Just joined the club!

[Wolverine]

No problem here ..... dont suffer from excessive "tramlining" and mine feels rock solid on the motorway.

Check tyre pressures and also put wheels on full lock and check or uneven tyre wear. May possibly need tracking or full geometry setup.

[nrf]

I remember feeling similar about the tracking when I got mine. However a DRC replacement combined with a new set of Michelin PS2s almost completely eradicated the problem except over the most rutted of roads..... Not sure which had the biggest impact - Worth noting though that when the tyres came off 2 were on the legal limit, one had about 4mm and the other one was almost new. Can't have helped.

[graybags]

Definitely have the tracking checked.

Mine was fine until its latest DRC replacement, it was then absolutely terrible. The front alignment has to be spot-on.

Note: if it hasn't been done before, the track rod ends will have rusted to the arms. It would be worth freeing them before taking in for alignment.

Good luck, Gray

[MB]

On a slightly different thread, as another RS6 Scottish owner should we have a wee gathering somewhere? I'm in Edinburgh.

Matt

[MalcolmSu]

No problem here ..... dont suffer from excessive "tramlining" and mine feels rock solid on the motorway.

Check tyre pressures and also put wheels on full lock and check or uneven tyre wear. May possibly need tracking or full geometry setup.

i remember the tyre pressures were all over the place wehn i bought the car but i've checked them regularly since then and they've always all been within 0.5psi of each other...

rear tyres have only done 500 miles and the fronts are fairly new although the nearside has signs of feathering on the outer edge. Worth getting the tracking checked i think.

[MalcolmSu]

I remember feeling similar about the tracking when I got mine. However a DRC replacement combined with a new set of Michelin PS2s almost completely eradicated the problem except over the most rutted of roads..... Not sure which had the biggest impact - Worth noting though that when the tyres came off 2 were on the legal limit, one had about 4mm and the other one was almost new. Can't have helped.

i'm pretty certain there isn't a DRC problem as I've had no problem with some fast driving along twisty country roads and don't get some of the noise symptoms that others refer to. However I guess I shouldn't rule it out.

I'm covered by warranty until April '09 so would do no harm to get this checked out soon.

[MalcolmSu]

Definitely have the tracking checked.

Mine was fine until its latest DRC replacement, it was then absolutely terrible. The front alignment has to be spot-on.

Note: if it hasn't been done before, the track rod ends will have rusted to the arms. It would be worth freeing them before taking in for alignment.

Good luck, Gray

thanks Gray

[MalcolmSu]

On a slightly different thread, as another RS6 Scottish owner should we have a wee gathering somewhere? I'm in Edinburgh.

Matt

i'm up for that Matt - I'm in Falkirk. There are at least a couple more RS6s in the Central belt on here I think... Any takers?

[Pau1]

I'm in Aberdeen but always up for a road trip if the weather is nice. I know of a few more RS6's up here too.

[MalcolmSu]

However my main gripe which is starting annoy me is when cruising on a straight piece of road or motorway. The Beemer would cruise along smoothly with just one finger on the steering wheel and the very occaisonal direction correction. I can't do that on the RS6 - even with one hand firmly grasping the steering wheel I seem to have to constantly make minor corrections to keep it on a straight line.

Is this just a fact of life from 4WD and large wheels / tyres? What's everyone else's experience?

.

you can all say'told you so' but i finally managed to get some free time to book my car into the local dealer to have this looked at today. I asked them to have a look at it while getting it's latest service.

Anyway what they've said is that the steering rack is partially seized and needs replaced - they didn't have one in stock so it's booked in for that next week. They've said it's mechanical failure so the warranty should cover it (£1,400!).

I also asked them to have a look at a small water leak after i found i was having to top up the header tank every 2-3 months. Turns out I've a leaky radiator which again they've said is a failure as a opposed to damage. Again hoping the warranty will pick up the £1,200 bill. They'll do that at the same time as the steering rack.

After the steering rack has been done they'll do the tracking / steering geometry alignment so hopefully all that resolves my wandering problem (still worried about DRC failures later though!)

