wtmmm

I own an '05 A6 with 166k miles on it and I am currently considering upgrading to a newer S6 with fewer miles.

Question for the S6 owners, have there been any unique problems with the V10 engine in the S6?

v8a6

I had the same question last year, when I was looking at v10 S6s. So, I eventually created the C6 S6 v10 Info Dump, as a single place to go to find all the info on these cars, and track S6/S8 v10 specific issues.

Audi C6 S6 v10 Info Dump

Good Luck, and feel free to PM me on AudiRevolution if you have any questions. It is quickly becoming the place where all the v10 S6 guys hangout

raj99

There's a few interesting threads over on Audizine re: the maintenance woes of S6 ownership. For example, there's one owner that has owned it for just over a year and thus far has spent ~$27K in repairs to the car! Most has been covered by his warranty, but he's had the car in the shop for 16 weeks and counting! Anecdotally, it appears that the C6 S6 is VERY temperamental and it's a real guess if the one you own is 'good' vs. 'bad', in terms of maintenance cost and things going wrong. If you are looking at an S6, go with the C7...I drove one of those for a week and WOW...what a rush.

Also, bear in mind that a well tuned C6 3.0T will outrun a C6 S6 and the maintenance and operational costs associated with the 3.0T are far more reasonable. Let us know what you decide to go forth with.

v8a6

The 3.0t is a wonderful engine. But there are a lot more things than just the engine, that the S6 has going for it over the A6, as outlined in the thread.

The S6 owner who has had tens of thousands of warranty work done to his S6 is also talked about in the Info Dump, and a link to his AZ thread is provided. What I have seen in a few cases like this is that certain garages are using the warranty to replace almost every replaceable piece of the engine, when under normal circumstances with a garage that properly investigated the issues, the pieces might have been instead repaired at a much cheaper cost, or maybe not even touched. So, while I will agree that you will have higher maintenance costs with the v10 over the 3.0t, understand that it is not the norm to spend more than the car is worth just to maintain it for a couple of years.

Instead of going through all the documented issues with the v10 in this thread, I highly suggest reading the full Info Dump thread, and any other thread that is referenced in it. That is why I created it in the first place, to gather the facts about the cars so we can better understand them, instead of relying on speculation and myth.

Also, the thread is ongoing, so as new issues and resolutions are discovered, they are listed there.

Good Luck!

canucks6

You have to remember that it was originally a car that costs over $100,000 new.

Just because they are older and therefore the purchase price has come down doesn't mean that the maintenance costs have come down to that of an Honda.

I have owned my 2008 S6 for over four years.

For me maintenance costs have not been high given the nature of the car but they are definitely not cheap.

Brake changes are $1,000 for the front and another $1,000 for the rear.

No disrespect to raj99 but there is no comparison between the 3.0T and the V10.

The rumble that comes out the *** end when you hit the throttle is well worth the price of admission.

raj99

No offence taken I would never disagree on that point. The V10 has a wonderful tune to it...and especially in a garage where the reverb can be heard all around

wtmmm

Thanks for the link. Lots of information

wtmmm

I would have to agree with you. If $25k in repairs was normal for cars with ~50K miles, then there would be far more stories out there about problems with these cars.

wtmmm

I have been driving an S6 the last few days and I do like it but now I'm wondering if the better decision might be a 4.2 V8 instead of gambling with the bigger V10. I'm not really interested in the 3.0T. I have had a few turbos (though not supercharged) and prefer NA. The sound of the V10 is amazing and it has some great power but it is a noticeably heavier car than my 3.2 V6, of course the V8 would certainly weigh more than the V6 too.

S6 Pros - Great seats, strong power, nice styling, awesome sound
S6 Cons - More expensive to maintain as canuckS6 and V8A6's S6 Info Dump both point out (more plugs/wires/components 40% more than V6), harder to work on since that engine is a tight fit (it looks like the engine needs to be removed for O2 sensors!), higher fuel cost, wheels are HEAVY and not that appealing either (the V8 wheels look way better), apparently the S6 wheel size is strange so tires might be harder to find tires

Not to hijack my own thread but I wonder what 4.2 V8 owners think of their engine???

chrisone

s6 with the v10 sure sounds beautiful if you can find the right one but like what everybody said it's a gamble on a c6 v10 more of a hit or miss I read a lot of stories on here and audizine but I never let stories scare me off something that I want to buy. the point is most s6 cars were bought by owners who's into performance the odds of finding a well maintained not abused one is a little low ... I was talking to service guy about it at an audi dealership he told me most people who had their s6 were leasing it so they made sure to get most use out of them. I'd myself stay away unless leasing a brand new c7 s6 or a CPO 2011 ( not a fan of private warranty)

3.0t is a sweet and very powerful one I just had a6 c7 loaner last week and I was amazed how good it pulls the engine feels way underrated for it's given numbers but it's lacking the sound of a v8 ..I had the car for 4 days and I made sure I floor it when I get a chance to and I was really happy with this engine but like what I said still sounds like a v6
if you are after that v8 sound it's a good choice and a good engine but its really rare to find one let alone a good one. I tried twice and each time I ended up with the 3.2 ( 06' c6 , 08' c6) . good luck