RS4 B7 Ownership

[AnSGTI]

Hey guys,

Long time stalker and occasional poster. I'm in a real fortunate place work wise where when I'm not travelling I'm a telecommuter which means I have no morning commute. A car for me really is just for pleasure, and although I have to admit I'm not unhappy with my MK6 R, I really want to own a V8 and I have a hankering for the B7RS7. Are there any other forum members who've made this leap, or current owners who can give me some advice about running costs please?

I like the idea of paying a bit more for a low mileage example, but it's still a 10 year old car and I'm not going to kid-myself about fuel costs. I then look at it another way and think why not get a cherished example with a few miles on the clock but I see people give info about recent services (around 60/70k miles) costing near enough £6k and I don't think I could lay my hands on that sort of dosh. I know this is mostly clutch flywheel replacements - I could handle brakes (£2k), services, tyres etc. but what else should I be aware of?

Cheers!

[Horatio]

Dare I say, stage 2+ Edition30's, carbon build up, have a look on the RS forums theres at least one buying guide. The classifieds always make me drool 

[bigtaffgti]

hi AnsGTI!

I owned a 2007 B7 RS4 Avant for 3 years - covered best part of 50,000 miles (60,000 to just over 110,000).  Absolutely awesome car your pretty much spot on issues wise but here's a list of things I encountered (keep in mind it was all Audi completed work)

Tyres every 6,000 miles  - £1000
Brakes every 20-30,000 - £1800 front - £900 back
Constant secondary air system fault - inlet flaps not making full sweep - brings the light on but easily reset - never actually had it "fixed" but was quoted £890
Servicing - it never had a service that came to less that £800
Drivers door hinge wears and door drops easily shimmed by body shop
Oil cooler pipe failed - common fault but usually needs the cooler replaced also - (quoted £1900 got Audi down to £1200)
At around 90,000 miles most of the bushes needed doing  - the only thing I didn't go to Audi for (their price was astronomical) whole of front end done £900 by buying a full HD kit, using it all expect where Audi used lighter arms - on those I replaced just the bushes. 034 motorsport (exchange rate was in my favour when I did them)
Gearbox mounting gets sloppy but replaced with a 034 motorsport ones

Oh and people will tell you (as with the Golfs) it needs a decarbon of the top end - I never did it - but I have seen the valves and they do get sh!tty  MRC tuning will do it and remove the inlet flaps at the same time.

All in all other than failures it was costing me around £3k a year to keep it mint on the road including the £500+ road tax.

Was is worth it.....OF COURSE IT WAS!!!  the car was awesome and I really miss it :(

Oh try and stay away from the black ones and the paint is awful - it chips like no ones business - especially on the Alu front end.

Hope that helps mate.

Cheers

Paul

[AnSGTI]

hi AnsGTI!

I owned a 2007 B7 RS4 Avant for 3 years - covered best part of 50,000 miles (60,000 to just over 110,000).  Absolutely awesome car your pretty much spot on issues wise but here's a list of things I encountered (keep in mind it was all Audi completed work)

Tyres every 6,000 miles  - £1000
Brakes every 20-30,000 - £1800 front - £900 back
Constant secondary air system fault - inlet flaps not making full sweep - brings the light on but easily reset - never actually had it "fixed" but was quoted £890
Servicing - it never had a service that came to less that £800
Drivers door hinge wears and door drops easily shimmed by body shop
Oil cooler pipe failed - common fault but usually needs the cooler replaced also - (quoted £1900 got Audi down to £1200)
At around 90,000 miles most of the bushes needed doing  - the only thing I didn't go to Audi for (their price was astronomical) whole of front end done £900 by buying a full HD kit, using it all expect where Audi used lighter arms - on those I replaced just the bushes. 034 motorsport (exchange rate was in my favour when I did them)
Gearbox mounting gets sloppy but replaced with a 034 motorsport ones

Oh and people will tell you (as with the Golfs) it needs a decarbon of the top end - I never did it - but I have seen the valves and they do get sh!tty  MRC tuning will do it and remove the inlet flaps at the same time.

All in all other than failures it was costing me around £3k a year to keep it mint on the road including the £500+ road tax.

Was is worth it.....OF COURSE IT WAS!!!  the car was awesome and I really miss it :(

Oh try and stay away from the black ones and the paint is awful - it chips like no ones business - especially on the Alu front end.

Hope that helps mate.

Cheers

Paul

Thanks Paul  that's just the kind of owner experience I was after! So I should expect to be replacing tyres in batches of 4 then? My current Golf R still wears out fronts much quicker that the rears, although guessing the Haldex in the RS4 sends more power to the rear.

You mentioned bushes at 90k, I'm looking at examples that are 10 years old now and rubber can obvious perish regardless. Was there an tell tail signs other than creaking/knocking etc?

[bigtaffgti]

Hi fella,

And no problem at all - yes tyres seemed to go in 4s - the Avant is a heavy old beast and the Contis are soft as sh!t  - I didn change to Michellin Pilot sport 3s which were much better - probably 10-11,000 miles out of them - My first set of Contis lasted 6,000 miles!!  I do have a heavy foot though :)

Bushes etc. most of the front end showed visible signs of cracking and it just didn't feel like it should have really - the car had very few creaks and knocks - look out for the active suspension (DRC) though as the dampers leak and are expensive to say the least, you will get a wallowy feeling through fast corners and the car may sit low on one of the wheel arches, when it does go you'll get an error code. You'll see a lot of cars our there for sale touting aftermarket suspension - this is usually because the Active stuff has failed and its cheaper to fit a new aftermarket kit.

The Gearbox mount just goes soft and I didn't want the extra play on the drive shaft (i'd had a bad experience with a 350z where it had eventually damaged the diff). You'll see that through the stick when you come on and off the power.

Also just a note on my previous e-mail - I had standard RS (Brembo) brakes not the Carbon ones..as they're £6k a set apparently!!

What else can I tell you..

OK  - generally the interior wears very well - my drivers seat looked pretty much new when I sold the car, the RS4 wears off the steering wheel but you can replace the whole of the bottom of the flat bottom wheel, Dash is good, but some people had issues with losing lines on the display (I didn't), Rear wiper is a pain in the butt if you get the avant - the motor doesn't actually fail it just decides where it wants to stop and I saw a few where the blade had been making contact with the paint and worn through the lacquer.

Again if its an Avant you'll probably have a squeak from the back ... in 3 years I never found it.

To be fair other than the Oil cooler line I never had anything fail to the point it couldnt be driven - just the odd error code now and then around the 2ndry air system and flaps -usually brings the "EPC" light on the dash on.

The guy I sold it to still has it and he has put a good few miles on it and still no real problems - I have been pestering him a bit about buying it back 

If you are looking for one try and find a Audi FSH, if you can also get one with the Milltek exhaust upgrade option that's a bonus as its sounds lovely 

Happy to try and answer any other questions fella - just shout.

Cheers

Paul