IanH's 955hp V10 Audi RS6 - Another Car Diary!
Discussion
Throttle Body - New one arrived, I'll fit it tomorrow
I popped into Halfords for another identical one (Yuasa battery HSB020 - 5 year guarantee) and got a nice 20% discount from my old Trade Card, otherwise it'd have been £190 which is scandalous if you ask me!!!! Afterwards, as the cars ECU's had been been monitoring the slow degrade of the battery and they remember how poorly performing that battery was (and will pre-emptively adjust power levels for the bad battery), it now needs to be told that a new fresh battery is installed otherwise, yet again, it'll throw various error codes. However that was just a simple 5 minutes on my VCDS laptop where you change the serial number of the current battery to the new one (it needs to know the make, model and S/No of a bloody battery!), which tells the cars ECU's "hey this is a new battery, reset your power limits memory".
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I popped into Halfords for another identical one (Yuasa battery HSB020 - 5 year guarantee) and got a nice 20% discount from my old Trade Card, otherwise it'd have been £190 which is scandalous if you ask me!!!! Afterwards, as the cars ECU's had been been monitoring the slow degrade of the battery and they remember how poorly performing that battery was (and will pre-emptively adjust power levels for the bad battery), it now needs to be told that a new fresh battery is installed otherwise, yet again, it'll throw various error codes. However that was just a simple 5 minutes on my VCDS laptop where you change the serial number of the current battery to the new one (it needs to know the make, model and S/No of a bloody battery!), which tells the cars ECU's "hey this is a new battery, reset your power limits memory".
A few smaller things - Fitted the new throttle body a while back and all is good there, popped into MRC Tuning in Banbury during a weekend trip back to Stoke for an oil change (Fuchs Titan Race Pro-S 5w30). When we filled in my service book we realised it'd been over a year since the last service so got to get it booked in for a "minor" service in a few weeks time inc gearbox service/oil cx on top.
IanH755 said:
A few smaller things - Fitted the new throttle body a while back and all is good there, popped into MRC Tuning in Banbury during a weekend trip back to Stoke for an oil change (Fuchs Titan Race Pro-S 5w30). When we filled in my service book we realised it'd been over a year since the last service so got to get it booked in for a "minor" service in a few weeks time inc gearbox service/oil cx on top.
Is there a particular benefit to running 30? I’d be a lot happier with 40 for the power you are running. I ran Fuchs Pro-S 5W-40 for years based on an OpieOils discussion and the last time I was at MRC they gave me a lengthy chat as to why I should go back to 5W-30 but it was about 18 months ago so the specifics of the chat are hazy at best but I "think" it was something about the oil pump flow rates and/or seals - I'm really struggling to remember the chat TBH, my take-away was "go back to 5W30" is all I remember clearly.
Worst case I can swap back to 5W-40 if needs be.
Worst case I can swap back to 5W-40 if needs be.
A free fix of something on the RS6 - NEVER!!!! 
My car speakers started distorting, dropping out, crackling etc but only during full throttle and the sound returned to normal after braking. This was happening to both right side Front and Rear door speakers (6 in total, 3x per door) only so it wasn't a specific door issue and my initial "Oh god, now what!" thought was "if its everything on the right side of the car, its not the individual speakers or the wires to them" so it made sense to me that it was possibly the Bose Amp instead which runs everything.
However, after jumping on eBay and seeing the £300+ price of a 2nd hand amp I thought to myself "You're an aircraft tech dude, if this was a plane how would you fault diagnose this issue first rather than just replacing expensive bits on a hunch?" so before I went any further I did the following and found the free, simple fix to my specific problem -
Looks like after about 3+ years of not moving the iPod whilst it was in the glovebox tray, 'something' had tweaked/nudged/bumped the iPod connector so unplugging it & plugging it back in fixed the issue. As part of all the investigation, I also rediscovered - i.e. remember I ONLY use the iPod, nothing else for the past 9 years of ownership - that not only do I have a DAB radio (makes sense TBF) but I also have a TV Tuner as well
which I genuinely had no idea I had, so I spent a few minutes watching the BBC news whilst I was parked up.
Then I took it out for some WOT testing and, after almost 2L of Water/Meth had been used (40+ WOT's - maybe a little overkill), I'd say it's fixed and now I know what to look for in the future should this happen again.
My car speakers started distorting, dropping out, crackling etc but only during full throttle and the sound returned to normal after braking. This was happening to both right side Front and Rear door speakers (6 in total, 3x per door) only so it wasn't a specific door issue and my initial "Oh god, now what!" thought was "if its everything on the right side of the car, its not the individual speakers or the wires to them" so it made sense to me that it was possibly the Bose Amp instead which runs everything.
