My C5 RS6 Daytona Avant

Super Ron

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After 4 years of owning and modifying my C5 S6 i had an urge for something newer











The plan was to get a B7 RS4 Avant, i'd been looking at them for a while and had done hours and hours of research about them inside and out, had a few lined up to view once the S6 had gone. But as you can see from the title that didn't go to plan :lmao:

I sold my S6 on a Sunday morning, sitting in the garden Sunday afternoon, bank full of cash, flicking through ebay, the enevatable happeded... wow thats ****** cheap, might as well stick a bid on that..... few minutes later, Congratulations Super Ron, You have Won!

Ahh, looks like I've just bought the cheapest working RS6 in the country?!

My bid of £4,900 had just won me a 2004 Daytona Grey RS6 Avant!

119,000 miles, Big stack of history, recently had the cambelt and chains done, 4 new Avon ZZ5 tyres, New Battery, Alternator, PAS pump, and new selector switch on the gearbox. And MOT until 28th December. The DRC shocks had just been replaced with Koni shocks, and apart from them and the aftermarket headunit it is completely standard.

So... why was no one else bidding??.. It did have a few faults listed, it had some lights on the dash, headlight leveling error, parking sensors freak were intermittent, headliner was sagging down a bit, but the main one which scared people off it was it has a misfire on cylinder 6! He was moving to America and didnt have any more time to spend on it, his workshop and all his tools were already packed and heading over there so the Audi just had to go as it is.

After all the problems i encountered with my S6 i know the C5s inside out and pretty much nothing scares me. at the price i bought it i went there with the attitude this is an £8-9k car in perfect order, so i have £4k to spend on it before it becomes a bad idea!

I wasn't too worried about the engine misfire, i can sort that, the money reserved would no doubt be for a new gearbox when it wouldn't get out of his drive or something.

I did a little background on the car before i left, it has done very little mileage in the last 4 years with the present owner, barely covering 1k miles between MOTs. i asked the guy about it and it turns out he works abroad and the RS6 just sits out side his house most of the year and he just goes out for a blast when hes in the country. The pics did show this, the car was pretty filthy, the clocks showed the date of 2001 so the battery had obviously been flat and jump started and the fuel gauge was on red. had an inkling that the misfire could be purely down to the car just sitting there for for so long.

I packed my VAGCOM and took a coilpack with me and headed down to Haywards Heath to find out what i'd got involved with.

I met the owner Tom and he showed me around the car, nothing to hide, showed me everything what it, assured me the gearbox was perfect, he'd done all the service on the car himself. I plugged the vagcom in and did a full scan, because people do lie, computers don't, but sure enough everything checked out. Nothing had been wiped, it still had all the dormant codes from where the front end had been off for the serciving, the gearbox had the old code of the selector switch malfunction, apart from that the rest of the modules were clear. i checked the camshaft inclination with vagcom as this is a classic sign on the audi V's if someones just tipexed and wingged the timing marks with the cambelt replacement and they were withing in 0.5' of each other which is as perfect as you're gonna get, meaning he used all the correct audi locking tools for the job.

He also told me the reason he bought the car 4 years ago was he went out and watched the film Layer Cake, came home, on ebay, bought an RS6 with the visions of rolling up to the country club like in the opening scene! Legend!

So i was happy, Paid Tom, filled it right up with Shell Vpower and drove it 100 miles home. Enough talking, Here it is :)





































It drove fantastically! i was so impressed!! with 4 years driving the S6 as a daily driver i was expecting exactly the same but just with another 100bhp.

How wrong i was! i couldn't believe i was in a C5 Avant! it was completely different, the steering was totally different, it is a lot heavier, but also a lot quicker ratio and you can feel so much more of what the car is doing. the gearbox behaved totally different (even though its the same box as the S6??!) the response was instant, no delay, touch the throttle and instant acceleration. It has got Koni shocks but still has the standard RS6 springs and the handling is night and day over the S6 and that was on Eibach coilovers, it turns in so much tighter, powers out of the corners so much cleaner, it is amazing, and unbelievably it weighs more than the S6! and the power.............. WOW! the S6 was remapped, decatted and full stainless and was about 360bhp, but the RS makes it seem like a 36bhp! The S6 had very little power below 5k rpm, you always had to rev it to get it to go anywhere at speed, but this thing trys to wheelie from tickover, its such a massive difference.

As you can probable tell i love it!

The more i look around it the more gadgets i find! this thing must have been INSANE in 2004.

