Very Whiny Audi A6 Allroad (C7)

[Tiglon]

Bit of a prologue first, to set the scene on my dramatic car purchase tale...

I bought my (realistic) dream car back at the end of covid - a beautiful E89 Z4 35is in Valencia Orange. A few modifications later, with M3 control arms, MHD remap, Eibach springs, 788m M2 Competition wheels etc and it looked like this:



I absolutely loved Stacey, as she was occasionally nicknamed (loud and orange, so it had to be an Essex name) and thought she was a keeper. Unfortunately, as a powerfully built company director might say, I needed a short term liquidity injection due to an upcoming asset acquisition - or I as I would say, not being a director or powerfully built, I needed some cash help with a house deposit, innit. Luckily by this point I'd had the common sense to buy a Skoda Yeti TDI 170 for the donkey work, so the Z4 was able to be let go.

Here's a photo of the Yeti, because everyone loves a Yeti:



Because I'm basically a child, I added some Sparco rally-ish wheels, Porsche front brake calipers painted Miami Blue, a roof rack with a Jurassic Park parking permit sticker, and some more auxiliary lights to the front bumper that weren't yet on in the photo above. It also had a lovely set of Mclaren 570s super lightweight wheels on last summer, but they have since been sold because they didn't quite suit the car, shockingly. It's also had a remap to an alleged 227bhp, but I'm pretty sure it's more like 205bhp. Either way, it's a load of fun to drive on a B road and decently quick with some weight reduction such as rear seat removal (Skoda genius at play there, every car should have this!).

Anyway, with one child and now another on the way, man-maths dictates that I needed at least one more car. My other half has a Mini Countryman, and doesn't want to change it, so it would be genuinely useful to have a bigger car, if not entirely necessary.

Other half convinced (somehow), I set my sights on a Bentley Flying Spur W12, obviously. With this and then a Porsche Panamera hastily poo-pooed by her and her influential family, I was left having to find something more overtly "sensible".

Other half's uncle said "why don't you just get a sensible Audi?" and I think I've complied with that. Well done me.

So here it is, a very sensible 2012 Audi A6 Allroad, with:

- an excellent NCAP safety rating
- a HUGE boot
- proper 4WD for those dangerous country lanes
- air suspension for my family's comfort
- lovely wooden trim in the cabin
- retirement spec white paint
- supercharged V6 engine

I had an R53 Mini Cooper S and absolutely LOVED the whine of the supercharger and I've always wanted another supercharged car, but there aren't many of them around.



It's a Japanese import, and they all seem to be white so no choice there. I'm struggling to work out whether the C7 Allroad was ever sold in the UK with this engine - some reviews say it was, but old Audi brochures I've seen only have diesel options and I've only seen Japanese imports for sale.

Howmanyleft suggests that maybe 9 total were sold in 2012 and 2013, but these might have been C6's that took a while to sell? Looks like 13 have been imported and registered in the last few years, meaning potentially a total of 22 supercharged C7 Allroads in the UK, but it might just be 13. If anyone has any insight into this I would be interested!

"Improvements" incoming....

[Tiglon]

First improvement.

Here's the engine bay, what's missing?



That's right, a dipstick! They installed a slot (tube?) for one, but just plugged it. So twenty quid later I can now check the level of my oil manually and inspect the colour too. Life is good again.

[Tiglon]

Next up, the wheels. It has come with 20 inchers, which I don't hate, but I don't think they suit the sensible look I'm going for. Also, it's fun to change wheels. So, with my family's comfort in mind, I set out searching for some smaller wheels.

So as to give my other half complete control of the decision making process, I asked my friend ChatGPT to make up a few images of the car with various available 18" wheels that would fit. To her disappointment, it turns out that she chose the lovely Porsche Macan wheels (the Macan is based on the Q5, so it's the one Porsche that has wheels that fit on many Audis).

After purchasing the wheels for her, and a set of Michelin PS5's, the Allroad now looks like this:



The offset is 21 vs 43, but the wheels are half an inch narrower. Net result is that they stick out a bit more, or fill the arches better depending on how you look at these things. Personally, I think they look much better being flush with the arches and I like this type of car to have plenty of sidewall.

