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Hi All,

I've recently gone and bought my self an Audi RS6 2003 Saloon (87k on the clock), in grey, with "lotus" white interior, which has been off the road for at least 2 years. I bought it at a decent price (which is helpful as i want to tune the car over a few years). It's my hope that i can get the car back to a healthy state before it "flat lines". I've bought this as a (cheaper!) upgrade to my 2008 Audi S8 (glacier white!!). The S8 is nice, maybe a bit too nice, I'm fairly young and it does seem like an "old mans car" at times, until you put your foot down that is, it's really quick too and i love the sound of the V10, the only thing that is lacking on that car is the tunability. Maybe I've got a disease but tuning/modifying a car in my mind would be me putting my stamp on it, which is what I've done on all my previous cars!

The RS6 engine starts, gearbox seems to work backwards and forwards. I think the car was taken for a joyride, the result of which, it has a ding to the lower front grill, which appears to have damaged some sort of radiator (smaller one towards the bottom in font of the bigger radiator), now I've been looking at the forum for a few days and I think it may be the oil cooler. I just want some advice on repairing this? Is it a specialist job or can any mechanic fix this? Does anyone know where to get the part too and the correct part number? Now obviously this cooling item has been broken so I'm just wondering if it could have had a "domino" type of knock on effect to any of the other bigger bits?

My main concern is whether the head has gone on the engine, are there any obvious tell tell ways to check this as well as other components on the car? Besides a compression test. Obviously i'm quite excited and i want to know, each night i lay in bed thinking about it!! I'm waiting for my local garage to take it in.

I've got a very quick video of the car running, with a few slight throttle blips (inside), it doesn't sound too bad considering it's not been started in a few years and idles fine, maybe that will give more indication of whether there's issue or not?

I think the rear passenger side calliper has ceased too, so if anyone's got one, I need to buy one.

I know there's a lot of work involved here but i'm excited and i'm sure the end result will be well worth it.

Audi>Bmw

Welcome and FON. Rule 1.

For starters you ideally need to get yourself a copy of VCDS. Even if you don't do the work yourself its handy to get an idea whats (if anything) is wrong with your car. The good news is it'll also work on the S8 (and other Audis, Seats, VWs and Skodas). Get the car scanned and we can go from there.

Re: the cooler. It sounds like its could be the engine/gearbox oil cooler which is a fairly common part to leak. Obviously parts are expensive but there are a few people who have replaced them. The biggest problem with it is the pipes corroding on so you might have to replace those too. If its the gearbox cooler then you need to be quite strict on the repair procedure and specifically the oil refilling procedure. You don't want to put too much/little oil into the gearbox as they are fragile.

Re: the head. What makes you the headgasket has gone? There are numerous ways to check this:
- Compression test
- Leakdown test
- Mayo inthe coolant
- Coolant 'sniffer' test
- Borescope to check top of piston for signs of coolant

A good place to start for parts is ETKA (various hooky online versions are available). I tend to use Jim Ellis Audi website from the states to also get an idea how much things cost (in $ though obviously). Once you've found the parts number then Stoke Audi (one of the site sponsors) have been known to do good deals. For workshop manuals there is the Bentley publishing ones - not that common though and expensive. Or just get a copy of ElsaWin and you will be able to do almost anything to the VAG cars.

Nobby

Hi Nobby,

Thanks for the input, very much appreciated. So presumably if its the gearbox cooler, its leaking the gearbox fluid directly out. Quite worry, as its quite a bad leak, i had better not start it up again then. So the gearbox will need a service ASAP.

Im worried about the head because the cooler elements have failed then engine could have over heated and caused head issues? Maybe me being paranoid but i prefer to think of the worst case scenario, that way I'm prepared for the worst and if it's anything else, the hit isn't as bad.

If i were to do a coolant sniffer test and the head has gone, how would it smell?

I'm at work at thr moment but ill put some pictures up of the damage, etc later and some nice shots of the S8.