A brief spec off the top of my head, Daytona Grey pearl wide body, Silver (white) recaro interior, electric front seats, heated front AND rear seats, Alcantara roof lining and pillars, carbon fiber inserts everywhere, blinds that come out of the rear door cards and boot card, cup holders in the rear seat base, auto tining rear view mirror, electric folding heated and autotinting wing mirrors, full Bose sound system with sub and amp in boot, all the modules and aerials are still there for the origional headunit which has a TV tuner and GPS navagation and a 6disc autochanger, phone mount in the arm rest and the interface for a FAX MACHINE! Dual climate aircon, cruise control, flappy paddle gearchange, front and rear parking sensors, auto leveling xenon headlights with washers.....

all that and it does a sub 5 0-60!

Its got a full stack of paperwork with it, all the service history and receipts, its had a full gearbox rebuild and brand new torque converter 25k miles ago along with a new rear diff too. i've spoken to a friend of a friend who is a master tech at audi and hes getting me the full print out from when it was brand new with every entry on the database from the pre delivery inspection.

It needs some love, but I've done over 500miles in it now trouble free and i love it. the misfire is still there but only from stone cold, once it warms up there is no misfire at all, pulls well.....VERY well!

lots more updates to come so stay tuned :D
 
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Awesome! Look forward to the updates! Can’t believe that price!
 
As i said previously the car has spent the majority of its time over the last 4 years sitting outside the previous owners house while he worked abroad, and it hadn't had alot of love.





























So a deep clean was needed.

my first priority was to check out the scuttle, from previous C5 knowledge i know the drains can get blocked up and cause a whole host of electrical problems, as as suspected.... it was full of tree!







got the hoover out and sucked it all out



then washed it all down clean with a sponge and dried it up, fitted a new pollen filter whilst i was there too



i took all the covers and trims out and had a good poke around



new battery as he said and a full tool kit in the spare wheel well



still has the genuine Audi tyre pump



the Analogue TV receiver is still in the rear (still connects up to vagcom too!) and the 6cd changer, the parking sensor module is at the back there aswel



and the Bose Sub and Amp on the other side



i blew out the whole car with and airline and hoovered it out, and then washed all the shuts and blew out all the trims





















and fitted some new wipers to finish as they were a bit perished, (although unsurprisingly eurocarparts sent the wrong rear!)



still got the seats to do, but its looking alot better in there :)
 
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Looks like a lovely car - certainly the pinnacle of the evolution of the C5. I shall look forward to this thread progressing :thumbs up:
 
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Like a diamond. Love the alloys. Are they 18s or 19s? I think there was an option of two different sizes.
 
Today i sorted some problems. C5 problems rather than RS6 specific.

To the unit!



I noticed the other day my boot wasn't locking, the i could hear the central locking motor move, and vagcom was telling me it was closed and locked, but it would still open with the handle, took off the boot card to reveal this



Quick scan on ebay and there were a few on there, but a lot of them were also broken at this exact point. must be a common thing?! found one that was not broken for a whopping £13 delivered so had that sent over.

While the boot was apart i took off the rear panel to clean underneath it

Before



After



and the boot panel was heavily scratched



so gave it a 1200 wet flat



and machine polished up



and reinstalled the new latch, so now when the central locking motor moved in and out.... it was actually attached to something





next problem was one of the parking sensors was knackered. it would trip the parking sensors out everytime you went into reverse so the front or rear wouldn't work. Again VAGCOM to the rescue and told me which one was fauly, rear right (G206).

got one off ebay and has come Daytona Grey aerosol mixed up



next took the bumper off, luckily the Bose amp comes easily to uncover the bolts



and off it came, took the lights out too to clean behind them as well



much better



gave the rear lights a machine polish up



faulty sensor out



new sensor in



and back together looking much better



the whole car is in a pretty sorry state and needs full paint correction, i will be machine polishing it top to bottom, but i want to get the important jobs out the way first.

and the last job was the passenger side door handle was a bit snaggy and wouldn't register it was opening. I had this exact problem on my S6 so knew straight away what the problem was, new catch needed.

luckily there is a pretty awesome YouTube tutorial on hoe to do this very job on a C5! ;)



New catch



all fixed



celebrated with a wash :)



more to come tomorrow :)
 
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800 miles now completed and nothing has broken :) so I was happy to start investing some money in it.

I ordered up a full genuine engine and gearbox service kit from TPS





And needed front discs and pads. These were £1000 from TPS :eek: but a bit of searching online I found Zimmerman do replacements that are just as good as OE. a bit more searching over to Germany and Autodoc came up trumps at £180 a disc.



4 pads per caliper!