However, after jumping on eBay and seeing the £300+ price of a 2nd hand amp I thought to myself "You're an aircraft tech dude, if this was a plane how would you fault diagnose this issue first rather than just replacing expensive bits on a hunch?" so before I went any further I did the following and found the free, simple fix to my specific problem -
- I unplugged the Bose amp and checked the connectors (two plugs - 1 massive "zero insertion force - ZIF" connector and one '2 wires' Fibre Optic connector) then plugged them back in.
- I use the iPod 100% of the the time and have done for 9 years, so does the sound also cut-out under other music sources like the Radio - No, it only cuts out using the iPod so that means that the Amp is OK (whew!).
- Unplug the iPod in the glovebox, check it with some headphones (both sides play music so iPod is OK), then plug it back in and test - HaHaHaHaHa - Fixed
Looks like after about 3+ years of not moving the iPod whilst it was in the glovebox tray, 'something' had tweaked/nudged/bumped the iPod connector so unplugging it & plugging it back in fixed the issue. As part of all the investigation, I also rediscovered - i.e. remember I ONLY use the iPod, nothing else for the past 9 years of ownership - that not only do I have a DAB radio (makes sense TBF) but I also have a TV Tuner as well
which I genuinely had no idea I had, so I spent a few minutes watching the BBC news whilst I was parked up.Then I took it out for some WOT testing and, after almost 2L of Water/Meth had been used (40+ WOT's - maybe a little overkill
), I'd say it's fixed and now I know what to look for in the future should this happen again.
Been a total biff and tried to code in a few extra things to cars Instrument cluster which don't get added as standard (adding needle sweep on start etc) and somehow ended up resetting the cluster to a LHD German cluster (open RH drivers door, LH door shows open, MPG gone and replaced with L/100km etc) and, as I didn't note down my original code (again because I'm a biff) this meant I ended up using the RS246 forum to help me recode it back to UK standard. The help I got there was so informative I now have a much better understanding of the \Coding system Audi used.
However, I'll just leave stuff alone from now on I think!
However, I'll just leave stuff alone from now on I think!
Servicing time!
Whilst I was in Stoke I took the RS6 across to Grizz at Unit20 for a 10k service (back to 5W-40 Fuch Titan Race Pro-S oil after chatting to Opie Oils about shear values of the specific Titan oil), Gearbox service and complete brake fluid flush. The 10k service found some bushes on the lower arms starting to look crusty and would need replacing before the next service, and the front AP Racing brake discs, which I already knew had some existing light "crazing" due to heat cycling (but starting to get worse over time), had each started to develop a single shallow (just about feel it with a nail) crack away from those heat cycle areas with it instead coming from the edge of the disc, which is a huge no-no.
So I chatted to BG Developments, who I believe handle most of AP Racings bespoke work and created my original custom made (only 2-3 ever sold) big front brake setup of 410x36mm discs with AP Racing Radi-CAL calipers, custom rigid bolt mounting bells and mounting brackets etc, about a replacement set. By this point I've had that setup for 7+ years by and, since I bought mine, AP Racing/BG Dev created a much better selling setup for the R35GTR using a new 410x36mm disc with J-Hook discs (rather than my discs curved groove) with floating bobbin mounting bells which resist rapid heat changes far better than my old skool "just bolt it direct using M8 bolts" rigid bolted current setup.
After some back and forth over some design tweaks for my particular car (as I can't leave anything unmodified apparently), where I decided that I didn't want my new mounting bells to be anodised black like in the original kit as harsh brake cleaners eventually stripped the dye off the bell and left them looking purple and streaky over time, we agreed on a set of AP Racing CP4095 pattern J-Hook discs (410x36mm again) with new custom made anthracite (no dye to leach away) floating bobbin style mounting bells and mounting kit for both. There's a 10-ish week lead time for the J-Hook discs at the moment but thats not an issue for me with my limited driving time in the RS6 but when they arrive I'll post some pics as I build them up (attach the disc/bell together) and a few pics of the old discs for comparison.
