Gurgeh

Hello all,

I am considering purchasing an 2014 Audi RS5 and am wondering what are some of the common things I should be looking out for?

Car has mostly resided in the south, so I shouldn't have any rust issues. It has just over 45,000 miles.

superswiss

Check out the brakes. Some of the 2014 and up have persistent brake issues. Find out if the current owner has had issues with the brakes. That's probably the biggest issue with the RS5. Otherwise, it's a pretty rock solid car. One thing I would add is that over time, heat may be an issue. This V8 gets pretty hot and my coolant hoses are dying one after the other it seems. I'm at almost 60k miles and over the last year I had three coolant leaks due to cracked hoses. Just had the car in the shop a few weeks ago to fix two leaks. The first leak was maybe around a year ago.

Gurgeh

Front and rear rotors were replaced very early on it's life... at 17,000 miles.

mhblaw

Sold my '13 RS5 at 77k, front rotors and pads at 65k, zero other issues. Great car.

Ape Factory

That's interesting on the coolant hoses. I live in a hot climate for five months out of the year so I'll have to keep an eye on those. As others said, the front brakes especially, seem to wear quickly. Can be solved by purchasing a car with front ceramic rotors like I did or just go aftermarket rotors from JHM or ECS.

I know that occasionally there's a sprag gear for the a/c unit that makes noises when moving slowly while backing up and moving forward when parking. It's an engine-out fix for a $2 part. I don't know if the part ends up failing but it'll make a funny grinding noise (sort of like grinding synchros in a manual transmission) that's sometimes hard to hear.

Make sure all the factory services were done through 35K miles. Very important that the maintenance is kept up at the factory recommended intervals. It's a good idea to get a pre-purchase inspection at a qualified shop or dealership. If the car shifts up and downs smoothly ( at low and high speed), the tranny's probably good. If there's a clunk when coming to a stop as it shifts into first, might mean the tranny has issues.

Other issues...
-Carbon buildup on intake valves (known issue on all FSI engines) can cause misfires on cold start and eventually hot running
-Make sure the rear spoiler operates correctly in manual mode. Sometimes it won't open or close all the way
-Fuel door. I think this was a 2013 issue only but the solenoid for the door's release could fail. Most were fixed under warranty so probably not a concern.
-Squeaky sunroof. I have this. Haven't really looked into lubing everything yet.
-The exhaust has a valve that can squeak when operating. Fixed by purchasing a suitably loud exhaust that isn't valved

There have been gear selector sensor issues as well. This involves a set of sensors that are internal on the auto side of the transmission and necessitate opening up the tranny to replace. These seem rare and it's usually something that gives you a good deal of warning ahead of time and gets progressively worse.

The engines seem to be rock solid, no bearing issues like the BMW E90/92/93 M3's. Change the oil every 5K though. Don't wait a full 10K.