The centres are aluminium, but I wanted them to stay extra shiney so I got some caliper paint at the same time



All masked up



And coloured :)





Took it into work to use the ramp



Discs were dry and ready to go



Off with the old



And on with the new





Drained the engine oil and removed the sump to check for any sludge, but all was ok and has had regular oil changes



Cleaned the sump up



And refitted with new sump plug



And a new filter



Next onto the gearbox, dropped the sump





Filter was date marked 2012, that's when it was rebuilt. About 25k ago



Fitted the new filter



Cleaned up the gearbox sump and fitted new gasket



And filled the gearbox back up, from the bottom, great idea Audi?!



Moving back to the fuel filter, looks like the RS6 has an external fuel pump that the S6 didn't have



Had to drill the brackets out as the bolts were rusted solid





I hope that's an old stock fuel filter and not the original?!



And all back together with new bolts and clips



Now back up to the top



Genuine plugs out, genuine plugs in



Same with the air filters





Ran the gearbox up to temperature and filled to the level. (Yes you need a computer to check your gearbox oil)



Next did a full brake fluid change pumping a few litres through



And all finished



Got home to find my new led number plate lights had arrived



To replace the browns



Brown vs white



And full Colgate :)



The journey continues..... happily for now :D
 
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With the front brakes now looking nice and shiney the rears although barely worn were looking a little shabby.





Well done Audi for designing a carrier you can finally get the disc off with it in situ





I gave the bells a clean up in the sand blaster.





And masked up



And painted up with the caliper paint again





Checked the pistons were all free while I was here. I was going to paint the calipers, but it turns out they're both powder coated like the fronts, so just painted the carriers and polished up the calipers







 
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Another couple of problems addressed today

First off was the headliner, it was in the original for sale ad that the headliner was sagging, and now from further searching it seems a real problem with RS6's with the silver interior and cream Alcantara headlining. My S6 had black Alcantara roof and pillars (which I personally prefer) and the blacks dont have any problem with sagging, just the cream.







So started taking it out, was quite a job!



Had to take the glovebox and everything out to get to the wiring plug



Finally got it out!



All the foam had completely separated



So started scraping all the sticky foam off



Went to the shop and got a load of stickiness! I used the tin for the big flat areas and the spray glue for the edges



And stuck it all down





Will let that dry over night.

The next thing to tackle was the wheels. They weren't too bad on the outside, but the insides were very corroded and flaky







Loaded them up and took them to a mate at The Wheel Specialist





More action tomorrow :)
 
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Great thread and a whole lot of car for the money. Subscribed!
 
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I'm loving this thread and all the updates. I've had a long hankering for an rs6 of any generation and bottled buying secondhand this time around in favour of a warranty which meant settling for the rs6's smaller and less powerful baby brother. This is making me wish I time and space for a similar project but am really enjoying the vicarious journey, Thanks for taking the time to update and include so many pictures.
 
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Returned the next day and the glue was all dry, so battled gravity and got it back in




Its tricky arranging all the pillar trims back in, they all have little straps on to stop them going flying when the curtain airbags go off



Got it all back in eventually, sag free! Replaced the bulbs in the centre light as they weren't working.







Then went and collected the wheels, they did a knockout job as always!







Gave them a coat of protection inside and out



And back on





That's another few jobs ticked off :)
 
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Looking sweet! I reckon you've nearly doubled the price you paid already... Great car

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1500miles of daily use now complete and nothings broken :)

With the wheels now looking brand new the centre caps were looking a bit shabby



So ordered up a new set





And popped them on





 
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Pleased to report it's now covered 2000miles in daily use and no fatalities :) nothing has broken, nothing has gone wrong, successful motoring :)

 
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Why oh why. You made me look at eBay LOL

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Loved your S6 thread, loving your RS6 thread! Great work as always, proper lush motor
 
I'm pleased to announce I have now done 4000 miles in daily use.... and nothings broken!

Its been a great family car, it's been camping twice







Been to Legoland



And had a trip down to Brighton aswel.

And required nothing more than lots of fuel and lots of washes



Just running around and commuting it's still only doing 15-16mpg, but touring up and down the country on the holidays it was just getting 24mpg

As it's been so good and asked for nothing I got it into work and started tidying the bodywork up, I'll upload all the pics tomorrow :)
 
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I got the RS6 into work to attend to some bad paintwork that had been bugging me down the drivers side















There was flakey paint down the drivers side where it hadn't been prepped properly and none of the moldings or trims had been removed














So stripped it all down, properly, removing handles, mouldings, trims, roof rails etc





And did a couple of repairs that were Rippley








Stripped the rear bumper down, I had never noticed before but my rear vents were actually colour coded, they'd been painted on the car





Ready for primer





All primed and prepped














Daytona Pearl














Gun finish!






