Looking at changing from A4 avant to A6 avant Le Mans!

[Funkyfin2000]

Hi all,

Currently have an A4 avant 2004 Quattro and fancy an A6 Le Mans. Probably a 3.0 although open to information on any differences between the 2.7 and 3.0.

I've picked up that manual will be cheaper tax and also 2009 cars onwards are advised...

Any other hints and tips would be great!

Rich

 

[AUDIQS]

Well lush had a brand new 2008 when mine was in for warranty it was audi's managers car only had it for a week it was top spec le-mans it was a I want if had the money but now they are going a little cheaper good luck finding one.

 

[Jeffers]

Will keep an eye on this as its same story for me looking for a6 avant an swaying to either the 2.7-3.0

 

[hades-]

i drove 2 last week
and settled for the B8 A4

 

[Funkyfin2000]

Interesting....I'm looking - 2009 really if possible!

 

[Springer*]

Looks like I'm not on my own here.

The A6 is growing on me all the time and I like the understated looks of the saloon. I suppose I also think that pretty much everyone has the A4 and I'd like to be a little bit different.

The A4 I'm sure is the more sporty chassis and will be more of a sporty drivers car in S-Line spec with a more powerful engine, but I'm sure an A6 in the right spec could also be nice to drive and serve up the odd thrill or two with a dollop more refinement. As ever, I need to drive all of them before I make my choice.

Whilst the V6s sound really great, I may opt for a 2.0 TDi 170 and remap it but I'd be interested to see how the resultant torque delivery affected the handling and the life of the front tyres. Also I'd be interested to hear what people pay for the timing belt services on these engines.

It'd be interesting too to see how the 2.0 handles compared to the heavier V6s.

From what I've seen the 2.7 and 3.0 are very similar engines in that they are both V6s and are chain driven (i.e. not timing belts that need changing every 4 or 5 years). The 3.0 has a larger capacity and I'm sure has a larger turbo.

Both engines appear to have been updated in/around late 2008 and are much improved from this date onwards giving more power, lower emissions, better economy and improved reliability.

From 2008 the A6 has the updated user interface with the bigger colour screen. The rest of the interior was given an update too around this time.

I've read of numerous owners of both engines having covered mileages of in excess of 160,000 so these things can hack the higher mileages.

Problems seem to involve failing gearboxes so oil changes of the box itself are recommended.

Dual mass flywheels can also give up the ghost after 100-140k miles and these cost upwards of £1000 to replace.

Turbos often pack up beyond 100k miles but I'm sure this is due to the usual diesel traits of sticking vanes and becoming sludged up. Cleaning/servicing of the EGR valve and intake manifolds is really important. Personally I'd blank off the EGR as soon as the warranty expires and have it mapped out to avoid future problems.

I've also heard of the odd timing chain tensioner issue here and there which isn't too costly to fix provided its spotted early.

Apart from this then there's just the typical Audi electrical gremlins that crop up here and there.

The manual gearboxes are pretty rare on the V6s as most people seem to like an auto in this class. The manuals give better economy and lower CO2 emissions though.

That's pretty much all I've gleaned from my research on these cars so far so I hope this is of use. I'm sure if I'm talking ****** on anything here I'll be put straight soon enough

All in all most people seem happy with the A6 and those that complain about having had problems could've avoided them with a bit more car knowledge and by using this site! Also, some of the dealers don't sounds like they are much cop.

Hope you manage to source something nice pretty soon that works for you.

J

 

[elan2s]

If possible go for a 2009 onwards version as it will be a facelift model, easily identified on the saloon as it has the rear LED lights that are partially on the boot lid, on the Avant more difficult but Sat Nav unit (if fitted, which on a f/l Le Mans is fairly likely) in the glove box is another indicator. Depending on precise age of the car, towards the end of the C6 life Audi dropped the "Le Mans" tag replacing it with "Special Edition", but the equipment remained the same. The 2.7 and 3.0 engines are essentially the same engine, again those on the facelift will have many of the earlier issues sorted out (swirl flaps being one problem) and thus more reliable. For the 2.0 TDi, face lift cars have the Common Rail engine rather than the PD engine and this is much more reliable. The PD engine suffered a number of problems including failing turbos. With the Le Mans spec you only have the option of the higher powered 2.0 engine as the 136bhp version, known as TDie, was not available with Le Mans spec.

As already stated manual V6 cars are very rare, so much so that Audi no longer even offers them as an option on the C7.

On the facelift model the MMI system was upgraded and with Sat Nav there are 2 versions (both full colour and pan-European), one DVD based (although towards the end of production this became SD card based) and the other hard disk based. Hard disk cars are easy to spot as they have a small joystick type device in the top of the MMI controller and also offers 3D mapping and a larger MMI screen. On all facelift cars if you want to upgrade the Sat Nav data it requires a trip to the dealer as the latest versions of the mapping data are protected.

If you end up looking at a pre-facelift Avant check the rear washer works properly and that there has been no water ingress in the LH bin in the boot where the MMI controller and Sat Nav are located. Also check that the Bluetooth system works properly as the controller is under the passenger seat and can also get wet if the washer pipe comes apart under the floor. Both these can be expensive to fix

 

[far2tall]

I just bought a September 2008 3.0 Avant Le Mans and it is a lovely car. After a fair bit of research all the points elan2s made above were valid but check out what you're buying and you should be ok. …thats what I'm telling myself anyway!

 

[deanosabby]

The only difference between the 2.7 and 3.0 is the crank which raises the CR giving more power and capacity. All the other hardware is exactly the same.

 

[Tinytim]

Picking up a 10 plate Le Mans at the weekend. I'll get some pics up.