My new C5 S6 Avant - V8 family car

Was looking really well mate! Shame about the wheels, would offer you the spares off my B5 but they're 16's too not sure if PCD is the same mind. Hope you get it sorted mate!
 
Illegal immigrants must be made to fill a thousand pot holes before being deported.
 
Got a letter through from the Highway Authority this morning, the opening paragraph read as follows :rolleyes:



i went past the hole today and its already tarmaced over already so i'm glad i got the photos on the day. i will be putting through the claim, sending all the pictures and getting written quotes for repairs to put in with the claim form too. hopefully it'll work out, but i've got nothing to loose doing it anyway.

which leads to the problem of now. i cant drive it around on the spacesaver for the risk of blowing up the gearbox so its been stranded on the driveway since saturday.

did a bit of ebay tracking over the weekend and.........................................



:)



sadly the boxes were worth more than the wheels :lmao:



Won a set of 4 8x19" RS6 reps for ..... £79 :)



Now they are pretty tatty, one has a little crack, and they are quite flakey paint





but they were £79 lol. i have a set of 235 35 19 tyres i took off my white one before i put the pirelli pzeros and they have a bit of life in them, but at least they will get me back on the road. i will weld the crack up tomorrow and give them a good pressure wash off. ideally they all need shot blasting as they have ALOT of layers of paint on them and they are quite flakey, but just need them on for now to get my car back.

They are only ET40 which is for standard size A6s with no bubble arches, so not only will they sit in the arches along way, they probably wont clear the front brakes, which is giving me the hassle.

Last week (before the pothole incident) i wont a set of 15mm spacers and longer bolts (and longer locking wheel bolts) which i planned on trying on the 20s to make them fill the arch a bit better



Standard RS6 offset is ET29 i think, and ET40 + 15mm spacers will take it to ET25, so they should look the part.

More tomorrow :)
 
it was time to dig out the TIG, not been uncovered in years :eek:



and welded up the crack, nothing amazing but its welded back up



ground it all down and filed it flat on the inside and you cant even tell :)



the insides of the wheels were so flakey there was no chance of getting any wheel weights to stick, so got the wire wheel out and stripped the insides, also did the lips as the tyres had no chance of sealing



the front faces are now only holding on by a whisker :lol:



just aresoled the insides quickly for some cover



i've never seen rep's be so honest lmao



Dug out the Michelin Piliot Sports i took off the white one, they've still just got enough life in them



and went and had the tyres put on, the one with the weld needed ALOT of weights

 
bit of comparison shots 9x20s ET35









very close on the front calipers



The front discs don't have any securing screws so its a ****** to get the wheels on, and now with the spacers i will need to get the hub, disc, spacer, and wheel all to stay in line, no chance, so dug out the audi dowels :cool:



spacers on



and wheel on



on to the rears, spacers on



wheels on



i was surprised how much of a difference there was in overall diameter, this is where it caught the arch before



they look a little lost



8x19s ET25, i thought they'd stick out alot more than they do, less than the 20s





and all on. i'm a little surprised by the front rake, as i set the coilovers perfectly arch to floor all the way round, which shouldn't have changed







more room to the calipers



and home again



do look a little small :/ but at least i'm back on the road :) :) :)

 
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HI there. I have enjoyed reading your post. I have a Audi S6 Avant and Ive had it 5 years, nearly 6 and I have loved driving it for the last 100,000 miles, its my daily drive. Mine is standard, better exhaust but thats it. It will looking boring to you guy as its standard suspension, standard alloys, standard brakes.
Think I ought to upgrade a few things.
 
jclc84 said:
HI there. I have enjoyed reading your post. I have a Audi S6 Avant and Ive had it 5 years, nearly 6 and I have loved driving it for the last 100,000 miles, its my daily drive. Mine is standard, better exhaust but thats it. It will looking boring to you guy as its standard suspension, standard alloys, standard brakes.
Think I ought to upgrade a few things.
Click to expand...

