Old Man Sedan: 2003 RS6

[GTBrandon]

This car seems like a beast and I'd be curious how similar it is to the S7. It seems to be much smoother of a ride and I could not for the life of me get it to really push me back in the seat like my car does, but it also isn't tuned due to dad logic of keeping the warranty. I would be curious to know if you've mastered the peddle dance for smoothness from a light, or not as if it really gets on your nerves, I'm sure a propper re-tune could fix all of that. Not sure if these are drive by wire or line, but a lot of tuners boost up the response to make the car seem quicker, assuming everyone wants to go balls out from a red-light, they also could have simply tuned it for a pretty dynograph or high numbers, not with consideration of daily driving. None the less, would love to see the car soon, and have a few tuners in mind if you decide you can't deal with the response anymore!

[davej]

What kind of care do you need to do with the turbos? Is a turbo timer still a popular thing on a twin turbo setup like this? I remember a little bit about lincoln's S4 back in the day and how many issues he had with the turbo and such.

I don't think you have to do much, these are both oil and water cooled, so you shouldn't even have to let it sit and cool too much before shutting it down but I do anyway out of habit. Just make sure you're up to operating temp before having any fun and it should be alright. There's plenty of other things to go drastically wrong, but burning up my oil/turbos hopefully isn't one. 

The heat generation is real though, I was genuinely concerned the first time I opened the hood after just a few miles. I've almost gotten over it now since it's "just what they do" but I still think popping the hood would help cool things down better after use and maybe prolong the life of the timing belt. Sounds like the 35k interval was due in part to how quickly the excessive heat deteriorates the rubber.

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This car seems like a beast and I'd be curious how similar it is to the S7. It seems to be much smoother of a ride and I could not for the life of me get it to really push me back in the seat like my car does, but it also isn't tuned due to dad logic of keeping the warranty. I would be curious to know if you've mastered the peddle dance for smoothness from a light, or not as if it really gets on your nerves, I'm sure a propper re-tune could fix all of that. Not sure if these are drive by wire or line, but a lot of tuners boost up the response to make the car seem quicker, assuming everyone wants to go balls out from a red-light, they also could have simply tuned it for a pretty dynograph or high numbers, not with consideration of daily driving. None the less, would love to see the car soon, and have a few tuners in mind if you decide you can't deal with the response anymore!

No, I haven't found a good balance point yet, Rex swears it's because it doesn't exist but I'm determined to prove him wrong solely on principle. 
It hasn't gotten fully on my nerves yet but I can see it being less fun as a daily once the honeymoon wears off. It's also a much nicer example than some of the other ones I was looking at. Part of me wants to squirrel it away and only drive it when it's me in the car so it doesn't get too beat up and trashed by offspring. 

Stop by the SSC some time and we'll take it out for a bit.

[WRXtranceformed]

The heat generation is real though, I was genuinely concerned the first time I opened the hood after just a few miles. I've almost gotten over it now since it's "just what they do" but I still think popping the hood would help cool things down better after use and maybe prolong the life of the timing belt. Sounds like the 35k interval was due in part to how quickly the excessive heat deteriorates the rubber.

This sounds weird but I was properly anal about my Jag and if it got a good romping I would usually pop the hood and put an oscillating fan on it for about 20 minutes.  I wouldn't go that far if I was just taking a run down to the grocery store and didn't open it up, but with as much underhood heat as a blown V8 generates I had some of the same concerns about longevity.  It probably was unnecessary but it definitely helped cool things off!

[davej]

Were we separated at birth?

[ScottyB]

ha, i do that to both my cars all the time when they get parked in the garage, and they're not even special. its so hot down here all the time i'm convinced it can only help the life of the rubber hoses and plastic parts.

can you program the AC fans to blow after you shut the car off with the VAGCOM? maybe for a couple minutes just to circulate the worst of the heat concentration out the back of the engine bay.

[davej]

I like that idea and it sounds totally plausible. I'll have to dig into it when I'm not on mobile and lazy

[Senor_Taylor]

You guys are idiots. You harden steel with heat. Have you ever seen a blacksmith? That metal is red hot and comes out stronger than ever. You're weakening your motor by going easy on it. I say unplug your fans and replace your coolant with molten salt like they did in the good ole days. Kids these days are so pampered.

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[davej]

You guys are idiots. You harden steel with heat. Have you ever seen a blacksmith? That metal is red hot and comes out stronger than ever. You're weakening your motor by going easy on it. I say unplug your fans and replace your coolant with molten salt like they did in the good ole days. Kids these days are so pampered.

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but...but my engine is an aluminium alloy. It will turn to soup. 

excuse me, I need to go find a safe space.

[Senor_Taylor]

You guys are idiots. You harden steel with heat. Have you ever seen a blacksmith? That metal is red hot and comes out stronger than ever. You're weakening your motor by going easy on it. I say unplug your fans and replace your coolant with molten salt like they did in the good ole days. Kids these days are so pampered.

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but...but my engine is an aluminium alloy. It will turn to soup. 

excuse me, I need to go find a safe space.

Fake news. I put aluminum foil in the oven around my corn all the time.

