My new C5 S6 Avant - V8 family car

Back on the other side





Sieezed solid pinch bolt, just snapped off. I started drilling in situ. But the ******* snapped



So ripped it all out





I heated the **** out of it this time. Got the bolt red



And with alot of bashing it came out!



Fitted the new arms, the old ones were even more Rogered



Fitted it all up and jacked it up to 33 inches hub to fender





And a pile of crap



Just got to sort this cv/driveshaft problem as the mot runs out 20th February.
 
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Bet you can't wait for all this to be over and just enjoy the car?
 
audi upgrades
I do enjoy doing all this work, the accomplishment of it all. It's the money side of things that ****** me off!
 
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hey Super Ron,

what kind of mpg were you getting out of the 4.2 before the LPG conversion...?
 
jimmp said:
hey Super Ron,

what kind of mpg were you getting out of the 4.2 before the LPG conversion...?
Click to expand...
I never had it on the road before the conversion as I did it straight away. At the moment I'm getting 11-12mpg just running and shunting around, and 20-22mpg on a run. It would be about 2mpg better on petrol.
 
May have caught a break. I remembered I kept the old driveshafts from my old A4 3.0 and they looked the same so I thought I'd dig them out



Gave them a clean up and would you believe the part number of the inner CV is identical to my S6!





And weirdly I have a driveshaft from a 2003 A4 1.8t cvt FWD, and that has the same inner cv part number too! Why the he'll are they so hard to find if all the A4s seem to use them too??!

Anyway, i kept these shafts as the outer cv joints were knackered but the inners were still fine. Still on their origional boots and no splits or leaks, and most importantly no play.

So got it in the vise and with two hammers poped the outer case off



Odd cv grease



Then you could get to the circlip to remove the centre



Cleaned it all up and looks good as new



So going to stick this on mine tomorrow along with the genuine new boot kits I have :)
 
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That's terrific - there's nothing like reusing old bits that still have a life...

Well done
 
So whipped out the driveshaft again, barely takes 5mins now :rolleyes:



Up in the vice





All stripped and cleaned



Fitted the new genuine boot and then assembled my old 3.0 bits



And banged it all back together with the new bolts



With these knackered top arms it had given the front tyres a bit of a hammering on the camber so swapped the front and rears over as the rears are still like new. The nackered cv boot had made a right mess on the inside of the wheel



Much better



Then gave the whole car a blast over so it's all looking good. Need to book it in for an mot now.
 
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Well done on those wheels

I had an outer CV boot do some similar on my FIAT coupe recently- everything got covered in dark green grease.

Did you wax the inside of those rims, SuperRon..?
 
I used carbon collective wheel wax on the wheels when I got them and it is amazing! Brake dust just pressure washes off, and anything more like this just wipes off with a sponge.
 
This is the stuff, Platinum Wheels, Carbon Collective:

Super Ron said:
i got this liquid gold stuff £20 for this little bottle,



you only use a couple of drops on a pad PER WHEEL, reviews say don't give in and keep adding more, as it really does seem like you are doing nothing, and to be honest the wheels don't look any different, but the time will tell on the protection front.



need to get onto the trimming, rolling, bashing of the front to try and get them on now :)
Click to expand...


Today was MOT o'clock



no problems, just bought up an advisory on one of the rear suspension bushes, so will get that sorted.

And did the proper emissions test on LPG and it flew though, with all the CATs removed.



it can live another year then :)
 
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Ha!

That's terrific- do you think it would have flown through in 4.2 petrol-fuel mode, with the cats removed?!

Any special plans for the rear bushes? Not an easy job without a lift..
 
It defiantly wouldn't of got through a petrol test running on petrol, but I'm not sure what the parameters are on the petrol test if to whether it would get through it running on lpg. Anyone had an mot lately with the sheet handy?

I will be doing the rear bushes asap as I want to get it 4 wheel aligned with all this work I've been doing on the front, and no point doing that with worn rear bushes. I've no idea what sort of a job it is as I've not looked yet, but that doesn't sound good :frown:
 
I shouldn't think its a disaster- they will be at the sides...
 
Ouch



Had a wingmirror joust with someone in the countryside last night.

Snapped off at the pivot



These mirrors are so horrendously expensive, literally 10 times more expensive than A6 mirrors.

The solid alloy covers are still in tact so I'm praying that the A6 bases are the same and I can put my covers on A6 mirrors which are about £15 each vs £300 for a pair of S6 ones!