Its good to hear that these CAN be used as a daily ride. This has fairly low mileage and a fair few owners so it looked like people bought it, found it too expensive and moved it on :blink:

This will be a long termer for me now i've done all the LPG and bits. Its a great family car, lots of room, big spec, and i don't do an enormous amount of miles so the economy isn't a major factor. :)
 
It has been a brilliant car, never let me down. it took me around France (1500miles) the other week and didn't miss a beat. I managed 350ish on full tank. If we wanted 50 mpg we would of bought a diesel.
Im the second owner, lucky. Being my daily car it does eat tyres (Tyre prices have come down no end on these 255 35 18) & brakes, servicing isn't overly cheap, also it loves to eat control arms but I do believe it is down to the rubbish roads we drive on in the uk.
 
Can I ask you about your brakes & suspension? Your calipers look completely different to my one? also have you gone for a coil over? if so what make etc. Im wanting to replace my suspension as I want it a bit lower. Looks rather high after new standard shock were fitted last month.
Here a photo to show you what standard new S6 suspension looks like. TERRIBLE RIGHT
IMG 0922
 
These are so understated cars in standard form, who'd imagine the above has monster spec inside and a fire-breathing V8 quattro underneith. if you didn't notice the arches it could be mistaken for a basic spec.

Mine has Eibach coilovers fitted and Porsche 18z (i think) front cailipers with 350mm Mercedes discs. coilovers are a smidge on the hard side but not crashy in the slightest, very good quality (and it running pretty low!). Brakes are amazing :)

I only do about 10k miles a year any 80% is spent doing faimily duties, but it is very nice in that 20% to have something that can really stretch its legs! :blackrs4:
 
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I agree, l still get asked "what is it" its a v8 that will rev to 7000rpm, at 6000 to 7000rpm is sounds like a fighter jet coming pass.
someone once said "its a super car with labradors in the boot" not sure who said that, it was an old review about it.

my brakes are ok, the stop well, just look a little small. but disk & pads from Audi are £460 so god know much it would cost for bigger ones.
 
While I've been testing the lpg i'd been just putting in drips and drabs testing checking leakage ect. i eventually topped the tank right full to see what mileage i could get on a tank...... and i only got 140 miles to a tank :eek: i'd done a few long runs and that works out at about 7mpg average!!

At first i thought it was massively overfuelling, so checked the mapping and all pressures were ok. and nothings leaking. i couldn't work it out until i filled the tank from empty and only could get 50 litres in it. :confused: it should hold 75-80 litres.

i eventually tracked the problem down and found that the level sender ballcok not only provides the level gauge, but when it reaches a full level it shuts off the intake pipe. i have an over-tall 300mm tank but only a standerd 250mm sender unit so the ball **** reached 250mm and shut off the intake pipe, but i still had 50mm worth of tank to go.

i got onto them and explained and they sent a extra tall one straight out :)

luckily i could get to the sender with the bumper still on



and out



you can see the difference between the two floats





and all back in



went and filled it back up and got a full 76 litres in :) and a full fuel level indicator :)



will see how long this lasts.....
 
this has the super cool RNS-E Audi headunit fitted but the disc was a bit dodgy so hadn't actually used the sat nav yet, just the radio and dvd player



spotted someone on the forum doing them and got a up to date 2015 disc which includeds speed cameras now too :)



pretty good!



all comes up on the speedo display too which is handy (forgive the pixleated-ness)



as the sun was out gave it another wash, its getting a bit of a regular thing with a black car! :lol:



























I'm now getting some love for the S6. When i first got it i wasn't overly impressed by the performace or handling. Coming from my white A4 which i had spent a fortune on suspension upgrades getting it to drive perfect, the 4.2 didn't feel 'that' much better than the 3.0.

Setting up the coilovers and having the wheel alignment done made a huge difference. it was like i drove out a completely different car.
Then after the pot hole incident destroying a wheel i fitted the other wheels with Michelin Pilot Sports on and wow what a difference performance rubber made!

With the wheel alignment pointing all the wheels in the same direction, and the tyres sticking to the road its amazing the difference its made. you can throw it into a corner now and thrash it round the country side. it turns in tight to corners, doesn't understeer in anymore, just grips and goes. Before it was a straight line blaster but now it goes just as well through the bends too :) it still has a bit of roll but i think a RS6 rear ARB will help that. it worked wonders on my old one :) 80mph roundabouts are definatly not strangers now ;)

On top of the handling, it definatly goes alot better too. i think because I'd had all the inlets off, cleaned and flushed, the new bigger bore exhaust etc, the car was settling in and all the ecu's were resetting themselves and adapting. The lpg ecu was also adapting itself too.

