That’s the thing. There isn’t another unique car like this and not for the money that’s for sure.
The all aluminum motors tend to eat about 1 quart every 3k. So 1/2 at 10k is very good. The biggest time of year for motor damage is in the cold start ups of the cold cold weather.
Sounds like its running strong another good to hear story.
Only using/burning 1/2 quart over 10K miles is great. Previous to my 08 S6, I had an 08 S4 Cabrio for about 6 months and it drank about 1 quart every 1k miles. Unfortunately, Audi (and many other companies) consider that oil usage rate to be normal (which is bullshit). So the oil consumption and the nagging fear of broken timing chain guides motivated me to get an S6 with the V10. I have no regrets. Since I did the normal fixes (typical oil leaks, PCV, valve cover gaskets, intake manifold replacement) my S6 has been great.
Maybe in a few years I might upgrade to the S8 with the V10.
Yeah my B6 eats about 1 quart every 2500 or so. I actually change the oil per season to keep thicker oil in the hotter months and thinner oil in the cooler months. I also don’t drive it much if at all in the winter to help keep the motor in good condition. So I’m with you I know what your talking about.
With the summer car away for our frigid winter its with please that I’m getting to drive the S8 more. Since buying the car the TPMS hasn’t worked, and bizarrely the PO never had sensors fitted to the wheels. I say bizarrely in the 18 months of his ownership he purchased a full set of tires but didn’t splash out on $100 worth of sensors, and budget wasn’t the issue as he shelled over $17,300 in maintenance and repairs in this time period!. As you will have seen reading this list when I purchased the car I disabled the TPMS with VCDS, my reasoning being that I had other issues with the car to deal with and there is no point in changing them until I get tires. 16 month on and it would be nice to keep a check on the tires vs the old fashioned method every few weeks and at my mileage I don’t need tires for at least another year.
Purchased 5 (decided to do the spare as well) sensors from TPMS247.com for $120, got them fitted for $125, coded them back in and after swapping out 3 sensors twice (I purchased 4 for a BMW at the same time and mistakenly mixed them up first go around) all is fine and I have an operational TPMS. I don’t trust the sensors accuracy but it gives a guide to when I need to add some air once temps here really start to plummet.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/142306069.jpg
Sorry about the side on pic :-\
Also linked to the weather I have noticed that the automatic wiper/light sensor is playing up. It fails when the temp is really cold so I suspect there is an issue with the hardware in the sensor. I think its started to fail a while ago, I noticed that driving sometimes in low light but not dark the lights would come on yet the instrument illumination would not, but no warning lights. It does the exact same thing now but with a warning chime and dash light. Its not really an issue, it just means you go old school and switch the lights on and off manually, however I do miss the feature……first world problems.
Purchased a used one from Wolf Auto (great experience to date supplying quality used parts) for $99 and waiting for the gel pad to fit it. Audi charges $60+ for the pad, picked up a 3M one off fleabay for $10. More to follow once the pad arrives.
Had the Auto light/wiper warning on the dash a few time when the car is parked outside in very cold temps, presumed it was the sensor and purchased a replacement used part from Wolf Auto for $49.
Removal of the sensor is very easy, first removal the cover thats in front of the rear view mirror (sorry for the pic orientation, a few seem to be upside down :()
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/570845400.jpg
Remove the retaining clip and unplug the sensor, then remove all of the gel that fixes the sensor to the windscreen, after that thoroughly clean the glass.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/402786830.jpg
You can purchase the gel pad from Audi for around $70 and some other pads for around $20. The problem with these is that you have to fit them with no air bubbles underneath for it to work. I chose Marcy Quickcure, its a liquid gel that you apply to the sensor, you can pick it up off Amazon for $25.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/71597530.jpg
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/930073081.jpg
Inject the gel onto the sensor, over fill it so that the gel is proud of the edge as shown
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/645075979.jpg
At room temperature it cures in around 4-5 minutes and can be fitted to the car, fitting is the reversal of removal. Glad to say it all seem to work perfectly and I now have fully working auto lights again
I live in MN and as you will have seen on the news this week we hit record low temps in the high -20’s. I parked my car at MN airport Sunday and returned to it yesterday, not a long time but 4 days of the record Polar Vortex. The cars is 12 years old and I have no idea how old the battery is, I’ve had the car 2 years.
Landed yesterday afternoon and on the flight they claimed the temp was -25F, got to the car park and was a little concerned as the rear of the car had dropped on its suspension. Put my luggage in and I have to say it was the coldest car I have ever sat in, its was so cold the seats were rock hard!, the dash showed -19F and the MMI and dash display was slightly faded due to the temps. The PO had put a tint on the window of the car and it was cold enough for it to delaminate on one of the windows!
Hit the button and it was a slower turn over than normal but she fired up like a champ and the suspension pumped right back up. I can only imagine the viscosity of the oil when it started. Left it to idle for a minute before moving off. Drove home no issues, and came out to it this morning and the suspension was sitting perfect, I guess it was so cold the seals shrank enough for it to leak down.
Only Issue is I wish it had a heated steering wheel to match the toasty seats.
Its with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to the Audi S6/8 community after managing to total my car last weekend. The MN winter finally caught me out and as you can see below hit and went over a snowbank.
http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/252019267.jpg
The car was towed out and whilst dragging it out it ripped the bumper cover off it but was still drivable. However the steering was clearly out of alignment and I got an O2 sensor light on. At first I thought the damage wasn’t so bad and I would repair it as it was mostly cosmetic, but the damage to the underside was the problem. I hit a power line support cable (which snapped on impact) but the cables anchor clawed at the bottom of the car, denting all the resonators and ripping out one of the flex joints. This was the reason I decided not to repair it, as all the fixings to the manifold had corroded to nothing so short of dropping the engine I couldn’t get it out and there wasn’t much room to cut and weld in a replacement. The insurance assessor came around to the house and estimated the repair to be $14k, in MN they total at 70% of value so that was it. It’s fair to say he over estimated some parts to be replaced but either way it wasn’t a cheap fix when you factor in the cost of S8 new parts!
I have to say I was pissed not only due to hitting the snow bank but also because even with it’s issues and the time I spent fixing it up, the S8 was a really great car. Probably one of the best cars I have owned in terms of power and comfort. However I’m not a car keeper generally having owner over 43 cars to date, so I’m going to try something different and maybe come back to a D4 S8 at some time in the future when then have depreciated to peanuts.
So a summary of my ownership:
Purchased 8/26/17, with 95k for $15k with some known issues (suspension dropping, control arms needed replacing, trunk, TPMS, adaptive cruise didn’t work, and oil leaks)
Drove it for 14,300 miles over my ownership, averaged 16.5mpg (best 21.1, worst 14.4)
Spent $3,300 fixing and maintaining it, overall most of the expense was in the first few months fixing various issues. In the last 12 months its cost me $1,074 to maintain which I think for such a car is a bargain.
Good luck to you all, keep those S8’s on the road and I hope this thread is of some use to others to buy these cars, look after then and more importantly enjoy them.