RS4 Suspension Pipes - Good North East garages?

[Colshandy]

RS4 has failed it's MOT on the suspension pipes and garage advise only an Audi dealership should repair it.

Does this sound right? Any recommendation of alternative good specialist garages who could do it?

[Cupramax]

Prepare to be bent over, I’m guessing the pipes will only be available direct from Audi so you might get a specialist to do it for a bit less if they can source the parts, but it’s going to be a sizeable bill whichever way you go. From memory the pipes are around £250 each, there’s two of them, plus labour plus anything else they find when pulling it apart.

[geeks]

It is why alot of RS4s end up on coilovers as the repair cost is quite high. However there are some specialists who can hand the work these days, unfortunately I don't know any in your area, have a look at the Audi Sport forum, used to be alot of good stuff there

[anonymous-user]

I use these https://www.northeastautotech.com

[Colshandy]

Cheers everyone. I have had a couple of recommendations from mates local to me (Prestige German Cars) and will try them.

[p4cks]

Have a look at BTG Performance just over the other side of the tunnel. They have Audis in all of the time (amongst Lambos, Ferraris, Lotuses et al) and are great.

[SHutchinson]

I'd give Swift at Westerhope a shout. They're VAG specialists and deal with a lot of S and RS models. They did the clutch change on my S5 and I was very happy with them. They look after my boss' V10 S6 too.

http://www.swiftmotorengineering.co.uk/

[Chrismawa]

Colshandy said:

Cheers everyone. I have had a couple of recommendations from mates local to me (Prestige German Cars) and will try them.

I'd swerve these guys. Took my A4 there they diagnosed something that wasnt the problem and relieved me of nearly £300 for it.

As the poster mentioned above Swift are a much better bet. Dealer trained specialists. Took my Golf to them and got great service even doing extra little jobs after I'd paid!

[neilferg]

One of the hard pipes failed on mine last summer (one that's above the fuel tank).There's 4 metal pipes so cost is about 900 and dealer parts only . Labour is expensive as the fuel tank, exhaust and rear diff all need to be removed plus you then have to have the system recharged . Very few specialists can recharge it ( mrc and unit20 ) and only certain audi dealers have the equipment. It's about 250 just for the recharge and I was getting labour quotes in excess of 1k . Personally I couldn't justify the cost so ditched the drc and fitted koni sport dampers using the original springs as I didn't want to lower the car. Great road setup. Slightly firmer at low speeds (ie town driving) ,but car handles better and feels more planted especially on country roads . Suspension is better at higher speeds than the drc . Thing is you could replace the hard pipes and then something else goes . Previous owner had spent 4.5k replacing all the dampers and flexi pipes and potentially I could have spent another 2k at least .

[Dr G]

There are more than two independent garages in the country with the tools and even more than that offering to do the work given the number subcontracted to me

You are absolutely correct that the DRC piping is expensive to repair; there's a lot of stripping and reassembly. Worth it, though. I've not yet driven one on coils I felt struck a better balance as a road car than DRC in good order. I think the comparisons are often unfairly made with poorly maintained cars.