Now i'm pleased to report it goes like stink :) on my old a4 there was a little drop in performance on lpg, not alot, but you could notice it between lpg and gas. Now this is all set up i cant tell if its running on lpg or petrol. also, older lpg injectors are clicky solenoids and are quite noisy, but these are silent.

Maybe i'll have to stick it on the rollers one day :)
 
Todays little task spiraled...............................

So to set the scene, bit of a yarn, The setup of the i.c.e. is there is a standalone DVD player in the glovebox runs the two screens in the headrests. it sends image and sound to them and the sound can be picked up via wireless headphones from the screen. The Audi headunit in the front doesn't have a video input as such, but it does have a TV input from back in the analogue days you could watch T.V, so theres a little mimic module that takes the dvd player output and turns it into a analogue tv signal and sends it to the Audi headunit and you can watch it on the front screen and sounds come out of all the speakers. On most VAG's when you turn the ignition on, the radio comes on, and when you turn the ignition off the stereo stays on UNTIL you take the key out of the ignition.
The DVD player and screens are on just a normal ignition live, turn the key in the ignition and they come on, turn it off and they go off. As you'd expect. A few problems with this 1, when you turn the ignition on and set up the dvd player for the kids, get it all in the right place and screens on, go to start it and it cuts the ignition live whilst cranking and then fires back up once its started, resetting the dvd player and screens all off. and 2, when you pull into the petrol station with the wife and kids and turn the igintion off every thing turns off, if they want to continue watching while i fill up then you have to have the full ignition on, blowers, full car electrics etc etc, plus it all resets when you go to start up again as in number 1.

So an easy solution hopefully, just run the dvd player off the same ignition live as the stereo (famous last words)

so turned this



into this



heres the anologue tv mimicer and all the dvd gubbings



after alot of searching i couldnt find any ignition lives behind the radio that stay on with the key in the barel, about an hour later i had a bit of a google and it turns out audis of this age and newer dont have an ignition live to them, they just have a big power and earth and everything else is controlled by CANBUS, thats what holds it on after the ignition is turned off. ******! i searched everywhere behind the dash for a key linked ignition live. no such luck :(

so then had to venture the other side



i figured even the CANBUS need to know the key is still in the ignition somehow so when right back to the source, the ignition barrel. and found a tiny little wire that did indeed have 12v with the ignition and didnt turn off intill the key was removed, and didnt cut out whilst cranking. finally!

the wire was pretty small and i can only imagine it goes straight to the central control module to give it a signal. so relays needed. when breaking previous audis i always cut out bits like the fusebox and relays incase i need them.



i found the same empty holes in my fusebox



so the plug slotted straight in the back



and an officail Audi TV relay slotted in



activated by tapping into the little feed in the back of the ignition barrel



So now i can drive up to the petrol pumps with everything playing, turn the ignition off but leave the keys in the ignition and everything carrys on playing with out disruption, fill up, come back in and start it up, again without disruption, and drive away with two happy kids :)

so with the ign off but key still in, dvd stays playing



horray, something that no one else will ever notice just taken 5 HOURS!!!! but at least the kids are happy :lol:

my mate turned up in his tdi work bus so too a few pics for comparison







 
Hi Super Ron, Got to say this has been a brilliant thread - I look in every day to see if you've added something. For all the interesting info though, I think most of all I'd like to know how you've found the time to do so much in such a short time!
I would love to run an S6 or even an RS6 but simply couldn't afford to run them - my 3.0litre is bad enough. I'm not sure I would want to do an LPG conversion but admire the fact that you have.
For what it's worth I think yours looks much better with the five spokes, but each to their own.
Correct me if I'm wrong here as I'm certainly no expert, but I was always under the impression that the A6 never got CanBus until the C6 chassis. Mine's a late 2003 and I'm sure it isn't CanBus - backed up the fact that my VagCom, which isn't CanBus compatible, works fine.
Keep the posts (& great pictures) coming. I look forward to hear what you're doing next.
 
Thanks for your reply and glad you enjoy it. The C5 section certainly isn't as busy as the B6 section was, there was more comments with updates!

