IanH's C5 RS6 - A Car Diary
Discussion
IanH755 said:
BlimeyCharlie - You'd be right too 
Before I post these up please bear in mind that I'm a massive fan of Over Maintenance and I'd like to keep the car for at least 3-5 years and will therefore have gone well overboard with my maintenance program i.e replaced bits that probably didn't need doing right away but would probably have needed doing sooner rather than later and, seen as the engine/gearbox had to be removed, what the hell lets change them!
Since Dec when I bought it my current maintenance bill stands at nearly £15,000 which sounds crazy, trust me I know! I've had virtually everything replaced that can be replaced like MAF's, DV's, N75, Lambdas, EGR's, Gearbox, oil pipes, Cambelt, Front Brake Discs/Pads, 4 tyres, 4 refurbed alloys, Front and rear suspension arms, rear brake caliper, oils, filters, gaskets, new Alpine Head Unit and I've also had £600+ of mapping for the ECU/TCU but Labour has been the biggest figure, over £8000 just in labour so far. If I really had to I could have not bothered with the 2nd service and gearbox and saved £10K this year but it would have needed doing soon and may have caused further issues if I'd left it any longer.
My last thing is the suspension as the right rear DRC is starting to fail so there's another £2000 on some Bilsteins etc.
HOWEVER, and it is a big HOWEVER, after this the car will be perfect and should give me a few years of stress free driving, until the manifolds crack and blow the turbos (another £4000) or the alternator goes (£1000) etc, oh the joys!
There's are a few lucky people that have bought theirs and only spent around £1000 over 3 years of ownership but I'd say the average is upto £3000 a year as various bits need replacing (cambelt £1k, Brakes £1k (front or rear), service £500-£1k etc etc).
Here's an actual breakdown of my costs in rough chronological order
Replacement CF Trim pieces - £70
Headunit/Aerial & fitting - £1400
Service/mapping - £2200
4 Tyres and Alignment - £420
Cambelt, Front brakes, fix bits bits found during service - £4000
Gearbox, EGR's etc - £5900
Aircon Recharge - £55
Alloys Refurb - £430
Owing one of these is not for the faint walleted, it's a shame the price is now low enough that people can afford to buy one on a budget but can't afford to maintain it and so they become passed on quickly lowering the residuals.
Well thank you kind Sir for the info. Before I post these up please bear in mind that I'm a massive fan of Over Maintenance and I'd like to keep the car for at least 3-5 years and will therefore have gone well overboard with my maintenance program i.e replaced bits that probably didn't need doing right away but would probably have needed doing sooner rather than later and, seen as the engine/gearbox had to be removed, what the hell lets change them!Since Dec when I bought it my current maintenance bill stands at nearly £15,000 which sounds crazy, trust me I know! I've had virtually everything replaced that can be replaced like MAF's, DV's, N75, Lambdas, EGR's, Gearbox, oil pipes, Cambelt, Front Brake Discs/Pads, 4 tyres, 4 refurbed alloys, Front and rear suspension arms, rear brake caliper, oils, filters, gaskets, new Alpine Head Unit and I've also had £600+ of mapping for the ECU/TCU but Labour has been the biggest figure, over £8000 just in labour so far. If I really had to I could have not bothered with the 2nd service and gearbox and saved £10K this year but it would have needed doing soon and may have caused further issues if I'd left it any longer.
My last thing is the suspension as the right rear DRC is starting to fail so there's another £2000 on some Bilsteins etc.
HOWEVER, and it is a big HOWEVER, after this the car will be perfect and should give me a few years of stress free driving, until the manifolds crack and blow the turbos (another £4000) or the alternator goes (£1000) etc, oh the joys!
There's are a few lucky people that have bought theirs and only spent around £1000 over 3 years of ownership but I'd say the average is upto £3000 a year as various bits need replacing (cambelt £1k, Brakes £1k (front or rear), service £500-£1k etc etc).
Here's an actual breakdown of my costs in rough chronological order
Replacement CF Trim pieces - £70
Headunit/Aerial & fitting - £1400
Service/mapping - £2200
4 Tyres and Alignment - £420
Cambelt, Front brakes, fix bits bits found during service - £4000
Gearbox, EGR's etc - £5900
Aircon Recharge - £55
Alloys Refurb - £430
Owing one of these is not for the faint walleted, it's a shame the price is now low enough that people can afford to buy one on a budget but can't afford to maintain it and so they become passed on quickly lowering the residuals.
Edited by IanH755 on Monday 21st April 20:50
Edited by IanH755 on Monday 21st April 20:51
Not taking the mickey here either but I did chuckle when you said you didn't want to spend £5.00 to enter Blenheim Palace (I think) so took the photo of your car on the drive to avoid paying. I'd be the same.