Other than that, the GB service went fine with nothing to report but the brake fluid change (3L to drain and refill) hit a minor snag as the rear caliper bleed nipples were both seized and needed induction heating to remove which is "odd" as I'd had paid for the fluid to be changed last year and it'd only taken 1L of new fluid, which probably only included the fluid in calipers (but the rears probably weren't touched which makes me wonder about the rest) and lines. However, it would not include the 2L-ish of fluid within the ABS pump which must have been at least 7 years old I would guess and therefore absorbed a ton of moisture. I realised this after I hit the ABS recently (love Norfolk's wildlife!) and I think it pushed that old fluid into the calipers and the brakes then felt horrible afterwards. So rather than mess about I just asked Unit20 to do a pressurised flush of the entire system with just over 3L of new fluid (1L+ for calipers/lines and 2L+ for ABS pump) until the colour of the fluid eventually showed it all to be new.
So, other than the new brakes and arms, next up as I kind of knew already but the OcUK car show kind of forced on me, as my car has just hit 125k miles, I really need to take a look at the cosmetic side of my car, with both rear arches and lower boot lid showing bubbling rust, the alloys all needing a refurb, the drivers seat bolster needing some leather re-dying white/cream where I've rubbed the dye away and a new windscreen due to 3 large stone chips (2 repaired, 1 new) and 4-5 very small ones (got 3 in one go from a freshly resurfaced road when a loon going the other way doing 60+ shot past me) etc.
Whilst I was in Stoke I took the RS6 across to Grizz at Unit20 for a 10k service (back to 5W-40 Fuch Titan Race Pro-S oil after chatting to Opie Oils about shear values of the specific Titan oil), Gearbox service and complete brake fluid flush. The 10k service found some bushes on the lower arms starting to look crusty and would need replacing before the next service, and the front AP Racing brake discs, which I already knew had some existing light "crazing" due to heat cycling (but starting to get worse over time), had each started to develop a single shallow (just about feel it with a nail) crack away from those heat cycle areas with it instead coming from the edge of the disc, which is a huge no-no.
So I chatted to BG Developments, who I believe handle most of AP Racings bespoke work and created my original custom made (only 2-3 ever sold) big front brake setup of 410x36mm discs with AP Racing Radi-CAL calipers, custom rigid bolt mounting bells and mounting brackets etc, about a replacement set. By this point I've had that setup for 7+ years by and, since I bought mine, AP Racing/BG Dev created a much better selling setup for the R35GTR using a new 410x36mm disc with J-Hook discs (rather than my discs curved groove) with floating bobbin mounting bells which resist rapid heat changes far better than my old skool "just bolt it direct using M8 bolts" rigid bolted current setup.
After some back and forth over some design tweaks for my particular car (as I can't leave anything unmodified apparently), where I decided that I didn't want my new mounting bells to be anodised black like in the original kit as harsh brake cleaners eventually stripped the dye off the bell and left them looking purple and streaky over time, we agreed on a set of AP Racing CP4095 pattern J-Hook discs (410x36mm again) with new custom made anthracite (no dye to leach away) floating bobbin style mounting bells and mounting kit for both. There's a 10-ish week lead time for the J-Hook discs at the moment but thats not an issue for me with my limited driving time in the RS6 but when they arrive I'll post some pics as I build them up (attach the disc/bell together) and a few pics of the old discs for comparison.
Other than that, the GB service went fine with nothing to report but the brake fluid change (3L to drain and refill) hit a minor snag as the rear caliper bleed nipples were both seized and needed induction heating to remove which is "odd" as I'd had paid for the fluid to be changed last year and it'd only taken 1L of new fluid, which probably only included the fluid in calipers (but the rears probably weren't touched which makes me wonder about the rest) and lines. However, it would not include the 2L-ish of fluid within the ABS pump which must have been at least 7 years old I would guess and therefore absorbed a ton of moisture. I realised this after I hit the ABS recently (love Norfolk's wildlife!) and I think it pushed that old fluid into the calipers and the brakes then felt horrible afterwards. So rather than mess about I just asked Unit20 to do a pressurised flush of the entire system with just over 3L of new fluid (1L+ for calipers/lines and 2L+ for ABS pump) until the colour of the fluid eventually showed it all to be new.
So, other than the new brakes and arms, next up as I kind of knew already but the OcUK car show kind of forced on me, as my car has just hit 125k miles, I really need to take a look at the cosmetic side of my car, with both rear arches and lower boot lid showing bubbling rust, the alloys all needing a refurb, the drivers seat bolster needing some leather re-dying white/cream where I've rubbed the dye away and a new windscreen due to 3 large stone chips (2 repaired, 1 new) and 4-5 very small ones (got 3 in one go from a freshly resurfaced road when a loon going the other way doing 60+ shot past me) etc.
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