These wheels are available for peanuts because every Macan owner wants to upgrade them to twenty twos because, you know, bling. The downside is that I now have two rears (a bit wider so wouldn't fit well) that I have for sale and will likely be stuck in my shed for a decade, with the Lamborghini Gallardo wheel that I tried out on the Yeti. Oh well, maybe I'll make a coffee table that the other half will hate.

The challenge at the moment is centre caps. I have the Porsche ones, but I was hoping not to have Porsche logos on my Audi. I bought some stick-on Audi badges, but they're convex and the Porsche caps are concave so they don't fit on very well and I suspect they'd come off before long. Tried getting some blank centre caps that could be left as is or take the Audi stickers, but it turns out that the design of the wheels doesn't work with generic centre caps of the same size. Any suggestions welcome!

Edited by Tiglon on Sunday 15th February 18:55

[silentbrown]

Lovely - Same engine as the final CREC engined B8.5 S4, I think, so easily tuned to 400+BHP.

IIRC there was a recall for fuel rails on the S4 engine of that vintage...

I think all UK C7 allroads were diesel.

[Tiglon]

The Audi came from a "dealer" in North London. He only does Jap imports and seemed nice enough and easy to deal with. A bit of a hiccup on collection day as the drivers door handle refused to work before I arrived and he had to swap it out with another Allroad he had.

As with many Japanese auction cars, the service history was lost. Unfortunately both my local Audi dealer and Audi UK told me they are unable to see Japanese digital service records. Audi Japan have yet to respond to my enquiry, but it probably doesn't help that I don't speak Japanese, maybe I should try again with Google translate...

I did manage to find some sites who will, for modest number of pounds, dig out previous auction sheets, which confirmed the condition pretty much as described by the dealer. The headlining was replaced by him, and MMI converted so the satnav etc works in the UK. A few of the auction sheets noted an MMI fault, but it's all working perfectly at the moment, and 1,000km ago it was described as having "maintenance log (with insurance)" - maybe that just means that it had an empty stamp book, but it seems like a good sign that the car has been serviced.

The dealer told me he had done an oil service and gearbox service, but the paperwork never made it's way to me and I couldn't be bothered to chase. Either way, after recommendations on here, I took it to Renn Automotive in Iver for a full inspection and service.

The supercharger belts are due at 55,000 miles, so I assumed these hadn't been done and had them changed - surprisingly reasonably priced! Engine service, gearbox service, diff service all done too for peace of mind.

A couple of bushes and rear bump stops pretty badly worn, which is not entirely in keeping with the advisory-free MOT certificate from about 500 miles previously.

Not too upset, I think you have to budget for servicing and some extra work when buying a 14 year old car, and in all other regards it seems to be in excellent condition. The interior and exterior look pretty much as new and the engine and gearbox feel perfect.

[Tiglon]

silentbrown said:

Lovely - Same engine as the final CREC engined B8.5 S4, I think, so easily tuned to 400+BHP.

IIRC there was a recall for fuel rails on the S4 engine of that vintage...

I think all UK C7 allroads were diesel.

Good to know re the fuel rails, thank you!

This is the CGWB engine, an earlier version of the CREC. The CREC has revised cylinder liners and a list of other changes, or so I've read.

The tuning is coming next, hopefully. It's booked in at MRC this week for stage 2 with pulleys, intake and remap, but they tell me they've never seen this ECU before, so they can't guarantee that they can do anything with it. Fingers crossed it will be doable and soon be putting out 450+ bhp.

[e46m3c]

Watching with interest.

I keep looking at these jap import ones but they always seem to go before I pull my finger out.

I do worry about the history on jap imports. How did you assure before jumping in for a family wagon?

[Tiglon]

e46m3c said:

Watching with interest.

I keep looking at these jap import ones but they always seem to go before I pull my finger out.

I do worry about the history on jap imports. How did you assure before jumping in for a family wagon?

