbox rebuild, Cam belt, water pump etc... Maybe even turbos to ? With the remaining funds ?

My only thoughts are that a car that cheap may be quite a tatty one overall ? Regardless of the Gearbox fault ?

[Shoppinit]

I would be tempted to get one if it was a great car other than the gearbox. Problem is, and you put your finger on it, how do you find one that's great otherwise? The owner that can't afford to fix to sell probably hasn't pampered the car.

13k would get you a very nice car, but you never know when the box might go.

[Mark-RS]

Really appreciate all your advice. You've been very helpful

[Mɐʇʇ]

Ya read this about a lot of cars and it's usually BS. With the C5 RS6 it's fact. That said, everything you need to know about em is right here on this very forum, if you are handy with the spanners.

The RS6 needs specialist knowledge IMO.

[Mark-RS]

I have seen a few .... In fact, quite a few that have been mapped to provide more power. Does this have a knock on effect with the chocolate gearbox ? Since I am guessing it's the amount of power the box is rated for that is the reason for failure ?

If I was to buy one and rebuild the box anyway, are there any strengthening options I can look at ? I have managed to find some info on converting to a manual box, but I think this is far to costly for me and not really what I want anyway.

And lastly, alongside the engine mapping I have seen gearbox mapping. What exactly is this ? Faster shifting ? Does it make the box more reliable in anyway ? Or less reliable ? Or have no real effect on it ?

[chunky79]

Depends who's mapped the car, MRC will put a good strong but conservative map on to limit the torque. IMO they are the only people I'd have map a VAG car.
The gearbox map will let you sleep 5th gear at 30mph, this stops it hunting for gears.
There's a place in yank land that do strengthening parts for our slush box. Depends what power you are hankering for really.

[Mark-RS]

Not really looking for huge power to be honest. My VR6 has 218Bhp so I am sure the 450 from a standard rs6 will be more than enough for the foreseeable future.

The main reason behind my question was the thought that extra power would kill the box faster and if I should avoid ones that have been mapped. I have seen quite a few mapped to power similar to the "Plus" model and some way beyond that.

I don't want to be in a situation where I need to rebuild the box every 6 months or so.

Another question I have is with the Sat Nav in the car. Is this easy to replace with something a little newer ? I have always though the systems in these cars look incredibly dated. Like something from a 90's jap car. It's certainly something I would want to replace.

[Shoppinit]

There's no correlation between box failure and mapped cars.

Get an MRC map. It's better power delivery and it makes a noticeable difference over stock. Not just power increase.

The gearbox remap is essential to stop the box hunting for gears incorrectly under load. No serious tuner would offer an engine map without doing the gearbox.

You can also get little extras like no kickdown in tiptro which is essential for me. My MTM gearbox map keeps the TC locked in tiptro on liftoff so you get more engine braking like a manual. Don't know if the MRC one does that. Never saw the point of bring able to change into 5th at 30mph but some people like it.

[Jay_g]

Plus, don't be put off straight away by cheap cars, or even cars which have slightly more mileage.

I paid 6500 for mine last year, needed a couple of little bits doing. I've done 10k or so in the last year, and she has been brilliant.

Big costs to look out for.

Cambelt, it's a ridiculously short time and mileage limit. 4 years or 40k IIRC. Get a specialist to do it, too many monkeys out there that will <beep> that up for you. You will look to pay about 1000 for cambelt, aux belt, all tensioner and rollers.

Brakes. For pads and discs all round, you could be spending 700-800 all round (if you want to be putting decent stuff on, which on these is a must)

Gearbox service was about £300 when I got it done last year.

MAFs, N75 valve, recirc valves should be seen as 'consumables' really, and replaced when you get the car. I was shocked how much quicker mine was when I did them! Probably looking at £250 or so for them bits.

Overall, they are brilliant cars. Bear in mind a few things. If you read this forum, you would believe these are the most horrid, unreliable cars in the world. You can be unlucky, and they can be. But you can also get lucky, and get a good one. If you buy one that's been looked after (both sympathetically and mechanically) then you will be onto a good thing.