Inlet flapper stuffed....how do you confirm this??

A6 All/ S6 All
#1

Hey All,

Brand new to the forum, I have run a B6 S4 for about 5 years but with a growing family I decided to move up in size to the lovely C6 S6 - what a sweet machine! I purchased it privately but paid for a full mechanical inspection to be carried out prior to me considering committing to the purchase. My main concern was engine and trans condition both came back with stella reports!

I flew up, tested the car, was super happy parted way with $$ then drove her home, 5 hours into ownership I noticed a slight rattle, this is only heard at cruise speed and only when the engine is NOT at idle. The stays throughout the rev range starting from about 1200-1400rpm up - the main reason I think its inlet flappers is that this rattle does not occur until the actuators at the front of the inlet manfold open/move …shes is quiet until that exact moment…if you stick a tool on the actuator arm you can actually feel the rattle at the same resonance when it comes on too…

The cam chains have been done apparently but the previous owner did not have paper work as he himself did not do them. The car has had a carbon clean, the previous owner stated that its normal for these post a clean… the mechanic did not hear the issue during the inspection and also believes its the flappers. his opinion was that its not a big deal and you can drive it fine…

My issue is from whats been posted driving with the “rattle” is not ideal, I cant talk about a performance drop as I havent had it long enough to notice, no eng lights have popped up…Also from what I have found the only solution is a new inlet manifold…not something I wanted to have to buy on day 2 of ownership!

Lastly im down in the wonderful land of New Zealand so parts prices and shipping is killer - Am I on the correct track? if so any recommendations for places to find the part at the best price? NZD is way lower than USD so thats going to blow that out too dammit! Im rather happy I pushed the price as low as possible

#2

Welcome. You are in the right spot for V10 love. There is a lot of it here.

The only real issue with that you are saying is that the tumble flaps might move a bit but the internial TQ flaps don’t move under load until 5000rpm so its not the Tq flaps moving from one stage to another. Still most complaints with broken flaps are heard in that rev range.

One of the quickest ways to check is to pull off the top Y intake and put a mirror or inspection camera down the intake and see if you can see anything. From there you can cycle the flaps in vag com. If they all move your home free if some of them don’t move then you are looking at broken flaps.

Depending on how bad the intake is you can always epoxy the flaps shut and take off the motor arms.

like most used cars I would wait a few days and see if you can pull any possible stored codes in the cars ecu to see if there isn’t something else hiding.

#3

Cheers man - yep every time I googled S6 stuff this site came up…

Ok so Hopefully an image is attached, its upside down but this change over flaps actuator motor ( not the intake runner tumbler ) is the part that when it moves the rattle starts, both of these things happen at 1200-1400rpm…so its as soon as you want to go anyway

Its off to the shop tomorrow for a expert opinion - ill keep you in the loop

#4

it wont let me put up a photo -

so heres the link

https://www.google.co.nz/search?biw=1350&bih=629&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=audi+c6+s6+engine+intake+manifold&oq=audi+c6+s6+engine+intake+manifold&gs_l=psy-ab.3...25169.28238.0.28333.16.13.0.0.0.0.445.1572.3-2j2.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..12.0.0.MfakD4pXBcY#imgrc=KAq7BKg9HgckNM:

#5

Maybe things are different for ROW cars but nothing moves on the USA and Canada cars other than a start up sequence for the TQ flaps in that range.

To load pictures
http://audirevolution.net/image_uploader.php

Let us know what they say. If they do think its broken it might be a good idea to pull the intake and make sure no little bits made there way into the cylinder head port as that is typical

#6

http://audirevolution.net/addons/albums/images/379739019.jpg

#7

Finally got pictures to work…shes in the shop - their gut says we are on the right track- will keep you in the loop

#8

Its not if the intake flaps will be broken but when they will brake. So its a good chance that they are broken. If they can get you the part number off the intake we can tell you if its an updated intake or not but the part number is in the back. I would suggest having them look for it and letting you know.

#9

So the shop split the manny - found the plastic flaps were flogged, also someone had been into the intake, split it open and lock wired one of the plastic flaps together!! that could have been terrible if that let go

When I bought the car the owner said it had been carbon cleaned 3 months earlier, the valves actually werent that clean at all - so the shop is redoing that too - so I guess I was sold up the river…im glad I got the guy to replace parts and I talked him down 3k off the asking price.

I also paid a euro shop to do a pre purchase inspection before I flew up and bought her - which identified a few minor things (batt stuffed and a tire stuffed etc) but there were other issues like split intake hoses and home made pipe fittings…

#10

Wow, sounds like the guardian angels were looking out for you…

#11

Yeah lucky I suppose, that its didnt blow up, due the price of Audi parts here we had to gut the flappers and reassemble. If the car runs terribly then we will have to tackle that then, a new manifold here is around $8000.00nzd… :’( getting on in from USA would still be around $4-5000 after importing costs etc…it also seems a bit pointless as the system is still flawed right? still always going to flog out?

Defo if you have a noise and that noise gets worse pull that sucker immediately!

The research on this forum suggest ill loose some low end torque but not a heap, seeing as I have drive it for a total of 3 days im hoping I wont notice it too much