Mugello Avant joins the club - All Sorted

[Dxthomas]

Dude, search on here for Dremel and oil cooler.

Thanks Shopp - I have a fair bit of trust in my garage. They're very old school "mechanical" - and i'd bet they're going to try everything they can to salvage the cooler.

Seems all 'standard-fare' for RS 6 ownership.

My way of dealing with all of this over the 6-ish years I owned one was to have a budget of £1k in your head for each item that needs attention, then you won't be too far off.

It's all totally worth it though. Awesome cars.

Thanks Chris - good advice. Let's just hope the transmission (serviced twice by MRC) or the DRC (re-built by Audi) don't go pop any time soon.

As I mentioned before - more than the cost, it's the fact that recently it's spent so long in the repair-dock that frustrates even more. The garage I use are exceptionally good - but they can often get snowed under (especially when a job "develops" - i.e RS6).

I'm going to be starting this job the weekend, as long as I get time. The hoses are bloody expensive

*edit. Are they the engine oil cooler hoses? If so, you may find the one of them is on back order.

How did you get on Chunky?

I haven't seen exacly what these hoses are - but i'm struggling to see how they could possibly be so expensive. Good build quality and longevity clearly aren't what we're paying for with these items!

...and FON.

I had a similar issue with mine when I got it and for the love of God don't scroll back through my posts, you'll cry with fear.

That white smoke for me was the turbo starting to fail. I am no expert on this topic but what the mechanic at the Audi specialist did was hold the revs static at 2500rpm for about two minutes, within that period it starting smoking like a bears arse in a forest fire and also noted was the rich smell you described. I'm hoping that's not the problem, hopefully it is something else and from my experience the car was running really well (or felt like it was) other than the occasional puff of smoke.

Thanks R5XVB - for my own sanity, i'm gong to pretend that what you've described couldn't possibly be happening to my car!

When I went to see my mechanic last weekend, I showed him what I was talking about. He didn't seem at all concerned - he said the smell wasn't particularly odd (given its a large, high performance engine) and the smoke was most likely condensation in the exhaust system. The car has had the pre-cats removed - maybe that has something to do with it? They did a "sniff" test on the coolant - all fine.

Moan over. I'm sure it will be just as fun in the Skoda.

To help console myself on the first 300 mile leg of the journey - I actually found myself trying to make V8 noises when overtaking in the fast lane. Kind of worked too - just not sure what the rest of my family thought about it all!

[chunky79]

Did the one hose that was leaking on mine. Used a dremel to cut the union off the oil cooler and just got away with it. My car has the 3 engine oil hoses on it, not the 4 so I now have the hose available that's on back order through Audi if you need it.

[simonpoulton]

+1 for the dremel although I managed it with an angle grinder. I think the heat helps as well.

The only problem after that is that the thread on the oil cooler can be corroded and you may struggle to get the new hose union back on.

[Dxthomas]

Did the one hose that was leaking on mine. Used a dremel to cut the union off the oil cooler and just got away with it. My car has the 3 engine oil hoses on it, not the 4 so I now have the hose available that's on back order through Audi if you need it.

Thanks Chunky. I'll call the garage tomorrow to see how they're getting on.

[Dxthomas]

Well, thanks to everyone for your help. The car is now back together and all sorted.

The oil pipes were for the gearbox - and weren't too hard to source (but expensive).

I did have the ABS & ASR lights come on the other day - got it scanned with Vagcom and it's come back as "Brake Light Switch", intermittent. If it comes up again I'll get it swapped out.

Now for the really bad news...I've decided to sell the car. The plan is, to sell the Octavia as well - and find a nice Audi A8 (2008) which I can use all the time. I know I will miss the RS6 - but for all the money I'm spending on owning and maintaining it, it's only getting used for a couple of hours at the weekend - sometimes not at all.

Thanks once again for all your help.

[Shoppinit]

At least get an S8 or hand your man card in.

[Dxthomas]

It's worse than that Shopp, it'll be a diesel A8.

Albeit - the more manly 4.2 tdi. Is that enough to keep a smidge of respect?

[bam_bam]

I actually like the 4.2 dweasial. Loaded up with toys it wouldn't be a bad way to waft. I've started to contemplate an donk swap into a D2.

[chunky79]

MRC can do a nice map on the 4.2 smog machine.

[Shoppinit]

Diesels? FFS.

Most people that buy diesels can't do maths.

Consider these examples from Autotrader:

Audi A8 4.2 TDi, 55k miles, £22000 and similarly optioned A8 4.2 FSi, 55k miles, £16000.

Petrol is on average 104p/l.
Diesel is on average 105p/l.

TDi mpg on motorway: 40 (where most of your miles will be done if you're doing 40k a year)
FSi mpg on motorway: 28

If you keep it for 2 years and do a whopping 40000 miles a year, the FSi will still cost you more than £2000 less. Over 3 years you still won't have broken even.



Nobody does the Arthur...

[HYFR]

Yes but that assumes you wipe out the price differential on sale, but assuming enough stupid people are still alive, it will still exist

[Shoppinit]

Sure. It's oversimplified. To make it easy for diesel owners to follow.

I didn't factor in the particulate filter replacement either.

Plus an A8 with 175k miles on the clock is gonna be worthless anyway.

[Dxthomas]

Oh dear...where's the "abort" button!

Not a diesel fan then Shopp?

I fear this thread has now changed direction irreversibly. My fault entirely - I accept full responsibility!

[TobyRS4]

Diesels? FFS.

Most people that buy diesels can't do maths.

Consider these examples from Autotrader:

Audi A8 4.2 TDi, 55k miles, £22000 and similarly optioned A8 4.2 FSi, 55k miles, £16000.

Petrol is on average 104p/l.
Diesel is on average 105p/l.

TDi mpg on motorway: 40 (where most of your miles will be done if you're doing 40k a year)
FSi mpg on motorway: 28

If you keep it for 2 years and do a whopping 40000 miles a year, the FSi will still cost you more than £2000 less. Over 3 years you still won't have broken even.



Nobody does the Arthur...

Love this!

Yes but that assumes you wipe out the price differential on sale, but assuming enough stupid people are still alive, it will still exist

Price differential on sale would probably still favour the Petrol, for example:

Diesel loses 50% at 22k cars worth 11k, 11k in depreciation

Petrol loses 50% at 16k cars worth 8k, 8K in depreciation, Petrol could depreciate at a rate of 30% higher than the diesel and still create equal depreciation in monetary terms, over 36% before the cost saving of the petrol over the time are cancelled.

man maths!