Buying an A6 Avant - What to look for

noisy_lightning

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Hi Folks,

Wondering if you can give me some pointers as I am going to be buying an A6 Avant over the next couple of weeks when I find one I like. I am going to be looking for a 14/15 plate and not fussed on Auto vs Manual as it depends on the price and mileage mainly. I am looking at S-Line / Black edition models.

Are there any key technical things I should be keeping an eye out for that may develop over time? I have an A3 currently and am reasonably mechanically minded so will be giving the A6 a very good look over before buying.

Final question, DRL on 13/14/15 plate cars, do they all have the solid "tube" style running lights or do some of the earlier models have sidelight bulb style ones? its difficult to tell from a lot of photos unless the ignition is on.

Thanks.
 
Hi Folks,

Wondering if you can give me some pointers as I am going to be buying an A6 Avant over the next couple of weeks when I find one I like. I am going to be looking for a 14/15 plate and not fussed on Auto vs Manual as it depends on the price and mileage mainly. I am looking at S-Line / Black edition models.

Are there any key technical things I should be keeping an eye out for that may develop over time? I have an A3 currently and am reasonably mechanically minded so will be giving the A6 a very good look over before buying.

Final question, DRL on 13/14/15 plate cars, do they all have the solid "tube" style running lights or do some of the earlier models have sidelight bulb style ones? its difficult to tell from a lot of photos unless the ignition is on.

Thanks.


Good luck mate I’ve had mine a few weeks now I love it! I went a bit older to make sure I got the spec I wanted. I went 3.0 tdi s tronic first auto and its great so smooth.
I think just usual things for most cars mine is 117k but last year had gbox oil service and new chain and tensioners because it had a Rattle.... rather them than me!


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Pre-facelift, which would all 14 plate, most 64 and even some 15 plate cars, SEs had halogen headlights as standard and these had the combined main beam DRL halogen bulb, Cars with Xenon headlights (includes all S-Lines) had LED DRLs and these caras also had no sperperte foglights in the lower part of the bumper.

As to things to look for, if possible go for a facelift car. Spec was better and included things like the 4-Zone AC as standard. Pre-facelift cars with the 2-Zone AC had rotary knob adjsutment for temperature rather than the digital display. Face lift cars with the TechPack also got 4G/LTE based access to Audi Connect and the ability to display the map between the dials. Both my pre and post facelift cars suffered from the fuel filler jamming so may be worth checking if this has been replaced, probably doen under warranty so should be recorded by Audi. Manual gearboxes were only on the 2.0 car. On front wheel drive cars without the Ultra engines (Ultra 2.0 engines were introduced late 2014 and would only be on a few 64 plate cars but most 15 cars would be Ultra) that had the auto box were Multitronic, Ultra cars all had s-tronic. If you buy an auto of any type make sure the gearboxc has had an oilchange every 4 years or 38k miles

Hope that helps and you find something you like
 
Good luck mate I’ve had mine a few weeks now I love it! I went a bit older to make sure I got the spec I wanted. I went 3.0 tdi s tronic first auto and its great so smooth.
I think just usual things for most cars mine is 117k but last year had gbox oil service and new chain and tensioners because it had a Rattle.... rather them than me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pre-facelift, which would all 14 plate, most 64 and even some 15 plate cars, SEs had halogen headlights as standard and these had the combined main beam DRL halogen bulb, Cars with Xenon headlights (includes all S-Lines) had LED DRLs and these caras also had no sperperte foglights in the lower part of the bumper.

As to things to look for, if possible go for a facelift car. Spec was better and included things like the 4-Zone AC as standard. Pre-facelift cars with the 2-Zone AC had rotary knob adjsutment for temperature rather than the digital display. Face lift cars with the TechPack also got 4G/LTE based access to Audi Connect and the ability to display the map between the dials. Both my pre and post facelift cars suffered from the fuel filler jamming so may be worth checking if this has been replaced, probably doen under warranty so should be recorded by Audi. Manual gearboxes were only on the 2.0 car. On front wheel drive cars without the Ultra engines (Ultra 2.0 engines were introduced late 2014 and would only be on a few 64 plate cars but most 15 cars would be Ultra) that had the auto box were Multitronic, Ultra cars all had s-tronic. If you buy an auto of any type make sure the gearboxc has had an oilchange every 4 years or 38k miles

Hope that helps and you find something you like

Thank you, this is the sort of information I was looking for. Much appreciated!
 
Ahhh was wondering if you could get a 3.0tdi manual. Guess that’s a no then lol
 
Well I bought one and love it so far. Went for a 2.0 TDI. The only question I have so fast is to do with the throttle pedal, it seems to have a detent at the bottom that you can press through, can't quite tell if it does anything but if I had to guess its for the drive mode maybe?

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Well I bought one and love it so far. Went for a 2.0 TDI. The only question I have so fast is to do with the throttle pedal, it seems to have a detent at the bottom that you can press through, can't quite tell if it does anything but if I had to guess its for the drive mode maybe?

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Did you go for an auto? Mine has it it’s like a kick down, drops it a few gears without having to put it in sport mode etc


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Did you go for an auto? Mine has it it’s like a kick down, drops it a few gears without having to put it in sport mode etc


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Should have said in the previous post, it's a manual.

