C6 RS6 - General reliability and remapping

[Tagnot]

Anyone owned a C6 RS6 before? The one with the V10 Engine. Prices seem around £20k now for one with reasonable miles. I'm tempted to get one for a couple of years for lugging the family and dog round, and perhaps get it remapped at MRC but as with anything Audi RS related, I would expect servicing and repairs and fuelling it to be suitably expensive. I have run an RS4 before so know all about this.

Anyone have any real world experience of what to look out for when buying, and whether or not they are generally reliable once remapped?

[Dr G]

They're not generally reliable when standard. Their weaknesses/common-gotchas are already well documented online, but you can mix age, abuse, and neglect in with that now. Tuned, thrashed, and sold on after a couple of years when another big bill was looming. Expensive oil, coolant, and suspension leaks all par for the course.

Join one of the forums or owners groups and have a good read. If it sounds like you've read a load of scaremongering and horror stories that's about right. There's nothing on those cars that's less than a grand to fix, plenty of it a lot more, and a lot of jobs that want the engine out. Parts availability not the best either.

[ninepoint2]

I recently sold mine after 8 years ownership and did around 40k over that period. Just over 104k when I sold. Found it pretty reliable during that time TBH, and despite poster above comments, I don't recall any bills being over £1000, including the oil pump seal and coolant pipes issue. I did have to spend around £4k to get through MOT in 2022, however that included front discs and pads, tyres and shock absorbers with the associated specialist cost of recharging the DRC and having it transported on a flat bed to the specialist to get that done and probably other stuff that I can't recall now. That was really the only big bill I had in 8 years. Secret is to find a good competent local mechanic, that means a lot of the well known issues that Audi say are engine out jobs are not really (Oil pump seal, and Coolant pipe corrosion to name 2). Some things do need specialist equipment (DRC for example) but I used a local well respected Audi Indie for those jobs and whilst more expensive than my local guy they are still a lot less on the labour rates than Main Dealers. Mine was never near a main dealer in my ownership. Parts seem to carry what my mechanic refers to as "RS Tax" and can seem expensive. Routine service parts are not much different than more mundane machines. Brake discs are expensive and I had two sets of fronts on mine during it's time with me, when I sold it rears were still same ones on it when I bought it. Never experienced any issues with parts availabilty either. They are great all round cars and the V10 is sublime and never seems to run out of puff. I never considered remap as I never felt it needed to be quicker. It's a heavy bugger and obviously doesn't handle brilliantly on the twisty bits, but straight line speed is impressive. Clearly it likes a drink and road tax is a stupid amount now too. However I loved mine and only sold it and other cars as I needed fewer cars, we are looking at moving to a smaller house with less drive space. I replaced it with a D4 S8 which is equally impressive. I still need to sell my Maserati to comply with financial controller guidelines

Edited by ninepoint2 on Tuesday 3rd September 22:07

[Dr G]

ninepoint2 said:

including the oil pump seal and coolant

I'm sure a lot of owners would love to know who can complete that work for so little. You can do it with the "engine in" but it's still 8+ hours of labour before any parts, and before any "while we're there" bits.

[ninepoint2]

Dr G said:

ninepoint2 said:

including the oil pump seal and coolant

I'm sure a lot of owners would love to know who can complete that work for so little. You can do it with the "engine in" but it's still 8+ hours of labour before any parts, and before any "while we're there" bits.

Indeed, I realise I am extremely fortunate to have someone so skilled and reasonably priced, I doubt very much that I could have been able to run the cars I have without access to him, don't remember the coolant pipe fix but the oil pump seal was around £750, which included other parts than just the oil seal. He also included photographic evidence of the work at the time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mUoACL7meZHB65KL9