I bet they were worst off though as these metal mirror caps are SOLID!
 
gosh, that's unlucky and slightly amazing at the same time-

I can't even see a dent on the cowling at all!

my drivers side mirror is sort of rattly-loose. The cowling anyway. When I get a moment to myself in daylight, I'll have to have a look at whats' going on...
 
The alloy cover is still perfectly in tact. I was lucky it didn't smash my window, Made hell of a bang! I'm hoping I can get a A6 mirror and put the S6 cover on it.
 
see how you get on

I'm hatching a plan to go to a big 'breakers yard at the weekend on the hunt for a few trim items that I need- I'll keep my eyes peeled for mirrors

Or do you have a reputable 'breakers that you are able to draw upon yourself..?
 
got a mirror on its way

mixing things up today, back in the unit, but this time backwards!



to do the rear suspension bushes that were noticed at the MOT

Jason at Allgermanparts hooked me up again (I've certainly paid for his Christmas Party this year) only a couple were questionable but thought id do the whole lot as it was apart



i had a look at doing them in place, but its just too bouncy



it was only the hub nut, drop the caliper and 3 other bolts and it all came off as one unit, real easy



and in the vice, first i tried using the Vectra rose bush tool to pull them out but they were in solid



ended up cutting, wacking, destroying, butchering the old one to get it out, a lot of sweat later



then the new ones just pressed in from either side, well lubed up



and use the vectra tool to pull them in nicely



and all done



fitted it back on and set it to ride height before tightening the bolts



the other side bushes were holding fine but looking a little perished, so changed them too, barely 2 mins to remove so its not used to sodding about on the car



on the first side once i'd destroyed the inner bush i cut through the outer with an air saw to release the tension, on this side i thought smart and skip that and drill through here, it cut through like butter as its mostly rubber and just caught the edges of the seethe with are aluminum, and it was cut enough to shave though the outer tube and release the tension



and then they just popped out complete, only 10 mins to do all 4 bushes!



had a little fatality this side, the head sheered off the abs sensor bolt, but luckily there was enough still sticking out to get with molegrips



then the rear bearing/driveshaft setup is just the same as the fronts with a monstrous torque.



job done! nice and easy for once!
 
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And a new mirror turned up today. The search wasn't as easy as I thought, it turns out you can put S6 alloy mirror caps on A6 mirrors. Great! Saves me a few hundred pounds:) but then it turns out there are 3 different types of mirrors fitted to the C5. prefacelift, facelift and allroad. Then once that's taken care of there's two colours of glass, blue tint and clear. Then once I got that far most on eBay etc have rusty discoloured glass. Finally i found a perfect facelift mirror with heated blue glass from all-audi.co.uk. for £30 delivered.





Now just got to strip it all down.
 
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I recently priced a replacement mirror glass for my S4, it has heated auto dimming mirrors. Just for a replacement glass, £196
 
So today was time to see if the S6 cover will fit an A6 mirror

Dropped the door card to get to the mirror bolt





Then it was mirror disection



The S6 mirror covers mount different, the A6 mirrors clip on, but the S6 ones screw on.



The skeleton of the mirrors are the same, and the A6 ones have a dimple where a hole should be for the S6 screws



So just drilled it through



And all back on, £150 saved :)



Whilst the door card was off I noticed a wierd ariel wire around the handle cable



And found a box at the bottom of the door with wires to it





Dunno if it had a tracker or something fitted earlier in its life, couldn't get it out without taking the door frame out though.

It's a bit worrying to know now that these uber expensive mirror covers can be removed in about a minute by popping the glass out and undoing 3 little screws. Will have to get some security bolts for them :eek:
 
You'd have to take the door card out first though...?

Great footage by the way...

Yes- the Allroad mirrors are very square.
 
jimmp said:
You'd have to take the door card out first though...?

Great footage by the way...

Yes- the Allroad mirrors are very square.
Click to expand...

The skeleton of the mirrors are the same between the A6 and S6, but you can remove the alloy covers from the outside in less than a minute without even unlocking the car :grey:
 
Oh, of course...

I see what you mean. Crikey- indeed- that could be expensive: best not to advertise that then!!

Both mine rattle about, I need to take em off and have a sniff inside them.

After I get the tailgate warning/overhead light lamp swapped- hey Ron: have you ever had this out? Do I have to take off the whole overhead trim panel in the tailgate?
 
Plenty of good work gone on since I last checked in here.

I've just finished collecting all the rear bushes for mine, and I need to order some top arms and pinch bolts for the front. The top arms were the only arms/bushes I didn't change up front when I lowered mine as they were fine, but two of them flagged up as advisories on my MOT so I'm going to have to face the music.
 