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Yeah mines a manual and also has this. I wonder if it releases a bit more power or turns the air on compressor off for optimum performance or something like that
 
Yeah mines a manual and also has this. I wonder if it releases a bit more power or turns the air on compressor off for optimum performance or something like that
I think it's for when you need to overtake quickly when you're in Efficiency mode, as you wont have time to switch into dynamic mode.
 
I think it's for when you need to overtake quickly when you're in Efficiency mode, as you wont have time to switch into dynamic mode.
I thought this might be the case. I will have a play about with it on the drive into work tomorrow. Thanks.

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The only question I have so fast is to do with the throttle pedal, it seems to have a detent at the bottom that you can press through, can't quite tell if it does anything..

I honestly have no idea what it could do on a manual TDI, but on the supercharged petrol (and I assume any automatic), it is a kickdown-style button that essentially does a full on Gladiator style "unleash hell".... but entirely through finding the lowest possible gear and allowing it to hold that gear into much higher revs...

It's most noticeable in Efficiency, where the DSG normally uses the diesel-like torque (same lb/ft as my old A4 V6 TDI) to short-shift to the point that you're in 5th at 25mph.... if you push your foot down until you hit that button it will instantly find the lowest gear it can on the other side of the gearbox... instantly shift to that.... and then shift down again if the side of the gearbox you were on had a lower gear still available in the rev range.

Normally efficiency changes up ~2500-3500rpm, depending on throttle position. Normal/Auto would shift up around 4000-6000rpm depending on throttle position... that button keeps it pinned until the gearbox map tells it that it would get more power to the wheel in a lower gear... in a standard map, I think that's just over 6000rpm... in a remapped car that holds boost pressure into the higher revs, that is ~7000rpm...
 
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Efficiency on mine is like pulling teeth. Dynamic is ok sport is best.

For me the a6 is a gt car and works best as a auto
 
My BiTDi rarely gets above 2k rpm unless angry mode is summoned. runs in efficiency mode with frequent dabs on the shift into Sport to invoke warp drive
 
Hoping someone can give me some guidance on the MMI system. Not sure exactly which one I have though it has the smaller screen with the black border and no sim slot, just the two sd car slots. Software version is RMC_EU_P12321.

Is it possible to update the firmware my self or does it have to be done by Audi? If I can do it where would I get the files?

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You could update the firmware yourself, but it's not going to give you anything, and if your car is under warranty it would invalidate the warranty on the MMI system. As you have the RMC system map updates can only be done by an Audi dealer.
 
You could update the firmware yourself, but it's not going to give you anything, and if your car is under warranty it would invalidate the warranty on the MMI system. As you have the RMC system map updates can only be done by an Audi dealer.
Thanks, I knew about the maps but not too fussed on updating those as using Waze on my phone is far more up to date anyway.

As for the firmware it's mostly to correct a couple of little bugs I have found, for example when streaming from my phone over Bluetooth the track time freezes randomly on the screen, doesn't stop it playing fine but it's annoying when it doesn't show its progress through the track. Features I had figured would not be added, this is Audi after all!

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My Bluetooth streaming does that too. It’ll just stop on one track and time frame and not go any further
 
My Bluetooth streaming does that too. It’ll just stop on one track and time frame and not go any further

Its this sort of thing I am hoping an update will fix.

If its something I can do myself, where would I find the update files? I understand it can take some time to install the updates (up to a couple of hours) is there anything I should be doing to avoid problems like bricking the MMI unit?
 
My Bluetooth streaming does that too. It’ll just stop on one track and time frame and not go any further
Sorry to drag up an old thread but I have fixed this issue (was the phone) so figured I would share the info to help.

If you are using Android it is a problem with the newer versions of Bluetooth profile for how it shares the meta data in a file over Bluetooth and the version on our cars.

Firstly you need to unpair on both the phone and car the Bluetooth connection, then delete the devices on each.

Go to settings, about phone, and tap 8 times on build version. This will unlock a developers menu in settings (may be under system menu on newer android versions).

In developers settings scroll down till you find "AVRCP Version" and the default will be 1.4, change it to 1.3.

Go back to the car and connect the phone again. This will set up the phone to use the slightly older version of AVRCP.

I did this a few days ago now and have driven five hours or so with no issues on the metadata showing since I changed this.

Hopefully works for you!

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Wish there was a fix for iOS devices like my iPhone lol
 
A quick Google shows the iPhone as only supporting version 1.6 and there is no way to "downgrade" to 1.3. Seems like on our RMC units that the extra data is confusing it. On the newer units which can display album art and all the other new features there are no issues.

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I've had two 65 plate C7 Avant Black Editions (190 TDi Ultra). The first was a manual, the second S-Tronic.

Having driven both, manual for 6 months before it was written off (it was parked up :( ) an now the auto for the last 118k, there is no way I would go back to a manual given the choice.

The auto is far more relaxing and surprisingly I manage a couple more mpg out of it (fill to fill measures). If you commute into or live in a city then Auto is definitely the way to go.

Will be sad to see mine go in the New Year

IMG 1434
 
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