I am very lucky with my job that i get paid alot of money and get alot of time off. I'm a crane driver for the docks and i work 4 shifts on, 4 shifts off. so every week i have 4 and a half days off :) it used to be i had 4 days down the workshop a week doing projects and conversions, but since the kids came along its more 3 days with the family and 1 sneaking down the workshop.

i had LPG on my previous A4 3.0 and it did 40k trouble free miles with me very happily. There are pros and cons with it, the biggest con is the installation costs, but for me its not a factor as i do all the work myself, as youve seen.

Wheel wise the RS6 5 spokes have grown on me, i think its the OEM design that just works. They do however struggle to fill the monster arches, and after 20s they do look small and thin. i am looking for another S5 wheel to get the 20s back on, but who knows what the future holds.

And finally yes these do have canbus. not as 100% controlling like the newer ones that are complete canbus controlled but the c5 is still covered in it.
 
Well got a letter through from Highways England today :) saying we have received your form and it will take 56-90 days to process, please do not contact us before this time :lol:

so guess i'll forget about that for a few months!

in other news i have been searching for another 20 and tyre for ages. unsuccessfully. the closest i got was i found the exact same wheel (size and offset) but it had a different sized tyre on it, it it was painted graphite, and he still wanted £250 for 1! i'd been looking at genuine ones too but the problem with that is genuine S5 ones ( theres no such thing as a genuine 20inch rs4 wheel this shape) are et29 and mine are et35. the othet problem is the standard size for a S5 is 265/30 and im running 245/35.
The next though was to buy a pair of genuines to put on the back and keep mine on the front, stagered stance like i had on my white one. but genuines are going for £300+ each without tyres!!
Full set of genuine ones go for £1200-1800 second hand. A single one new from audi is over £700 +VAT!!

i pondered about my options and thought if i was to find the matching gunmetal one for £250ish.. and i planned to referb all of them as the rest are cerbed to **** for 350-400ish, what else was possible......

when i stumbled across a set of 4 brand new genuine audi S5 9x20 et29 8T0601025L wheels, never even had tyres fitted.... for 700quid cash!! :eek: a deal was done and i plan to pick them up friday :) :)

i dont have any good pics of them but these are the same genuine S5 20s. alot more curved and concave than mine



they are the same 9x20inch as mine, but these are et29 where as mine are et35, and extra 6mm out each side. i did want to space mine out a bit as they sat in a bit before



but i knew the tryes were pretty close and wasnt sure on clearence.
i had some old calibra spacers down the unit so sived through and found some 6mm ones and stuck a pair of 20s back on. making them et29 9x20 wheels the same as the new ones, so i could see if 245/35 tyres still fitted.





they fill the arches loads better now





but i think its gonna be a bit close on the front



i jacked up the drivers side rear and parked up on a lump to get (nearly) full compression and its on the arch on lock



may have to reconcider the front tyre choice. i will get a pair of premium 245/35 for two on the rears, try them on the front and see if they catch then decide what to put on the fronts.
 
I've been having a few problems with the wipers stopping, they've always been slow, but since we've had a few showers they keep tripping out mid sweep, then if you turn the ignition off and on again they spring back into life.



so started stripping it out and what an ******** of a place



after a quick internet search i found you have to disassemble the motor from the mechanism before you can get it out, finally



the drivers side spindle was sieezed solid, i couldnt even move it with my hands, god knows how the motor was struggling, no wonder it was slow.

lots of w.d and hammering i eventually got it out,



lots of grease packed in and reassembled and these are now the fastest wipers i have ever had :lol: even on slow speed they fly, on fast its just a blur, bring on a tsunami!

This afternoon was wheels o'clock :) The wheels were in Coventry, 150 miles away from me in Suffolk, we got talking and he said he comes down to Brentwood, Essex every 3 odd weeks, only 60 miles from me. He said he wasn't coming this week but his mate was so could meet him at his house in Brentwood and collect them. Phoned his mate when i was 30mins away and he had stopped in a pub down the road. So the whole transactions of a load of cash and a set of wheels took place in a pub car park, dodgiest looking deal ever :lmao:

but here they are, a ligit, prestine, brand new and genuine Audi S5 9x20 ET29 8T0601025L wheels :cool:









so much dish :)





Now i always thought the 20s on it were pretty dam good reps (one of the best i'd seen anyway) but quite alot of difference next to the real deal











and shows how 'flat' the ones off my A4 were



can't wait to get them on :cool: need to go tyre shopping now

 
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i cept getting a secondry air injection code popping up about once a week, at first i thought it was just because they were working overdrive to feed the cats that arent actually there. After a bit of research i spotted that spit vacuum pipes can cause this code.

so i had a check and sure enough



replaced that so hopefully no more trouble there. i gave the whole vacuum circuit a check for other leaks and it all looked ok.

something i did spot though was it looked like the 3 stage variable inlet wasnt piped up correctly. These V8s have a load of flaps in the inlet that move depending on rpm



but both mine were connected to the same solonoid. a quick look on buildbase. Blue is vacuum from the inlet to both solenoids, then one solenoid opens the line up for one flap arm in red and the other solenoid opens up for the other flap in green.



