thoughts - stick with C6 or go to C7 S6?

so i just found out my '08 S6 has been declared a total loss by insurance (i’m pretty f-ing pissed especially after spending $9k on maintenance in april), so now i’m looking for new cars, i’ve found a nice '13 S6 with 77k miles for $32k if going to C7 series, carfax says turbos were repaired/replaced - which may be a good thing, or should i stick with the C6 - there is a mint '11 with 37k miles for $29k and have also found an '08 with 108k miles that just had a carbon clean and other major maintenance done - the carbon cleaning was a main concern, of course with the only 37k miles, the '11 one shouldn’t have those issues yet. i think my cleaning at 122k miles was the first it had (don’t believe previous owner did it). do the C7’s have carbon issues as well? haven’t really been on their forum to feel out that model’s issues, although have heard of turbo failures do to some issue, can’t recall what it is, but probably why the one i’m looking at had them repaired/replaced…so thoughts? i’d love the modern conveniences of the newer one, but would miss the v10…i’m sure the C7 is a fun car, but am very torn at the moment…i wish they’d just fix my car and not have to decide

also, the C6 that had the carbon clean recently done also has an MTM exhaust - i can’t find any info on that exhaust for the C6 - does anyone have any info on it?, i.e. pipe diameter, etc. or have any experience with it?

You can basically modernize the ‘11 S6 by upgrading tail lights, MMI to 3G+ and other minor details. That’s what I’m doing with my ‘10 S6 to “keep up with the times” while having a V10.

honestly, i can do without the more modern niceties - i can’t say i ever felt lacking in what my car had, especially after driving a rental pickup this last month - you have to turn the lights and wipers on yourself, and you have to start the car with this metal stick like thing…crazy!!

Haha! They put me in a 2018 Audi A4 while I had the airbag replaced… very enticing but I agree - engine and overall feel trumps any newer upgrades. Although by definition our cars are dated, it doesn’t feel that way when most of these S6s came fully-loaded anyway.

Also, which car did they have you in?! Mine was all automatic, fancy LED lights all over, pretty S-line.

EDIT:
At a quick glance, I can’t really find any carbon related issues with the C7. Might be because it’s TFSI? Easier carbon cleaning methods I think.

i’m renting a new nissan frontier from enterprise - about as basic as it gets, but actually, the day before the accident i had the airbag recall done - can you believe the timing of that (they did not go off as i mostly bottomed out and didn’t impact the bumper directly) they gave me a new Q3, it was a nice base level suv, but it really didn’t have any extra bells and whistles i wished i had, if anything a bit underpowered, fine once you’re up to highway speed, but strains to get there with any urgency

Those new Q3s aren’t too bad - I would like more HP, but… it’s a Q3. Had some fun test driving a FWD Q3 and turned traction control off LOL. :slight_smile:

yeah, i’d consider one for my daughter when she starts driving…will we get an SQ3 anytime soon? can’t have a non S car in the driveway!

Right? I was looking at slightly older SQ5s for the girlfriend and checked if we had SQ3s but no dice. If we can get this new Q8, why can’t we get a SQ3 or RS Q-? <.<

Guess it doesn’t matter too much for me because Audi potential maintenance scared my girlfriend into Jeep Wrangler territory. :’(

definitely can’t be scared of maintenance, got my wife into an S4 a couple years ago and it hasn’t been too bad, although a week after my accident she hit a deer and crumpled the front end, luckily “only” $9k in damage so not totaled, but after driving a rental hyundai santa fe for a few weeks, she really misses it!

holy sh*t, out of curiosity, looking at brake rotors for the C7 S6 at adam’s rotors (where i got mine for the C6 this year) - $1500 a set vs $500 for the C6!! cheapest i could find are oem on ecs for about $1100 - yikes!!

I don’t know how the maintenance would be on the newer S6’s with the turbo V8 but I would imagine it would be more complicated than the naturally aspirated V10.

If it were me, I would go with another V10 S6. The V10 is unique and all the problems are known as well as the fixes. And while I like turbo vehicles, there is nothing like a naturally aspirated engine especially the V10 in the S6.

C7 is a great car if nothing goes wrong but there is a long list of issues that go wrong and there is talk that there is carbon build up in the cylinders. The issue here is that much unlike your V10 you can’t pull the intake manifold. The C7 has the intake ports where the exhaust ports are on the V10. So your not doing a carbon clean with the motor in the car.

Maintanence wise its a nightmare to do plugs or packs. The turbos have been known to blow even on a stock car. Its up to you you can mod a C6 and be in the same ball park as the C7 stock.

ughh…so has anyone here done a carbon clean? if so, what’s that run? it was about $1,200 on the v10…according to the carfax plug(s) were recently replaced along with the turbo(s) repaired/replaced - maybe i can contact the dealer that did the work and find out exactly

C6 is the better option… if you have a warranty on the C7 you plan on buying and don’t plan on modding… if not, then C6 wins…

i definitely won’t be modding it…at least anytime soon, my big concern with buying a 8-10 year old C6 is the timing chain, more specifically the plastic guides, and being that age and plastic, who knows, then you have to pull the engine to replace them and i’m not going through that again as i did that for the turbos on my old 2.7T - and i imagine it’s a bit more complicated on the 5.2 ($$$). plus it seems a lot of these S6’s weren’t owned by enthusiasts so rarely was a carbon clean done, so as much as i loved my C6, i think i’ve convinced myself into a C7 - may go check it out today

The chain guides on the 5.2 V10 are not a concern. I don’t think I have ever heard of a failure of them. If I remember correctly the guides are actually metal like in the 4.2 V8’s in the B7 RS4’s of the same era.

Now the B6, B7 S4’s with the 4.2 V8’s did have a relatively high failure rate of it’s guides. Those actually were fully plastic.

Either way you decide to go, I’m sure the car will be great.

i’m pretty certain the guides are plastic - i remember just after i purchased it i read a bunch of posts on audiworld about the plastic guides going and then i started second guessing the purchase, but all was fine til the end…there was disbelief that audi would install a timing chain at the back of v10 shoehorned into an a6 body and then use plastic guides that you couldn’t access without engine removal (but i could be mistaken, hadn’t seen any of those posts in recent years)…oh well, we’ll see what happens

Yes from what I remember from pictures a few people have posted the guides are metal with a composite coating. Just to be sure maybe check the part number and cross refrence the part. But form what I remember they are all metal.

The guides in the B6 and B7 S4’s are plastic and have an abnormally high failure rate. The ones in the 5.2L V10 are metal with a plastic guide surface.

Here is a link with pictures to the upper guide: https://www.europaparts.com/timing-chain-guide-079109469al.html

Here is a link with picturs to the lower guide: https://www.europaparts.com/timing-chain-guide-079109469am.html

One of the reasons that I traded in my 08 S4 for the V10 S6 was because I felt like my S4 was a ticking time bomb with its plastic guide. Definitely not the case with the V10 S6.