Sprint Blue Avant

[Pistolpete2543]

I have long had an itch to scratch regarding B7 RS4 ownership, and started looking a couple of months ago. After many hours of trawling through this site for advice, tips, potential problems and to get a general feel for owning such a car, I have found exactly what I was looking for (thanks to all who have answered my queries):-

2006 B7 RS4 Avant in Sprint Blue
76k miles
Extensive service history with Audi + an interim Specialist service - all receipts, previous MOT's and invoices etc.
Some warranty work completed - one DRC unit replaced, oil cooler pipework recall and coilpacks done. It has also just had new rear exhaust back boxes done by Audi under warranty due to the flaps seizing.
Michelin Pilot Supersports all round with recent new discs and pads all round too.
Bodywork is in great shape, just a few wee bits to get sorted (inc front bumper gap which looks a bit big for my liking).
Only fault so far is the dreaded TPMS yellow warning symbol with a line through it, suggesting a sensor failure. All pressures checked numerous times and all at 35psi with no losses.
The weather has been so poor I have only been able to wash it and give it some quick detailer spray, so looking forward to getting her properly detailed in future.
Anyway, overall I am loving it so far, and now some pics:-

[drmanhattan]

Looks lovely - I'm well pleased for you buddy. Welcome to the Sprint Blue Avant club!

Ps - pleased I didn't sell you mine, I couldn't have lived without it!

[Pistolpete2543]

Cheers Rich. I was pretty gutted when you decided not to sell as I'd spent so long researching your own car ...then this appeared quite local to me and I thought it was fate so went to view straight away. But now I have one, I totally understand why you kept yours.

[RichieRS]

Stunner

[drmanhattan]

Yeah I definitely did the right thing keeping it - I'd be gutted if I was looking at this post thinking "that used to be mine I wish I hadn't sold it"! One of the recurring themes on the forums seems to be people selling, regretting, then coming back for more!

Is it a standard car? What plans have you got for it?

[Pistolpete2543]

Totally standard car. My only plans are to give it a full service and inspection (engine oil/filter, diff and gearbox oil change etc) in the coming months and enjoy it and hopefully nothing major going wrong with it. I plan on keeping for the longer term.

[Divine]

Very nice Avant

[Neil5489]

I just fixed my tpms. Had the same fault as yours. It turned out to be the antenna behind the rear bumper. About £70 from tps and about a 5 minute job to swap

[Pistolpete2543]

Cheers for that info Neil, I'll see if I can get a fault code to confirm its the antenna before buying anything, although it does seem logical. Sometimes it comes up on the dash straight away, sometimes it takes maybe 15-20 mins of driving, which would indicate it's losing the signal intermittently.

[Pistolpete2543]

OK so I contacted Belfast Audi to get an idea of price for a service on the car. They had previously completed a health check on the vehicle and the only advisory was the front "c-links" which I have found out are the front ARB drop-links.

Anyway, I enquired about a general inspection service. They said it would be oil and oil filter, air filter, pollen filter and a full inspection.......and that will be £503 all in. I nearly fell off my chair!! When I said I would provide the oil and oil filter (which I've just bought from TPS), the price would drop to £316. I reckon that would make it about £250 in labour. They did say they would like the car for 2 days as they like to spend more time working on the RS models...but that could just be a sales ploy (or it could be that they are genuinely doing a detailed inspection).

Am I right in thinking Belfast Audi are pulling my pants down with that price?

We don't have the luxury of RS4 specialists in Northern Ireland, although McEvoy motors has been mentioned on here before for general servicing and are reasonably close by.

I would like to keep the Audi stamp in the book, but I don't like being ripped off in the process. What do you guys think?

[geordie jay]

welcome bud !!! im sure you will enjoy the car and costs that come with it haha.. audi always try to pull your pants down with silly prices,read this may help,in short always argue the initial first quote..
can you also confirm that you got new exhaust recently under warranty due to flaps sticking?i find that unusual with all the miles on clock,if that's right im going tomorrow for a new back box

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=112601

[coldo]

OK so I contacted Belfast Audi to get an idea of price for a service on the car. They had previously completed a health check on the vehicle and the only advisory was the front "c-links" which I have found out are the front ARB drop-links.

Anyway, I enquired about a general inspection service. They said it would be oil and oil filter, air filter, pollen filter and a full inspection.......and that will be £503 all in. I nearly fell off my chair!! When I said I would provide the oil and oil filter (which I've just bought from TPS), the price would drop to £316. I reckon that would make it about £250 in labour. They did say they would like the car for 2 days as they like to spend more time working on the RS models...but that could just be a sales ploy (or it could be that they are genuinely doing a detailed inspection).

Am I right in thinking Belfast Audi are pulling my pants down with that price?

We don't have the luxury of RS4 specialists in Northern Ireland, although McEvoy motors has been mentioned on here before for general servicing and are reasonably close by.

I would like to keep the Audi stamp in the book, but I don't like being ripped off in the process. What do you guys think?

Unfortunately... I think that price is pretty much the going rate. I was £560 for mine at Ayr Audi but that included a brake fluid change too. Only had it for 1 day though and never heard of them taking longer on the RS models!

[Pistolpete2543]

can you also confirm that you got new exhaust recently under warranty due to flaps sticking?i find that unusual with all the miles on clock,if that's right im going tomorrow for a new back box

The previous owner bought the car from Sytner Select in Wakefield, and obviously included a warranty from them. Sytner also own Belfast Audi (after buying out Isaac Agnews Group), so when the flaps seized and it was still under warranty, they agreed that it could be sent to Belfast Audi to have the repair completed...which resulted in 2 new rear boxes being fitted (for which I have the warranty invoice from Audi).

I think I will book the car in with Audi to maintain the service record, but supply all the parts myself to reduce the cost a bit.

[birdiemachine]

Hi there, was this the avant for sale in northern ireland for a while?

I am a northern ireland owner myself, i wouldn't recommend going to belfast audi. I use mc millan porsche for mine they work on quite a few of these and have even carbon cleaned a few. There based in ballyclare and work on a lot of top end stuff, they have a original porsche speedster in atm. They done all the work on my r32 and are going to replace my rear subframe bushes in the next few weeks. They done all the work on my r32 as well.

Give them a call and ask for robin and tell him niall told you to call!

http://www.mcmillanporsche.com/

[Pistolpete2543]

Any particular reason you wouldn't recommend Belfast Audi Niall? Have you used them before?