Painted the grilles gloss black before they went back in





We have the whole car a machine polish up to match the new paintwork








And fitted it all back up








Wheels off to refit the splash guards





Gave them a clean while they were off





And all finished :)




It doesn't look much different in the pictures but in real life it's like night and day! Looks better than new now :) :)
 
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A few from a local show to me. The RS6 got alot of attention even though it was a modified car show. The colour had really come alive now it's all polished up, the pictures dont do it justice it's so sparkly it's almost metal flake!





























 
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All has been good in RS6 ownership :)

No major problems, with the MOT due I decided to sort a few niggles, it had a cracked windscreen when I bought the car, side to side, but it was below the wipers in the black so it never really noticed.

Got a friend that has his own windscreen business and he sourced me a screen, the V8s have a different size screen to a normal A6 (of course) so big up Gold Winscreens for that!









Next I had a bit of a low speed knock on bumpy roads which turned out to be front top mount, so put a pair of Lemforder top mounts on



While it was up I thought I'd loosen off at the adjustable rear suspension bolts ready to get a wheel alignment..... snap *******!



I had the same problem on my S6 too. So I knew what I needed and a reasonable order at TPS



And cut the old ones out





The rear top mounts were toast too



And all back together





Then had it all set up with a 4 wheel alignment.



Then a good wash





And an MOT pass :) :)

 
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With the new RS6 getting a bit of coverage recently I was only just wondering how you were getting on with this. As I've commented before I have very much enjoyed the vicarious journey. Cracking car and really can't think of much/anything value for money wise that would top it for the rs6 legendary status and practicality. If I had the time, equipment and skills I'd quite enjoy restoring the factory feel too! I spend too long on ebay after reading you updates...
 
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Just found this thread, you should be up held for saving a true modern classic.

Great read and a proper job too. Well done.
 
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1500miles of daily use now complete and nothings broken :)

With the wheels now looking brand new the centre caps were looking a bit shabby



So ordered up a new set





And popped them on





AWESOME Thread, just catching it all up now. Some skills you have I have to say :greyrs4:
 
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This has been a great post and has given me confidence in looking at the sub £8k RS6. I’ve been doing a similar job on my Nissan 300zx (UK manual) but was a little worried about taking on this kind of project for the RS6 but after reading this I think, if I can pick one up at the right price, I should be fine.
 
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Great write up and love what you've done. I had my C5 RS6 for 7 years and still miss it despite having a B8 RS4. Mine was a 2004 and the performance and technology it had at the time was fantastic but for me it was its sheer presence. Understated with being debadged and black optics but the number of people that would compliment it was incredible. Enjoy it for however long you decide to keep it.
 
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Thanks everyone, glad you're enjoying it.

The RS6 has made an appearance in my latest video, check it out :thumbs up:

 
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Wow. Watching the YouTube, I instantly recognised the unit. I remember following the migweb thread of your life.....

The memories of years gone by....

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Wow. Watching the YouTube, I instantly recognised the unit. I remember following the migweb thread of your life.....

The memories of years gone by....

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Its amazing how many people I cross paths with from the Migweb era! You did well to recogonise the unit, it looks a bit different to how it did back then :joycat:

I've done a recent video on a tour of the workshop. There is sure to be some things you remember :smirk:

 
Yep. It was the doors. You've painted the walls and floor, but those doors haven't changed. I even remember the little dirt track that sits just outside of those doors.
It brought the memories flooding back. Everything. Stuff like you getting a job at Felixstowe, getting married, having a kid. Even the little pit bike 110cc...

Did you snap the frame on it?

Love the good old days!!!!

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Yep. It was the doors. You've painted the walls and floor, but those doors haven't changed. I even remember the little dirt track that sits just outside of those doors.
It brought the memories flooding back. Everything. Stuff like you getting a job at Felixstowe, getting married, having a kid. Even the little pit bike 110cc...

Did you snap the frame on it?

Love the good old days!!!!

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Haha wow you do have a good memory! Yes that's right, had a pit bike, put a 22bhp 160cc race engine in it and snapped the frame on a big jump! Got married, had 2 kids, they're going to be 11 and 8 this year! :blink: got divorced a couple of years ago so now it's gone full circle and I'm back down the unit playing with cars :icon thumright:

Have been really gearing up getting the workshop cleared up the last year to go full on youtube, while the kids are at school I get a good 5hours a day to play down there so was going to be like the old rc days, big progress and lots of it! But with the schools shut for now and no free time the units been put on pause temporarily :grumpy:

So everyone, make sure you subscribe and once lockdown is over it's full steam ahead
:rockwoot:
 
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Can't wait. It'll be a good channel....

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Super Ron, I’m hoping that I might be buying a C5 RS6 within the next week. Could you tell me more about the vagcom and where I might get what I need for it to talk to a 2004 RS6 please?
 
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