My mate often drones on about getting an RS4 or RS6 like yours but he is all talk and no action. So well done and thanks again for the costings.
You only live once.
I'd say that mine was definitely the best "Q-Car" there. I really love the other RS's there, especially the new RS4 and the older satin wrapped RS4 but they all look very aggressive, leaving you in no doubt that it's a powerful car but my RS just looks like a fairly normal A6 next to all these until you put your foot down and rocket off leaving "none-car" people amazed at what an estate just did and thats something that keeps me giggling to myself with every overtake
The noise of the B6/7 RS4 is something else though, absolutely gorgeous V8 noise from the Silver one with a JB Fab custom exhaust!
The noise of the B6/7 RS4 is something else though, absolutely gorgeous V8 noise from the Silver one with a JB Fab custom exhaust!
Reminds me of when I had mine. Loved the car but it cost me 5.5k in a year. Let me down on my holiday and had to get towed back with 4 tow trucks from Yorkshire to Kent. Got rid of it just after that. Did have a great VMax day in the RS6 and got up to 176mph which made up for all the troubles the car had given me :-) Great cars.
18th May 2014 - I went to the Caring with Cars charity rally for the Children's Hospice South West at Charlton Farm. Around 600 cars of all shapes, sizes and engine power from PistonHeads all packed into the grounds to help raise money for the Hospice.
There must have been 15+ Ferraris, 40+ Porsches, 50+ TVR's and MX5's and some really rare cars too like an RS200, Jaguar XJR15 and even a single Audi C5 RS6!!!!
There must have been 15+ Ferraris, 40+ Porsches, 50+ TVR's and MX5's and some really rare cars too like an RS200, Jaguar XJR15 and even a single Audi C5 RS6!!!!
31st May 2014 - I got back from marshalling & spectating at the Jim Clark Rally earlier yesterday and wanted to send my condolences out to the families of those involved in the terrible events of yesterday.
Myself and a friend had gone up to support a good friend of ours who was due to be a Nav on the Sunday Rally and, to make a weekend of it, after watching the Rally start in Duns on Friday night we all volunteered to be Marshallers on the Saturday at the Eccles Stage. I'm normally busy in the service area during our rallies so I was chuffed to actually get out on the stages and watch the action. Sadly seeing the flow of competitors slow to a trickle followed by hearing the fleet of sirens approach our stage is something that made a lasting impression which must pail compared to those involved in the Swinton stage where the fatalities occurred and my thoughts go out to them also.
Myself and a friend had gone up to support a good friend of ours who was due to be a Nav on the Sunday Rally and, to make a weekend of it, after watching the Rally start in Duns on Friday night we all volunteered to be Marshallers on the Saturday at the Eccles Stage. I'm normally busy in the service area during our rallies so I was chuffed to actually get out on the stages and watch the action. Sadly seeing the flow of competitors slow to a trickle followed by hearing the fleet of sirens approach our stage is something that made a lasting impression which must pail compared to those involved in the Swinton stage where the fatalities occurred and my thoughts go out to them also.
7th June 2014 - Went to the Stoke Poges Summer Fete with some fellow car enthusiasts doing passenger rides. The weather started out badly but by 12:30 it was glorious sunshine! As well as the Aston there was a stunning Porsche Carrera GT, a huge Dodge Challenger and a vast range of TVR's.
12th June 2014 - Had new suspension fitted. After upgrading from a Mk3 Mondeo in December I thought the RS handled quite well for a big old barge but nowhere near as well as my R34 did and at low speeds (<20mph) the rear felt very loose, especially on right turns if there was a bump mid-turn. Plus the rear made all sorts of noises over bumps. Soon afterwards both MRC and Unit20 told me that, unsurprisingly, the DRC suspension was shot.
Jump forward to today and I've just had a set of Bilsteins PSS9's and uprated H&R ARB's fitted and the difference is phenomenal. On the way back from MRC via a bunch of back roads the confidence I had from the new setup was great and I regularly hit corners 30+mph faster than before (I know the roads very well!) without any feeling of dread.
The car now handles how it should have done from the start although I'd love to have a drive of a car with fully working DRC just to compare. It's currently set at as close to stock height as possible with the dampers set to 4 which gives a better ride than the knackered DRC did and doesn't feel crashy on Oxfords very pot-holed roads.
This was the 3rd set of DRC to fail on my car in the 80,000 miles since new and each set can cost upto £2k to sort hence the replacement with aftermarket.
So overall a working set of suspension is awesome!!
Jump forward to today and I've just had a set of Bilsteins PSS9's and uprated H&R ARB's fitted and the difference is phenomenal. On the way back from MRC via a bunch of back roads the confidence I had from the new setup was great and I regularly hit corners 30+mph faster than before (I know the roads very well!) without any feeling of dread.