History is definitely a risk, but the car was on less than 56k miles and was £3k cheaper than even the cheapest 215bhp UK diesel on that sort of mileage and still with no service history mentioned, so I figure I've got at least that much to spend on repairs if needed and it's still a bargain. An F-series 335i Touring was a few grand more expensive (and much smaller), and a 550i Touring (albeit also an import) was about £7k more expensive, so it's a risk worth taking - there's just very little comparable available at the same price.

Japanstat website was useful for pulling loads of previous auction records (and translating them), so although I don't know about any actual services, I can see some kind of history of the car over the last few years with photos and condition reports. I also have a record of the Japanese-equivalent MOT history mileage.

I generally buy on condition rather than paperwork, but yeah it does add a bit of extra risk having nothing at all. The comment of "maintenance history (with insurance)" on a recent auction report is encouraging, as it suggests that there was a record of services and it was good enough to be worth mentioning and insisting that it was genuine. It might not mean anything, or it might be a misleading translation, but it's probably no less meaningful than a UK FSH that consists of a written claim that oil was changed every 20k miles.

We also still have two other cars in the household so it's really not a disaster if the Allroad is Offtheroad for a while at some point. To be honest the Yeti is a perfectly good family car, I just found a reason to justify an extra (and interesting) car to the rest of the family!

Edited by Tiglon on Sunday 15th February 19:48

[danb79]

I'm the first to admit I'm not really an Audi fan (bar the R8 which I think is stunning)

But that looks a superb example and it suits those wheels to a tee!

It's an All Road; common sense to me says 20s are a no-no, and 18s with decent tyre sidewall for smooth driving and comfort is a much better option

I've seen a few Audi estates via Seymour Pope (all Japanese imports) and had been tempted a few times to go down to see them; but I always managed to find a BMW instead

[Tiglon]

danb79 said:

I'm the first to admit I'm not really an Audi fan (bar the R8 which I think is stunning)

But that looks a superb example and it suits those wheels to a tee!

It's an All Road; common sense to me says 20s are a no-no, and 18s with decent tyre sidewall for smooth driving and comfort is a much better option

I've seen a few Audi estates via Seymour Pope (all Japanese imports) and had been tempted a few times to go down to see them; but I always managed to find a BMW instead

I've never been much of an Audi person either, I had a TT 3.2 for about a month some years ago, but other than that I've rarely even considered them. I wouldn't say I particularly like white cars either, and if you'd shown me an Allroad 10 years ago I would have told you it looks rubbish. I guess I'm growing old!

I love a straight six but the Allroad just really tickled my fancy with the wood trim, modest looks and supercharger.

[Doc_Love]

Love the A6 Allroad. Never dabbled but when I see one ai always have a pang of jealousy. There is often one at the bottom of my street - they visit a family member a couple of times a month. It's the 3litre diesel. I imagine it would pull a 1500kg Caravan wil absolute ease......

Will follow this thread with interest. We also have a 3litre petrol Jap Import and it too is white - i believe the Japanese like their euro barges in that colour as it signifies purity and also easier to repel heat in the summer! I suspect servicing will have been done - these cars cost alot more than Japanese equivalents and you dont spend that sort of money then dont maintain!

We used Japanese Carfax (Car VX) to do the checks etc. Found them good and with plenty of detail.

Best of luck with the new steed. Love the rare yet understated looks that will frighten a good number of cars onnthe road (if needed)

[bolidemichael]

Looks very cheeky -- as did the Yeti. Do you have any photos of it with the McLaren wheels?

As for centre cap stickers, I'd scour Ali Express.

[cliffords]

Tiglon said:

First improvement.

Here's the engine bay, what's missing?



That's right, a dipstick! They installed a slot (tube?) for one, but just plugged it. So twenty quid later I can now check the level of my oil manually and inspect the colour too. Life is good again.

I would think the tube that you found plugged is an oil extraction tube .
It will go to the bottom of the sump but via a flexible tail. It's not designed for a dip stick . A dip stick tube enters the block and ends ,the stick then goes into the sump bare . Writing to perhaps be of help not an arse .