Mine however is plumbed in so both flap plungers are run off one solenoid in red. Then the other solenoid opens a flap in the airbox to let 'hot air' into the airbox, in brown.



more like the 3.0s



this is the said airbox flap the brown goes to



asked around a bit on the audi forum and was shown this:

Intake air changeover valve -N335
Vacuum diagram of solenoid valves -N156 and -N335

1 - Solenoid valve for intake manifold with changeover function -N156. Actuation for both vacuum units at intake pipe
2 - Intake air changeover valve -N335. Actuation for the flap in air filter
a - T-piece for the vacuum supply of solenoid valve-N156
b - Vacuum pressure supply from intake pipe
c - Vacuum pressure hose to flap in air filter
d - T-piece for the vacuum supply of solenoid valve-N156
e - T-piece for the vacuum supply of solenoid valve -N335 and the vacuum reservoir
f - Vacuum line to vacuum reservoir



exactly what mine is, even down to where the joiners and everything is.

so looks like the S6 'only' has a 2 stage inlet, not 3 stage. I'll survive lol!

the other day i found some chrome indicator bulbs i bought for the A4 but never got round to fitting them. so as the airbox was out i thought i'd detango the front.

before, orange glow



bulbs



and nice and clear



and of corse still flash very orange :)

 
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audi upgrades
To complement the earlier wiper spindle referb i got some new blades as the old ones were pretty shot. Bosch AreoTwin



old ones



new ones, these are now the best, fastest wipers i have ever had :cool: :lol:



And had a little delivery this morning, there has been a little delay as with all theis Calais ciaos theres a setback with them coming from france, much to the little ones excitement of having two big drums!



the best of the best :) Michelin pilot super sports!



so loaded up and headed to my mate to slip them on, 20s with rubber bands and he fitted them like they were just a set of 13s :) i got the other two origionals balanced up too



so much difference :)



the Mitchelins have got one hell of a rim protector, even with the stretch (these should have 265/30s standard, ive fitted 245/35s) they stil well protrude the rim





as good as this is for the rim, it worried me about fitting the things, these are 6mm wider offset than my old ones, and the tyres are alot wider total width... worried.

so whipped off the old 19s (they are starting to grow on me actually)



and on with the new 20s



not alot of room on the front lol



the E29s



the E35s



put them both on one side, and the old 20s on the other side







worryingly close at the front



rears are ok and looking good

 
So then took it for an absolute hoon round the countryside, a real hoon, like a 25 mile, 6mpg hoon :lmao: :lol: wanted to see if and where it would touch, long bends with bumps, humbacked bridges the lot.

got back and looked for whitness marks, i couls here the front touch on the biggest bumps but surprisingly it wasn't too bad.

The brake dust alreaddy!! ****** 6pots lol







and looked in the arch liner and it is just touching, its only on high speed bumps hence why its melted



i think i am going to be able to get away with 245s on the front, i really dont want to stretch it to 225/40s and i think that would look silly on this. if i trim the arch liner a bit and maybe roll the lip it should be ok, and look bad *** :cool:

so for now ive put the two new ones on the rear and the old ones on the front. will get another pair of tyres ordered (ouch)







:)
 
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I'm not usually a fan of those style of wheels, especially on the 'older' style cars, but I think you've rewritten the rule book a bit there! The well calculated offset helps I think, it looks great.

:salute:
 
audi upgrades
few more purchases. the air con had stopped working so i vagcom'd it and it came up the with the pressure sensor. so made good use of the GSF 35% off weekend and got a Hella one



the book says you need to take the front bumper off, but with some slim arms you can get to it 'just' through the foglight hole and beside this trim



but alas it was the wrong one :(



took it back to GSF and they had three listed for the A6/S6, all different :( went to euro car parts too and they have the same sensors, not the same as mine. even when you put that part number in their system it comes up with that long sensor. TPS are £60 so that might be the only option if i cant find one online..

