# Looking at a twin turbo and need help



## Thabble (Dec 21, 2012)

I'm looking at a 2.7 twin turbo a6 Quattro with 181k miles and needed to know what to look out for. It's had the water pump, timing belts, idlers, hydraulic tensioner, drive belts, spark plugs, and a new ac compressor done at 165k and front and back brakes (pads and rotors) replaced at 178k. What else should I look out for


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## MikkiJayne (Jan 1, 2007)

*FV-QR*

Squeaky suspension means control arms need replacement. Likely at that mileage unless they've been done recently.

Check for moisture / dampness in the passenger footwell - lift the mat if there is one. If the rain tray gets clogged with leaves it will overflow through the AC inlet and drown the electronics under the floor. Check around the battery to make sure its not sitting in a puddle.

Check all four outer CV boots. Some cars have an appetite for them, especially if cheapo chinese ones are used the first time. Mine likes to eat the front passenger side outer for some reason.

Check all four tires for unusual wear on the inner edges and for cupping of the tread (ie the tread blocks feel like ////// instead of -------). Alignment is critical on Quattros. They don't like cheap tires and will chew them up in short order. I get 30K highway miles from a set of Pirelli PZeros with a perfect alignment.

Check the centre LCD in the cluster - the pixels fail on all of them. Some end up unreadable whereas some just a bit scruffy. Its a $180 fix iirc, by a specialist cluster repair company.

If is an avant check the rear window washer jet goes straight up. If it follows the wiper arm the nozzle tube is broken and eventually it will fill up the motor with screen wash. There's a $50 repair kit available.

It its got cruise control check all the functions work, particularly the resume button. This frequently wears out at this mileage. A new switch is $200+

Check for fogging of the headlamps. When the UV coating fails the plastic degrades quickly. They can be re-polished with a diy kit but will need doing yearly.

If its an autotragic run away screaming. If its lasted to 180k without replacement or rebuild it probably doesn't have much life left. If you want to chance it then check it works perfectly - no slipping, no hard shifts, no noises / clunks etc. Thats probably a $3-4K job when it dies. 
If its manual check it shifts in to 1st and 2nd cleanly from cold. They tend to wear the syncros if driven carelessly. Notchiness going in to gear can be helped by a high quality synthetic gear oil - not the OEM stuff cos its garbage. 

If you have access to it, take VAG-COM along with you and scan for fault codes to see if there is anything of note.

It'll benefit from new suspension at that mileage as its probably quite bouncy. Eibach springs and OE Sachs HD dampers work well together.

My manual A6Q avant has 310K now, and has had all of these issues apart from damp footwell and squeaky control arms in the last 100K, but I do put 1000 miles a week on her


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## AndyTR32 (Jun 4, 2003)

MikkiJayne said:


> If its manual check it shifts in to 1st and 2nd cleanly from cold. They tend to wear the syncros if driven carelessly. Notchiness going in to gear can be helped by a high quality synthetic gear oil - not the OEM stuff cos its garbage.


Would you have a link to the gear oil you'd recommend? I've been told that only the OEM GL4 is plenty good. Unless cost is the reason, I can't see a benefit of using an aftermarket oil. I hear that it is common for dealers and indy shops to incorrectly use OEM GL5 or GL4/5 when replacing fluid on a C5. This tends to result with notchy shifting.


Good post, thanks for the info :thumbup:


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## MikkiJayne (Jan 1, 2007)

*FV-QR*

Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75w-90 http://www.castrol.com/castrol/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9014115&contentId=7068180

I thought the same as you - the OE stuff has to be good enough right? Not so much :sly: I semi-stripped and inspected the transmission at 235K so it was nice and clean inside. I put the OE oil (G 052 911) back in as a matter of course and pretty soon the shifting was notchy again. I'd have to slip the clutch to get it to go in to 1st from a standstill. When I checked it at 300K it was like mud so swapped it for the Castrol (which I got from the Audi trade counter as well btw) and its nice and smooth again now.


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