An Interesting Development

[cammmy]

Hi All

I got my RS6 in December from a chap who loved it but self admitted "I know nothing about maintenance, it goes to the specialist for everything"

The car is a prior cat D and he bought it from the Shop that repaired it. To both of our knowledge, it was totally stock.

Whilst underneath giving it a service, I noticed it has a Milltek cat back and MRC secondary decat pipes. I also remembered seeing in the history that the Shop didn't change the air filters as they were already aftermarket. I had a hunch that this thing may have been to MRC for a tune before (likely by the owner who had it when it was written off) as why would anyone have all that done and not tuned. I sent MRC an email yesterday and they replied today (super awesome service BTW) and the result:

"It made 740ps and 1000nm when we tuned it

This was engine and gearbox, secondary cat delete, milltek catback with bmc filters"

Result!!! Somehow I'm now not quite as bummed about discovering it has the oil pump leak and also seemingly a leak on the other side somewhere.

Also, I'm extremely glad that I've been running it on at least BP ultimate even though stock it only calls for 95

[C6Dia]

Thats great news, these can be sensitive to fuel quality, so for maximum safety use Vpower or Tesco 99. Alternatively get MRC to add switchable maps for slightly poorer fuel quality or just add octane booster.

[cammmy]

Awesome, thanks. So BP ultimate isn't up to snuff? There's one right next to me but I have a shell and Tesco not too far away as well.

[welwynnick]

Vpower and Tesco Momentum are 99RON, while BP Ultimate is "only" 97. These engines are quite sensitive to the fuel.

Finding you have a custom tune and an upgraded exhaust must be a pleasant surprise, but you must have been suspicious about how fast is was?

Nick

[C6Dia]

I have never used BP stuff. If I was to it'd only be to get me to one of the closest above.

Probably overkill!

[IanH755]

Congrats on the stealth upgrade, saving you £2k at least

So BP ultimate isn't up to snuff? There's one right next to me but I have a shell and Tesco not too far away as well.

It's more that MRC, when they map it, tell the owners to use VPower/Tesco99 based on MRC mapping the car with that level of fuel already in the car, as it gives the most power.

However, if the car was mapped with BP Ultimate then BP would be fine, but because you've no real way of knowing what fuel the car was mapped for it's best to play it safe, either by using Shell/Tesco or getting the map reduced for BP fuel.

My guess would be, looking at the HP figure, that the car was mapped with one of the two 99RON fuels, as 97RON figures tend to be 670hp-ish to 705hp-ish at most, usually the lower end of that scale but, again, thats more of a educated guess than knowing exactly.

[cammmy]

Nice one, thanks guys. I'll make sure to use those two whenever possible then. I'm assuming all the engine protection remains in place in case I have to fill with 97?

I did think it was monstrously quick but I've never owned anything like it before and it's the only RS6 I've ever been in. I'm no stranger to quick cars but I always went down the lighter end of the spectrum (I have a 320hp Lotus Esprit that weighs 1,200kg and a mini Cooper S I'm about to tune to about 230-240bhp at 1,100kg). This is the first real, powerful, luxobarge I've owned. I did think it would leave the Lotus for dead in a straight line, even though they have similar power to weight (with a stock RS) but I put that down to the torque curve.

On the negative side though, MRC quoted just over £3k to fix the oil leak, but looking at the itemised quote, they are dropping the engine and also replacing the coolant pipes and a bunch of other seals, so I guess they go for a "if we're gonna do this, let's do it all" type solution?

How urgent is the oil seal? Do they fail catastrophically? Considering I just changed the oil this weekend, I'd rather not have it all dumped out and am happy to wait until next service time. Alternately, are there any other trusted shops that will do a good job? I've seen figures of £1,500 in other threads.

Lastly, MRC said that given they mapped it 6 years ago, they think they can get better results if I take it back again now X-D

[Jim Haseltine]

Oil seal isn't urgent. It'll leak more as time goes by but it won't suddenly let go in a big way. Really depends on how long you can put up with having to clean oil off the bottom of the car, your drive, your garage floor and the like. Although it's usually only one o ring that is leaking there's another o ring, a bunch of other seals (10 off the top of my head) and a fancy (but not over expensive) rubber covered coolant transfer pipe that should be replaced during the job. The o ring job can be done without dropping the engine but to be honest, so much has to be stripped off that it's a toss-up which way to go. An advantage to pulling the engine is that it's a lot easier to do a full r&r of the coolant pipes that way.