Also bought a trailer module so i can wire up my tow bar electrics without upsetting the bulbwarning/canbus system.



emptied the bank account again on tyres, got two more Michelin Pilot supersports



also got a set of new tyres for a car trailer im building, slight difference lmao



and went and got them all fitted



i got this liquid gold stuff £20 for this little bottle, on the high recommendation of DaveB's thread,



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 :)
 
sneaked out for a couple of hours to get onto the front wheels :)

the wheels are the same 20x9j 245/35 20 as the old ones, but a 6mm wider offset and with the rim protector, alot wider tyre.

heres the old ET35 tucked in



and heres the ET29 poked



on the last test session there was some scrubbing on extreme cornering



melting infact



so out came the saw and took out the fouling lip



theres nothing right above it and the wings are aluminum so wont rust, the front and rear are still protected by the splash guards and the bottoms are open by the skirts so anything water or dirt that does spash up there will just fall out the back and not get trapped

i wanted to roll the arches too so got the old tools of the trade out



and rolled the lip round too



whilst leaving the outside still completely smooth and no cracked paint



wheels on, and these do seem to show off the brakes a little better :)



but boy is it close!!



went round to the other side and i hadnt actually tried a new ET29 on this side yet, but there was still signs of a scrub from the ET35s where id been doing some extreeme roundabout turns :cool:



chopped the same



i was a bit worried about rolling the arches on this side as i knew the front was still full of filler from where it cracked before when the old wheel hit it, and the paint job was a bit pants with the lips being in primer still



it didnt roll to bad, cracked the paint a bit at the back, but nothing major, this side does need painting eventually with the cracked filler anyway

 
and home :)

















not sure if i am going to have to raise it up a bit or not yet. it is mega close! but drove about 10 miles, duel carriageway and countryside and didnt hear any scraping, even with a long sweeping roundabout. will check in a few days to see whats touching.

i got a mate to do do a 3 point turn in it at the end of his close and i had no idea how ****** slammed it is!! it looked like a touring car with the front wheel right up in the arch, looked awesome and amazingly doesnt look like it touches at all. The test will be a long sweeping high speed bend and hit a bump on the outside. will wait and see.

i need to seriously think about changing brake pads too, this is 10 miles of dust on the brand new spotless wheels!



but i'm happy :)

 
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I have no words for how cool those arches are...
 
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I'm really happy how its all worked out and come together. the wheels and arches do really compliment each other.

i may still need to raise it up a bit, but so far no problems and a whole lot of awesomeness :rock:
 
The weather's been pretty grotty lately resulting in a filthy car, espically the front wheels and the brake dust out of the 6 pots is immense





i thought it would be a good chance to see how good this carbon collective shabam is, i used the pressure washer only and did the bottom half, it went ok, not as good as i was hoping though



it only took a wipe to get it off, but just the pressure washer didnt get as much as i was hoping.



on previous cars i was just a kind of flood it with wheel acid and pressure wash off, not much of a scrubber. was hoping the muck would just pressure wash off with this sealer underneith.

the good thing about the 20s is you can get your arms through the spokes and clean the insides whilst still on the car :lol:

but all clean again for now :)







:)
 
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Interesting thread Ron, I'm another S6 owner, and also in Suffolk. I've had mine 18 months now and have covered nearly 2K miles in it, it's now nudging 145K overall. I too had mine converted to LPG, and again with an LPGTech kit, I suspect from the same supplier as you. I too went for the big tank, found it wouldn't fit, and unlike you went for a smaller tank that would fit! I find I get 19mpg overall driving relatively sensibly much of the time, with the odd burst for overtaking and taking mugs from the lights, considering the cost of LPG I'm quite happy with driving such a comfortable and luxurious car that does 38mpg! I've had a few issues, within a couple of weeks I smashed a wheel as you did in one of the potholes that litter our beautiful roads. In fact I'm beginning to see some parallels with your car......
Mines nowhere near as clean, runs on stock rims, stock suspension, at present it's awaiting some new rear shocks and a couple of other bits to solve some knocks and clunks, It's been a bit of a never ending theme chasing suspension issues on this car, I'm convinced it's a combination of the cars harder sports ride and dealing with it's own weight on our horrendous roads. C'est la vie.
I'm sure I'll think of more to mention in due course.
 