Well looks like I've had the car a year now! Time flys

Been on another buying spree (boring stuff)



Gearbox oil,,gearbox filter, inner cv joint and a wheel bearing.

A very good friend of mine has started up his own bodyshop and he said I could use his ramp to do the gearbox oil as it's a **** to do on the floor. (I know, I did my white one on the floor!)

So into 'Autoshack'



Started draining the gearbox it, it holds 10 litres!!



Then whipped the sump off



There was still about 2 lites that sits lower than the drain plug, so you can never really drain it fully from the drain plug. Odd!



Now, these gearboxes are supposedly sealed for life according to Audi, there are no service intervals for them and Audi say the fluid lasts the life of the vehicle. So this oil and filter is 15 years old and has done 97'000 miles! And I confirmed it is origional as the filter actually had March 2001 on it (the cars registered November 2001).

So although Audi say it doesn't need changing...... I'd say it a a good idea.

The sump pan has 4 magnets in it, and although they were covered in sludge, it wasn't gritty or had any shines bits in there. Not had for 15 years!



It was still draining for ages so decided to crack on with other bits.



Strippy strippy



I scored the wheel bearing off ebay for £25! Genuine brand new in the packet



And i still can't find anyone who lists a inner CV joint for a S6. I found a RS6 one so took a gamble as it's the same running gear, and thankfully it was.



So stripped the shaft down, the CV was shot, had loads of play, even though the boot was still in perfect condition.



Pressed the flange in the new bearing



And started fitting the new CV. Same 34 spline shafts



I'd bought a new genuine cv boot to fit as the aftermarket boots sometimes have a tenancy to perish, but the outer shape is different so it won't fit



Greased the **** out of it



And put it all back together with new bolts.





Took my ElsaWin with me for all the torque settings



And all back together

 
The gearbox had still been draining all this time, but had finally finished

So cleaned up the pan, there was no sludge in it, just a bit of a grey oily film, shows the magnets do their job



Got all the torque settings again, the sump pan even has a tightening sequence.



Cleaned up the mating surfaces



Got the new gasket



Stuck the filter back on



And the 10 litres of oil!! For just the oil, gasket and filter it was £202 trade!!



They've got a special tool for filling the gearboxes as you have to fill them from the bottom, but the threads were different sides to my blanking plug



Had to get creative gearbox end but I could still use it.



It's quite a sequence to filling it up in different stages and it's so exact you have to do the level with the gearbox oil at a certain temperature (between 30-45*c) so had to have vagcom plugged in to keep an eye on that while filling, but got there in the end, was pretty messy



It took 8 litres as there is sill some in the torque converter you can't get out.

And all done :)



There wasn't anything wrong with my gearbox (or so i thought) but it is so much smoother no. When stationary and putting it in reverse it didn't clonk or anything but you could feel it taking up tension on the brakes, now it's seamless. It changes gear alot smoother too.

So that's another thing to tick off.
 
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Absolutely right to change the transmission fluid. This Audi thing of 'sealed for life' is a nonsense, especially given that ZF themselves, the manufacturers of the tiptronic gearbox, recommend a change of fluid at a specific interval (forget at what miles now but it's on their website). Also, I believe both BMW and Mercedes who use the same box have a scheduled change. Many thanks for the time you give us in keeping this fantastic thread on-going and up to date - please keep it up.
 
Thanks, I didn't think there was anything wrong with my gearbox as it drove fine, but it's so much smoother now on selecting gears and changing gear. Well worth it (Even thought £200 is alot for gearbox oil!!)
 
Every thread I saw for the RS6s said use genuine stuff so I wasn't going to take a gamble on fluid with the reputation these boxes have. It's done 15 years so that's enough proof for me.
 
Lol , there's only 2 possible manufacturers of the oem oil .

So a narrow gamble to use either manufacturer like spec recommendation .

Oem paying the VAG premium wins again.

When you find out the oem on suspension parts etc you can order them sometimes at a fraction of the cost and they come with the vag part number scrubed out !
 
As a proud owner of a C5 s6 Avant ('02 currently with 95,000 miles or so) this thread has been enlightening and quite relatable. I stumbled across it doing some research for other peoples experience running the pilot super sports on the c5 s6 a few days ago and wound up reading through the whole thing in one shot. Lo and behold the goldmine of well documented take-aparts, research and experiences is.

