Audi R8 advise

[Trev450]

MalcQV said:

Raven Flyer said:

I'm not sure who told you this but it is a direct contradiction to what I have been told by the UK's most experienced R8 technician (REP).

REP have not seen one single R8 with frame cracks, that was not also involved in a front end crash.

The problem started in the US and when checking the cars there, the victims had also had front end crashes.

This is one of the biggest scare mongering non events to ever circle the internet.

Interesting.

I have also been told this by Ricky, but it should in no way be an excuse for not checking prior to any potential purchase.
If you were to purchase an example that didn't have the gussets fitted but was obviously free from any cracks, you can always retro fit them for peace of mind, which is what I did.

Edited by Trev450 on Friday 19th February 13:05

[GroundZero]

Raven Flyer said:

GroundZero said:

R8Reece said:

if a frame is cracked it’s had a front end shunt.

Apparently frame cracking was an engineering weakness that could arise from simply going over a large enough pot hole in the road at certain trigger speed.
Or driving over some significant debris, or raised kerb or the like.

It results from a quick enough shock going up through the suspension struts where the top mount area of the frame does not have the design resilience to absorb the vertical forces.

What is also generally unknown is whether cracking can arise from a repeated occurrence of less severe shocks (such as road bumps at a certain speed, or from trackdays running over apex kerbs etc). Something that may not be apparent at the time but can cause stress cracking over time.

Generally speaking if the car has not had front end impacts on the suspension as described above there is a very low probability that there will be any cracking. But of course it becomes more of an unknown as the years press on and as mileage on those cars builds up.


Just to correct the "front end shunt" from the quote above - a front end shunt would unlikely create the cracking that is often attributed to the 1st Gen R8 as it would not provide the vertical forces that do this. A front end shunt would apply longitudinal forces to the bulkhead for which, depending on the severity can create any number of other issues, but not the specific "frame cracking" that is reported from the suspension strut mounts.

I'm not sure who told you this but it is a direct contradiction to what I have been told by the UK's most experienced R8 technician (REP).

REP have not seen one single R8 with frame cracks, that was not also involved in a front end crash.

The problem started in the US and when checking the cars there, the victims had also had front end crashes.

This is one of the biggest scare mongering non events to ever circle the internet.

Thanks for the reply Raven.
Being a potential buyer of an early R8 for a few years now, I've tried to do as much research on them as I can.
I've never seen the front end impact being a leading factor in the frame cracking issue before and have generally read that it was as described in my post above.
If there is good evidence to state otherwise I am more than happy to be corrected.
The internet is tricky place for which to sort out the truths from the rumour. Guessing because there are few cases involved in the issue that causes may be hard to correlate?

I do wonder though, why Audi decided to strengthen the frames in the facelift and later models it is wasn't a known issue? Unlikely to be a design modification by them if the issue was only caused due to front end accidents (ie driver fault rather than design fault).
Any way, happy to be corrected if I need to be.

[R8Reece]

GroundZero said:

Thanks for the reply Raven.
Being a potential buyer of an early R8 for a few years now, I've tried to do as much research on them as I can.
I've never seen the front end impact being a leading factor in the frame cracking issue before and have generally read that it was as described in my post above.
If there is good evidence to state otherwise I am more than happy to be corrected.
The internet is tricky place for which to sort out the truths from the rumour. Guessing because there are few cases involved in the issue that causes may be hard to correlate?

I do wonder though, why Audi decided to strengthen the frames in the facelift and later models it is wasn't a known issue? Unlikely to be a design modification by them if the issue was only caused due to front end accidents (ie driver fault rather than design fault).
Any way, happy to be corrected if I need to be.

There is a lot of IMHO internet hysteria about this especially in the USA.

Here Ricky, who looks after loads of R8’s has only seen the issue 3/4 times all with front end damage. There are reports on R8 talk.com of it happening in the USA without front impact but I’d trust REP over Internet forums any day.

Personally it really is not an issue to be worried about and didn’t put me off buying - never checked mine in 4 years of ownership and don’t intend to. But everyone is different and may have different attitudes to risk....

[jakesmith]

R8Reece said:

There is a lot of IMHO internet hysteria about this especially in the USA.

Here Ricky, who looks after loads of R8’s has only seen the issue 3/4 times all with front end damage. There are reports on R8 talk.com of it happening in the USA without front impact but I’d trust REP over Internet forums any day.

Personally it really is not an issue to be worried about and didn’t put me off buying - never checked mine in 4 years of ownership and don’t intend to. But everyone is different and may have different attitudes to risk....

Mine was checked as part of a service (I didn't ask them to do it) and they told me they were fine. I'm relieved to know it's fine I guess. I didn't know about it before I bought & would get it checked as you really are fked if you later find it, but for my approach to risk & based on Ricky's comments I can't see value in reinforcing plates, I also read something about the reason why Audi installed the extra parts that credibly questioned the value in retrofitting them, I can't remember the detail or locate it now (I had a look yesterday but gave up) but I remember at the time thinking it was questionable whether it was worth fitting them.