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Just wondering if people are looking into cost effective maintenance options like refurbishment of parts and the like. As these cars get older they will become uneconoical to maintain otherwise. I also feel it keeps values up as they make the car a less scary prospect. A lot of high end cars that have fallen down the price ladder have a good following in terms of user maintenance. I'm looking into the possibility of rebuilding a DRC strut to see if its possible.

Certainly some components are silly money when the only option Audi give you is replacement, so rebuilds/refurbishment can drop the costs considerably - but not always. Ancillaries such as alternators, power steering pumps and AC compressors can be rebuilt, sometimes on a core exchange basis if you're lucky, brake calipers too. Audi themselves offer a number of parts on a core return although for some reason a lot of dealers either don't know or won't admit it (although I can't see that a dealer would charge a customer full price for an item and then return the old one to cut their costs - much). For instance, inner CV joints and most belt driven water pumps are exchange items.
If, as appears likely, the turbos are a model used on Imprezas then the CHRAs are pretty much cheap as chips, running at around 1/10th of the 2.5K Audi want for a new turbo assembly.
Having said that, unless you're doing your own maintenance the cost saving won't make much of a hole in the labour cost of a job that requires the engine dropping.

Of course some items won't be rebuildable but if things like DRC could be repaired rather than replaced. That would be a big win. What's the script with the turbos?

From what I've been able to track so far, the suggestion is that the turbos are IHI RHF55, which are also used on Imprezas and Foresters. As yet I can't get 100% confirmation on that though.
I'll keep digging when I have time although I'm probably going to have to end up either pulling one of mine or finding a wrecked one I can strip before I get an answer.
If it turns out to be correct, there's a ball bearing version of it.

That would be excellent news and a massive saving. As I say I'm currently looking at the possibility of repairing DRC shocks. Someone must have a stock turbo lying around? What about seeing if one of the tuners has a knackered one?

Doug_RS6 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:15 pm

That would be excellent news and a massive saving. As I say I'm currently looking at the possibility of repairing DRC shocks. Someone must have a stock turbo lying around? What about seeing if one of the tuners has a knackered one?

that's an option... or another avenue would be breakers (not that many around) or ebay.

Another item I'm looking at is propshaft centre bearings. Most places can replace the bearing for you for around £200. However often the only issue is the rubber has degraded. I'm going to be trying a fix with a polyurethane bushing making kit to see how that works.