Of the work you've covered here I've already dealt with the cooler pipe, high pressure sensor for the A/C, and just got the boot around the cv joint patched up a few weeks back. The boot seems to be holding up well for now, but will likely look to replace the whole deal as you have in the next 6 months or so. Hindsight is always a bitch and as I was reading through and looking at the time stamp I was actually upset that I couldn't chime in as you were going through it, but fwiw there is an aluminum version of the cooler pipe compatible with a pretty large range of the 4.2 V8 equipped vag cars with higher quality o-rings available via seller in the US who does custom fabrication (http://www.ebay.com/itm/252303903426). I ended up going with that for replacement and has been perfect thus far. I'm certainly gonna keep an eye on your progress and any other headache causing incidentals that arise as I think I can likely expect a lot of the same.

Cheers for the dedication and quality info you're sharing with the community :rockwoot:
 
mercurialS6 said:
As a proud owner of a C5 s6 Avant ('02 currently with 95,000 miles or so) this thread has been enlightening and quite relatable. I stumbled across it doing some research for other peoples experience running the pilot super sports on the c5 s6 a few days ago and wound up reading through the whole thing in one shot. Lo and behold the goldmine of well documented take-aparts, research and experiences is.

Of the work you've covered here I've already dealt with the cooler pipe, high pressure sensor for the A/C, and just got the boot around the cv joint patched up a few weeks back. The boot seems to be holding up well for now, but will likely look to replace the whole deal as you have in the next 6 months or so. Hindsight is always a bitch and as I was reading through and looking at the time stamp I was actually upset that I couldn't chime in as you were going through it, but fwiw there is an aluminum version of the cooler pipe compatible with a pretty large range of the 4.2 V8 equipped vag cars with higher quality o-rings available via seller in the US who does custom fabrication (http://www.ebay.com/itm/252303903426). I ended up going with that for replacement and has been perfect thus far. I'm certainly gonna keep an eye on your progress and any other headache causing incidentals that arise as I think I can likely expect a lot of the same.

Cheers for the dedication and quality info you're sharing with the community :rockwoot:
Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed the thread, alot of S6 owners have said the same and suffer the same problems as me, almost as a tick list :haudrauf:

i did see those alloy oil cooler pipes when i was having the problems but couldn't find anywhere in the UK to get them and it was kind of a there and then problem so i had to just get genuine replacements, mine has got the alloy upgraded link arms for the duel trac inlet from that same seller which were fitted by the previous owner. (see next update :blush:)

rest assured i love working on cars and love posting threads so this one will be carrying on for a long while yet :superman:
 
Gave it a well deserved wash and clean up inside and out today



took the engine covers off to check on all the lpg bits as i am probably going to get the lpg certified soon. i cant remember if i'd put it in the diary that the LPG ECUs had a recall and you had to mount them the other way up to what it says on the casing due to water getting in, which meant none of the brackets id made for the ecu fitted and its just been cable tied (very securely) in place for the last few months



so chopped up and modded the old bracket and its now in there properly



all the lpg pipework looks spot on with no chafage or snaggs but what i did find was one of the actuators for the duel track inlet was broken!



i had thought it was feeling not as torquey any more but i put it down to just getting used to it. when Jordan got it before me the link arms were broken (very common on these) and he fitted some super flash alloy ones, but this is the actual actuator itself thats broken. These also help with starting and they suck the flaps for about 30seconds after cold start, guess its just to get the air directly in





theres loads of threads and links about the links, but none on where to get the actuators. for now ive got handy with the super glue and see how that holds, but these are under alot of pressure so I'm not holding my breath



Another long term problem was from before i got it, one of the rear parking sensors would stick on, usually when it was raining, and just give a constant beep when you selected reverse. but when you plugged in vagcom there were no saved fault codes and everythings working perfectly :confused: but its been getting a bit worse lately and luckily it happened the other day when i had the laptop out and i could read each sensor and was saying the rear left was <10cm with the others at their max. so i ordered an outer one and stuck it in and hopefully that will cure that





they only annoying thing is its black and not grey that i hadn't noticed, but that will do for now



The other anoying thing is my headlights always wet when it rains or i wash it, i'd tried going round with an airline but cant see any gaps anywhere :(



but its all clean and happy for now :)







will try that glued actuator on after a few days of letting it dry :)
 
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Let the glue dry on the actuator



And bunged it back on





All started it up and all worked well :)



Took it for a drive and it's made a huge difference!! So much more power lower down and alot more responsive :)

But alas the next day it came off again :(



So I've got to try and source another from where but no luck so far


 
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