Oh and as if that wasn't enough my service today cost me £1,200! It also needed front brake pads and two front tyres which i let them do after they got to within £10 of etyres price and I originally thought they were going to do the tracking today... I thought it was daft taking it away to have tyres fitted and then back again to have tracking done.

So all in all an expensive day but hopfully proving the value of a good warranty!?

[SteveG]

Glad you picked the best colour, black ones are faster too.


I do mostly motorway miles, but haven't really noticed the car 'pulling' in fact seems very stable unless there is a big camber in the road.

[MalcolmSu]

Anyway what they've said is that the steering rack is partially seized and needs replaced - they didn't have one in stock so it's booked in for that next week. They've said it's mechanical failure so the warranty should cover it (£1,400!).

when i turned up at the dealers last week as scheduled they told me that the warranty claim hadn't yet been approved and the parts hadn't been ordered - oh and they'd meant to phone me to tell me not bother to come in but they forgot!

Anyway I've heard claim will now be honored and the parts should be in tomorrrow so it's booked in for Thursday for two days.

However I have to say that I'm still a little uncomfortable that they actually haven't got the root of my problem and their solution is based more on trial and error than facts... For some reason I'm expecting the car to come back still with the wandering problem. Why? I guess because I read of so many DRC problems but never have I read of any steering rack problems.

I'm also surprised at the warranty company picking up the tabs for its repair. In my experience steering rack problems usually occur after hitting something - although in this case that's not true in my lifetime.

I think I'll be asking them to specifically have a check of the DRC when it's in on Thursday and ask them to report back.

[SteveG]

In my experience steering rack problems usually occur after hitting something

Yes thats what I thought. Might want to get the subframe checked out too just in case...

One of my previous cars did something similar, but it also had issues going around corners/bends in the wet while applying small amount of power.

[MalcolmSu]

An update...

Well the two days of repairs turned into four! I got it back on Friday past and there was obviously something not right so it's now back in again for a further two days - i hope to get it back on Thursday, but more of that in a moment.

On the second day of the steering rack / radiator repair i got a phone call to say that the engine/gearbox oil cooler was 'blocked' and they needed to replace it. Now I hadn't noticed any problem with this - oil temp was always normal as far is I was concerned. I was quoted just over a grand to have this work done and they said the warranty company wouldn't cover it. I thought this was kinda essential so said yes.

The bill for that work ("replaced oil coller due to siezed pipes") came to £1,051.75 inc VAT. The oil cooler alone was £523.50 although I seem to have got a 2.5% discount for some reason.

Re-reading that bill just now I wonder if they didn't mean it was blocked but that the pipes were siezed and they couldn't replace either the rack or radiator because of that? Would the oil cooler have to come out to replace either of those??

The bill for the replacement of the rack (£685.70 itself) and the radiator (£543.03) came to £4,068.39 but luckily the warranty company picked up that.

So it went in for a service and a couple of things to be looked at and came back with a bill for £6,357.69!

When I got the car back it was instantly better to drive. I could drive it like a normal car with hand or hands just resting on the steering wheel instead of holding on tightly (or for grim death at high speeds). And with four new (or nearly new) tyres plus the steering geometry all re-lasered it felt great through the local twisty roads.

However it was too good to last - starting it from cold the next morning there was a dreadful racket from under the bonnet. It was a metallic noise that sounded like either something was loose or something was being hit everytime time the engine or fan turned...

Back to the dealers.

The mechanic turned the car over, had a quick look under the bonnet and said 'sounds like the drive belt'. I left it with them and they called later to say the drive belt and tensioner needed to be replaced. They'd already called the warranty company and they've said they'll pick up the tab for this.

I guess it's academic as I'm not footing the bill but is there any relationship between this repair and the work that was done last week - i.e. could the drive belt failure have been caused by them not putting things back together again properly?

Also can someone explain what might have been causing the mechanical noises - i thought a drive belt failure was pretty catastrophic and i wouldn't have been going anywhere if it had failed completely?

[estrop77]

Hi Malcolm

the RS6 suspension is pretty hard in standard DRC form but it shouldn't fidget too much on the motorway - I can floor mine at 80 with hands off the wheel (not recommended by the way!) and it doesn't move. They do bounce a bit on country roads but it should feel nice and tight.