So far nothing touching at the front at this level, but the rears are. you cant hear anything but the tyre gell is rubbed off when then the boots full.

whipped the rear wheels off to investigate and it had been wearing through the carpet :lol:



so got the scissors out



but ended up taking that little strip off as it flapped a bit. all sits nice and tight against the inner arch.



same on the other side





while the rear wheels were off i sealed them up with the carbon collective stuff as i had only done the fronts



gave them two coats this time



also while the back end was up in the air was the rear of the skirts get ALOT of pebble dash from the front wheels, the drivers side has had a poor repair and is showing up more. its down low but really bugs me





whipped them off



sanded down (obviously been clipped in the past)



some paint mixed off ebay. ebony black





and lacquered



much better. will let them harden overnight and stick them on tomorrow.

while i was out with the black there was a scuff on the passenger side that was badly touched in



was very noticeable because of the white bits, not so much now :)

 
Something I've been noticing more and more is the little puddle of coolant it leaves on the drive now and again, its a weird leak as its not really obvious where its coming from, its doesn't always leave a spot, and when it does happen its not after anything specific, could be flat out thrashing, could be popping to the shops, or neither. but just lately its been noticeable enough that i have started to keep topping up the coolant.



I havn't got the undertray on i can see where its coming straight down from and that's through the alternator :confused:

On the undertray there is some old residue in that area but it never made it to the floor before, so i think it has been seeping a bit for some time. looking at the pics where Jordan had the front end off and did the cambelt and water pump before i got it there can be coolant residue seen above the alternator and its mounting and down the front of the engine





i had the airbox out and got my head right in as far as it can go and with the aid of mirrors i am pretty sure it is coming from the thermostat :( There's never been any symptoms of any cooling issues what so ever, no running warm or steaming, its just these little puddles after its turned off sometimes. i'm pretty sure its going to be an O-ring, as when i replaced the top radiator hose o-ring it was badly perished



and i think this is the case with the thermostat o-ring. so a trip to TPS sorted me a new O-ring, new coolant, and a thermostat for piece of mind, as it would be silly not to



No big deal really......

However, the thermostat housing is here



BEHIND THE CAMBELT



behind all this



behind all this



and ultimately behind all this



so its a mega strip down job. Front end off, cambelt all off, just to replace the thermostat seal! Thanks AUDI :doh:

just in case it is something more severe than just the seal i got this off ebay for £10 delivered just for piece of mind in case i need it, even came with a seal and thermostat too :lol:





so next week will be the big strip down :( :( got to read up on the cambelt, at least this one hasn't got VVT like my old 3.0!
 
so today was thermostat d-day. i took the car down the unit yesterday and biked home so it would be a cold start on it today. Finished a 12 hour shift at work and peddled back down there to make a start.



theres over a foot extra nose out the front of this compared to my A4 but the bigger engine fills it up the same





so up in the air, wheels off, bumpers off, fluids out



then front panel dropped, these are so well thought out, all the pipes and lines are at the bottom so the only thing you need to disconnect is the top rad hose and the whole front end pivots down. loads of room










all was going fantasticly up untill this point.... next job was to get the viscous fan off. stuck solid. 2 hours spent faffing around trying various methods of holding the pully. wrapping an old belt on, pins through the holes. (i know its left hand thread before anyone pipes up) .....

in the end i spent another hours unbolting the mount its attached to, but all the bolts are covered by various fans and tensioners, bolts too long to come out, so it was a case of a spanner and half a turn at a time, as you can imagine the photos stopped at this point!

but got it off!!




and behind that some pretty clear evidence of the leak





cambelt off to finally reviel the thermostat housing


whipped that off to obviously show where its coming from. nothing worse than not actually finding the cause and then wondering if that was the fault or not





cleaned all the seal faces up so they were spotless and got the new bits out



there was nothing wrong with the old thermostat but I'd be a fool not to fit a new one as im this far in!



and back on. never to leak again!



tried to put the pin in the cambelt tensioner to get it back on but this thing is sprung to ****! snapped 2 allen key bits and big grips were unsuccessful, had to whip it off and in the vice

 
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