[IanH755]

Hi,

Mapped/Stock feel - As you've never driven a stock one, trust me you're not missing out on anything! While it "looks" fast if you watch the speedo whizz around it never actually "feels" that fast doing it. It has a very linear and mild shove but doesn't make you think "holy crap" when you floor it. As you know, mapped is a different animal

£3k Bill - Good and Bad - Thats actually not a bad price to drop the engine and fix the bits BUT they don't actually need to drop the engine to fix them, it just makes it much easier for them (& more expensive for you) to do it that way. However dropping the engine lets you get a lot of other issues fixed that they find, which could mean less issues later on in the cars life, but it's expensive and they rarely find any really big issues when the engine is out, normally just small leaks etc but occasionally they find something.

£1500 Bill - The "usual" way of doing it, where the engine stays fitted and the subframe is dropped allowing the oil seal to be done. The coolant lines are fixed by simply replacing the corroded section of metal pipe with a rubber hose, rather than by replacing the entire metal pipe which would require the engine out (overkill for this). This is cheaper and far more popular but the negative is that any "hidden" issues will stay hidden this way, meaning you might end up with an issue later on which needs the engine out anyway. Again its pretty rare that you'd get a genuine "engine out" issue as these cars are usually quite strong mechanically but it does happen.

How Urgent - Once that seal "goes" it's 50/50 how long you get. You can have just a tiny trickle for years or have the whole thing fail the next day. However the vast majority of leaks are fairly slow TBH and it's very rare to get a catastrophic fail but it can happen. Either way if you drive it keep some oil in the boot just in case of emergency top-up.

Re-Mapping - I've said this consistently, while I feel that MRC may only be "average" for mechanical work (not great, not bad, just middle of the pack) for tuning there is absolutely no-one else in the UK even comes close! As it's been 6 years since it was mapped I'd ask them for the price first, just to see if another few HP will be worth it but, for me, I'd consider letting them have a look anyway as the engine changes as it gets older and the map from 6 years ago might be better with a little tweak, again depending on price.

Hope that helps. I know some of the £3k vs £1500 advice doesn't give a clear and definitive answer but I like to give both sides so you can make your own choice.

[welwynnick]

Regarding the oil seal leak, don301 was confident about using an oil seal restorer. He found it was effective on his car. Can't remember the name, you'll need to search a little.

Nick

[cammmy]

Awesome, thanks. That's good info.

It's not leaving a huge amount on the drive and I keep oil in the little cubby in the boot anyhow, so I'll just give everything a clean and stick it back together for now. I had a look in the wheel well and think I saw the pipes. Much thinner than I was expecting from reading about them? They have corrosion but don't look like they are about to let go imminently. I will clean them up and give them a coat of protection and come back to it at service time.

MRC quoted me £1,200 for health check and stage 2/trans tune. Which seems like the retail price? I was hoping they would have and upgrade price as that's a lot of money for what i imagine won't be a huge difference. Selectable snap crackle and pop would be nice but the Lotus spits 6" flames if I need a fix of that.

[cammmy]

Regarding the oil seal leak, don301 was confident about using an oil seal restorer. He found it was effective on his car. Can't remember the name, you'll need to search a little.

Nick

I think I saw that In a thread but it said it only protected a seal, rather than restoring one that's already leaking? Would definitely be interested to know what's it's called though. I'll send a PM

Ta

[welwynnick]

It's called Forte seal conditioner

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=132882&p=922209&hi ... nt#p922209

[cammmy]

Nice one, I'll look it up! I've also seen a mention of AMD doing the seal. They aren't far from me, so that's an option too.

[IanH755]

Here's a bunch of Corroded coolant pipe pics so you've got an idea how bad it gets, the worst is under the bracket which is the usual failure point when the pipe fails. I've also included some Oil Pump pics too - https://imgur.com/a/atMZnwF