The sniffer test is a chemical tester like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sealey-VS0061-C ... B000RO6CGA

It sucks up air from the expansion tank and if it contains CO2 then there is a chance the engine gases are leaking out the combustion chamber and into the coolant system.

Post up some photos of where the leaks are and we should be able to tell you what it is.

Haha i was hoping it was a literal sniff test. Im going to have a look for mayo in the coolant then instead tonight.

Will post later

Sounds promising, the small rad on the front has two cores, one is engine oil and the other is the transmission fluid, either way don't run it until it's replaced.

I think Nobby meant mayo in the oil, which indicates water has got into the crankcase. You just need to take the oil cap off.

BUT if you do see a creamy stuff under the oil cap take it with a pinch of salt because if the car's been started up a lot cold and the oil temp hasn't been allowed to get up to 100c or more then you would get that anyway due to condensation. A combustion by-product is water vapour and a small amount of all gasses will blow by the rings, it then condenses in the cold oil.

Unless the engine ran out of oil the engine the damage to the front rad won't have caused any damage to the engine, provided it's not gushing oil out when running.

SuprSi wrote:Sounds promising, the small rad on the front has two cores, one is engine oil and the other is the transmission fluid, either way don't run it until it's replaced.

I think Nobby meant mayo in the oil, which indicates water has got into the crankcase. You just need to take the oil cap off.

BUT if you do see a creamy stuff under the oil cap take it with a pinch of salt because if the car's been started up a lot cold and the oil temp hasn't been allowed to get up to 100c or more then you would get that anyway due to condensation. A combustion by-product is water vapour and a small amount of all gasses will blow by the rings, it then condenses in the cold oil.

^ Yep thats what I meant. Good shout on the condensation. Could also be the case when the oil vapour recirc pipes are cracked/split and condensation can get in.

I've just bought a neglected RS, one of the problems was a leaking gearbox oil cooler, to get some movement in the car I fitted an aftermarket 13 row oil cooler, had some pipes made and mounted it in front of the rad off the steel crossmember, not ideal because it's not thermostatically controlled, and I can't measure the oil temp, yet, but it has allowed me to road test the car to highlight any other problems. After nearly 500 miles of mixed "road testing" the car seems fine. For an outlay of 90 quid I thought it was worth the risk. ( at least on a 2 grand car)

Can you send the links to what you bought? Sounds like a good way to get it running for now and sort the rest of the car out.

I'm waiting for my local garage to take it in.

I would be much more inclined to get it on a flatbed and take to MRC or Unit20 - that way you get it properly inspected by somone who knows what they are talking about, and fixed properly at a sensible price.

Dave

Daveperc wrote:

I'm waiting for my local garage to take it in.

I would be much more inclined to get it on a flatbed and take to MRC or Unit20 - that way you get it properly inspected by somone who knows what they are talking about, and fixed properly at a sensible price.

Dave

^This.

Daveperc wrote:

I'm waiting for my local garage to take it in.

I would be much more inclined to get it on a flatbed and take to MRC or Unit20 - that way you get it properly inspected by somone who knows what they are talking about, and fixed properly at a sensible price.

Dave

Yeah that's the plan eventually, once i get it back on the road with its MOT passed, etc, I just want to get the cooler fixed and the fluids changed for now.

I've got a few pictures of the damage now as well as of the car (you can still see the fluid on the drive from the leak).

Oooooo, that looks good, hopefully the rest of the damage is only cosmetic. Nice

Thanks SuperSi.

The paint is in really good condition considering it's not had a wash in a few years, you can really see the flakes in the paint work.

Based on the picture, do you guys think it is the oil cooler thats damaged? Looks like something left its stamp on it.

PoP-PoP-BANG wrote:Hi All,

I've recently gone and bought my self an Audi RS6 2003 Saloon (87k on the clock), in grey, with "lotus" white interior

Hi - welcome.

Good luck with this, hope you get all the niggles sorted out.

FYI Lotus white was a BMW M individual interior colour.

Yours is "silver" like mine.

You're welcome.

Andrew.