The car now handles how it should have done from the start although I'd love to have a drive of a car with fully working DRC just to compare. It's currently set at as close to stock height as possible with the dampers set to 4 which gives a better ride than the knackered DRC did and doesn't feel crashy on Oxfords very pot-holed roads.
This was the 3rd set of DRC to fail on my car in the 80,000 miles since new and each set can cost upto £2k to sort hence the replacement with aftermarket.
So overall a working set of suspension is awesome!!
- *EDIT*** - Now got some photos!
Edited by IanH755 on Sunday 20th July 11:49
26th June 2014 - Chopped off the rear silencers and fitted straight through pipes instead to unleash some serious V8 noise.
My Reason for this is that I'm doing quite a few car events/meets/trips etc over the summer (pretty much 1-2 a week) and the stock exhaust is just too quiet so what I've done is remove the backboxes to unleash more V8/turbo noise (no extra power I realise) and fit a straight through pipe from just behind the resonators (keeping them to reduce drone at motorway speeds). However, as this is my daily driver I want this to be reversible so I've sleeved the remaining stock exhaust allowing me to swap between either the stock backboxes or the straight through pipes depending on what I'm doing i.e backboxes for mon-fri (and when selling) and then straight through for sat-sun when doing trips and the swap only takes around 10mins!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-noga6y4QP8
***EDIT*** -------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that makes a big difference! Had the brace bar welding across this morning and driven down to Alresford and all the 1800-2300rpm resonance drone (and slight vibration felt through your feet) has gone and the exhaust note has increased in pitch slightly. It almost sounds like a nasally Subaru boxer 4 (best example I can think of). I "think", although it may be me thinking too hard to find differences, that it's slightly quieter now as well but that may well just be down to the lack of drone at those lower rev points.
It's certainly more civilised around town from inside the car but still sounds just as loud outside according to my mate who did the drive-by vids for me.
Overall, I'm very happy with it!
My Reason for this is that I'm doing quite a few car events/meets/trips etc over the summer (pretty much 1-2 a week) and the stock exhaust is just too quiet so what I've done is remove the backboxes to unleash more V8/turbo noise (no extra power I realise) and fit a straight through pipe from just behind the resonators (keeping them to reduce drone at motorway speeds). However, as this is my daily driver I want this to be reversible so I've sleeved the remaining stock exhaust allowing me to swap between either the stock backboxes or the straight through pipes depending on what I'm doing i.e backboxes for mon-fri (and when selling) and then straight through for sat-sun when doing trips and the swap only takes around 10mins!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-noga6y4QP8
***EDIT*** -------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that makes a big difference! Had the brace bar welding across this morning and driven down to Alresford and all the 1800-2300rpm resonance drone (and slight vibration felt through your feet) has gone and the exhaust note has increased in pitch slightly. It almost sounds like a nasally Subaru boxer 4 (best example I can think of). I "think", although it may be me thinking too hard to find differences, that it's slightly quieter now as well but that may well just be down to the lack of drone at those lower rev points.
It's certainly more civilised around town from inside the car but still sounds just as loud outside according to my mate who did the drive-by vids for me.
Overall, I'm very happy with it!
Edited by IanH755 on Friday 27th June 15:47
Edited by IanH755 on Friday 27th June 15:48
13th July 2014 - Here's the pictures and videos from my new exhaust.
Raised the car and found that the rear left silencer had already been replaced and an Audi sleeve used.
Using that pre-existing cut we copied it on the right pipe and removed both silencers
We then made up a straight through pipe with quad tips (the ovals the garage had were tiny) and these were joined using sleeves so that I can quickly/easily swap them over to the stock silencers when/if's needs be.
After leaving off the brace bar I found that one really was needed as the tips pushed out and melted the outsides of the plastic oval area so we the added the brace bar back on to finish the job.
Here's the videos -
Part Throttle 1800-2800rpm and Idle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QMOFEKOF88
Full Throttle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOwzTIUCPTM
Drive-Bys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AA40t04rhQ
Raised the car and found that the rear left silencer had already been replaced and an Audi sleeve used.
Using that pre-existing cut we copied it on the right pipe and removed both silencers
We then made up a straight through pipe with quad tips (the ovals the garage had were tiny) and these were joined using sleeves so that I can quickly/easily swap them over to the stock silencers when/if's needs be.
After leaving off the brace bar I found that one really was needed as the tips pushed out and melted the outsides of the plastic oval area so we the added the brace bar back on to finish the job.
Here's the videos -
Part Throttle 1800-2800rpm and Idle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QMOFEKOF88
Full Throttle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOwzTIUCPTM
Drive-Bys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AA40t04rhQ
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