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[GTBrandon]

can you program the AC fans to blow after you shut the car off with the VAGCOM?  maybe for a couple minutes just to circulate the worst of the heat concentration out the back of the engine bay.

That's exactly what they do on the S7. After driving even just around town, you hear the fans going full blast as you turn it off and walk to the front door. I kind of hate it but also am glad Audi thought ahead and care to cool down those turbos and everything around them.

[ScottyB]

i've gotta believe with all the vac lines buried in that block, than any way to de-concentrate that 250+ degree air is going to keep you from having to replace rubber stuff that turns to glass every couple years.

[davej]

It begins...
Left rear shock is leaking hydraulic fluid from the DRC system, which had already been replaced under recall 23k miles ago, so I called up the closest Audi dealer in cville to see if it would be covered under a warranty from that. Lady goes to check and comes back with 'we will need to see it before we can say for sure, but if it's faulty then it should be.'

Great, take a day off of work and go down only for the service manager to tell me no, Audi will replace it once under the recall but that is it, after he collected $125 and 5 hours of my life. I even bribed them with a dozen fresh made apple cider doughnuts when dropping the car off, thought for sure that'd work.

I expressed my frustration with the misinformation I received on the phone but in reality I probably knew there wasn't a chance it'd be covered, I just wanted it to be true so bad.

Their guy did notice a few other minor things to address while he was in there, and I asked for the part number list when they printed out the $6000+ repair order.

It was kind of fun to see their reaction to me asking why I would spend six grand on the same suspension that lasted >25k miles.

Long story short, this box showed up the other day, and if history is any guide it'll find a nice home on a garage shelf for about a year before I install them.

I also got a couple used fobs on eBay and extra keys cut at a locksmith in cville but found out this car had a different immoblizier than the B5 so once a transponder is paired to a car it can't be used again. There's guys that I can send ecu to and they'll disable the immoblizier but I was hoping I could find a diy. Apparently you can't do it in vcds.

Oh, and I bent a wheel after getting pushed off the side of a back country road by some red in a coalroller taking up the whole road. Not awful but enough for a decent shimmy now. I was pretty pissed at that guy, but guess it's time to switch to the euro wheels.

[WRXtranceformed]

Bummer the bribery didn't work man . Sure, we won't cover your admittedly faulty suspension but would you like to spend $6k with us? Glad you told them to kick rocks. What did they quote to have done for that much?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Come up one time for Katie's cars and coffee and we can knock out those shocks afterwards. Still have yet to bring that S50/E30 back up to me!

[Jake]

Sucks about the shocks - so DRC is adaptive damping and you're losing that by going to Konis? Bummer in one way, but should be far more reliable/better peace of mind long term.

[davej]

Come up one time for Katie's cars and coffee and we can knock out those shocks afterwards.  Still have yet to bring that S50/E30 back up to me!

Be careful what you wish for... =) 
That would be a really great plan some day, never been to Katie's but the photos look like it's a lot of fun. Kids soccer is almost over so maybe it'd work out one week if I can get away for a day. I'm also going to be looking for some control arms / bushings to refresh at the same time and be done with it

I don't know if I'd ever get two days off on the weekend but maybe I can con a student going home for a break or something into bringing it up.

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Sucks about the shocks - so DRC is adaptive damping and you're losing that by going to Konis? Bummer in one way, but should be far more reliable/better peace of mind long term.

Correct. I knew it'd be an inevitability but thought I'd get a few more years out of the system before having to do it. I guess on the plus side not ever having driven one with a fully working DRC, I won't know what I'm missing. =) People say using the stock springs and Koni's are fairly indistinguishable, so it should be a decent setup. I caught the last few days of their rebate sale, and the last set in stock that I could find. I don't know if they are back ordered or nla, but I was glad to scoop them.

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Bummer the bribery didn't work man . Sure, we won't cover your admittedly  faulty suspension but would you like to spend $6k with us?  Glad you told them to  kick rocks.  What did they quote to have done for that much?

There was some bushing refresh and a bit of a leaking seal, then replacing the 4 shocks and refill the fluid, just pulled the paper and it was closer to 7k. [emoji51]

[.RJ]

I had Koni FSD's on my B7 A4. They were nice on the street paired with the stock springs.

While you're in there, replace the upper control arms, they have to come out for the front shocks anyways. All of the suspension hardware on those cars is single use, too. Replace it.

Now, what you dont want to hear, is the 'pinch bolt' on the knuckle holding those upper control arm balljoints in, is likely seized looking at the condition of the undercarriage that you posted a photo of. Just be prepared to deal with that by removing the knuckles from the car. There's no easy way around getting the pinch bolts removed, other than taking the knuckle to a machine shop. I've watched some youtube videos of this.... usually involves heat and air hammers. My bolts were seized, and I had a shop handle the shock install.

[davej]

Shhh....don't tell DJ, he'll shun me.

[Senor_Taylor]

I'm sure Zach and I may be able to help if we ever go back to JMU soon. One of us can drive it back to Nova

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[GTBrandon]

I’m sure if you post something up in the chat you’ll have students at your door in no time, but after reading the whole thing about the knuckles I’m not sure how to feel. Hey I’ve never blowtorched a car before so I’d be honored to have yours be the first