cmg_r

Hi everyone,

First of all, i want to thank everybody here for the amazing information gathered on this forum and for this great community that Audiworld has built.

Secondly, since I posted some shots with some changes I did to my A6 I received a lot of messages asking me for different things related to these changes.

Because it is simpler and easier for everybody interested to have the information synthesized in a thread than sending and receiving lots of messages where basically i say pretty much the same thing i decided to make this new thread.

So, here it is.

I bought my A6 C7 last year and although i tried to check as many things i as could (and afford) for this car, after i got the car in my possession it quickly became clear that i am restless and i needed to make some "improvements" to the car.

This is pretty much how my initial configuration looked like:

A6 3.0T Quattro S-line (interior and exterior)
Black package (no chrome whatsoever except for the Audi logo rings)
Clean look (no 3.0T, Quattro or other logos)
S Seats (pretty much the same as S6/RS6)
20" Rotor titan wheels
Air suspension
Bang & Olufsen Sound system
Black headliner
Night vision
Heads-up display
Extra leather package
Tinted windows
Keyless package
Exterior led lighting
Interior lighting (QQ1 package (unfortunately))
Piano black ornaments / Grey stitch for the leather elements in the car .
Automatic trunk release (waive your foot under the rear bumper and wait for something to happen ☺ )
Audi Connect, TV, DAB, DVD – Changer and so on…
360 degrees cameras with Automatic parking
Adaptive Cruise control
Electric and heated steering wheel
Dynamic steering,
Lane assist,
Sport differential,
Stationary heating/cooling
Homelink
Automatic headlights range control
And some lesser important options (towing bar, alarm, heated seats front and rear, more airbags (rear seats), etc.)

So, the list of the changes (I will try to put as many information I have about each of them that I have completed):

- RS6 Rear Valence
- RS6 Front facelift (bumper, grill, fenders, etc)
- Full LED headlights
- Electric roller (sun shade) in the rear
- Black Alcantara headliner
- RS6 door handles (interior) with red led light
- RS6 start/stop button
- RS6 Exclusive 20” wheels (7 double spokes concave)
- Black exterior mirrors caps
- Lane change assist - WIP
- RS6 Gear **** – To do
- Audi Exclusive interior (with full leather dashboard) – To do
- Upgraded led lights interior (door sills, central console, headliner lights, etc.) (Package QQ2 which I mistakenly not ordered – would have saved me a lot of work ☺ ) – WIP
- Soft close for the doors – WIP
- (Eventually) multi-contour seats with ventilation and massage (still thinking if it is worth it – I love the S seats very much).

Will continue with details about each of the upgrades in the next posts.

cmg_r

RS6 rear valence:

Pieces needed (in my case at least):
- rear valence – see eBay for good prices
- rear exhaust ornaments (oval – black in my case, they can be ordered in silver/chrome too)
- plastic holders for the exhaust ornaments
- screws, clips, etc.
- Customized exhaust pipes (if you have single pipe for each side)

Rear Valence:

I got the diffuser from eBay.de bidding on it. I got lucky (I think) and I got it for 200 euros including shipping (this is approximately 220 USD with the current conversion rate).

Just so you know the retail price is about 700-900 USD (there are two versions – one piece and two-piece – where the edge (prominent margin on top) of the diffuser is sold as a different part.

Also if you have trailer hitch you need to make sure the diffuser supports it.

I got the one with one piece and the preparation for trailer hitch – has a removable piece in the middle with this purpose – to accommodate the trailer hitch when released). My diffuser part number ended with the letter ‘D”.

Rear exhaust ornaments (oval, black):

These I bought from the Audi dealer – I couldn’t find at that time something on eBay (since then I’ve seen several offers, both for black and chrome ones).
The ornaments were about 200 USD each (VAT exluded). Color was glossy black.

Plastic holders:

In addition you need two plastic holders for the exhaust ornaments – each one about 75 USD (VAT excluded). They are some very expensive pieces of plastic ☺

You will also need some metallic OEM clips to secure the valence to the bumper (cheap – several dolars).

Installation:

In my case the installation was done on a S-line rear bumper (can’t tell if it is different than the S6 rear bumper for example, but definitely different from the non S-line rear bumper). The latter has different places to clip the valence than the S-line one.


The installation was done in an Audi shop, but can be easily done at home. I was a bit afraid to do it myself because of the rumors that there epoxy and a lot of cutting are involved in the process.

Steps:

1. Remove the bumper from the clips and screws.
2. Disconnect the parking sensors cable and corresponding jack
3. Remove the valence from the bumper – make sure you uninstall first the automatic trunk release sensors and computer (if the car is fitted). The valence is secured with some clips and has holders. Make sure you work nicely so you don’t break any holders.
4. Trim/cut the bumper lower part about half a centimeter so that the holders and the holes in the bumper/valence can be fitted in each other.
5. Install the newly purchased rear valence. In my case everything was straight forward – the rear valence holders matched their position with the bumper ones so no epoxy or anything else was needed.
6. Secure it well with clips every 10-20 cm just to make sure is solid and stays there (the clips are removable so there is no harm done to any of the two pieces).
7. (if existing) Trimming the bumper may make it a little bit difficult for the computer of the automatic trunk release and its sensors to be put back in position. In my case we adjust it as follows:
a. one of the sensors holders was cut so we improvised a little – made our own system with clips.
b. The computer that sits on the bumper and releases the trunk when you waive your foot under the bumper was rotated with 180” – upside down - in order to keep it in its original holders. This is due to the fact that the plastic holder for the exhaust ornaments are quite large and prevent putting back the computer in its original position.

Labor was about 300-350 USD.

This is pretty much how we did it. It came out as you can see in the pictures and I am happy with this mood. It definitely wasn’t cheap if you do the math but I think it is worth it and makes the car really different and sportier.

NOTE: in case you have only one pipe each side for the exhaust in order to look nice and “factory like” you will need to cut the ornaments and a little bit from the pipe and make it from one pipe to dual pipes. In my case the modifications were done in a shop that makes exhaust systems:
- Cut the original pipes shorter
- Measure several times how long the extra piece (dual pipes pieces) needs to be so it stays inside the ornaments but still send the smoke outside them)
Have a shop build your custom two pipes pieces (make sure it is high quality materials that they are using)
- Weld additional two pipes piece pre-made
- (If you want) cut the newly mounted pipes diagonally to “meet” well with the form of the oval tips
- Paint them black with thermo-resistant paint (I used one that goes up to 1202 Fahrenheit) so they don’t stand out too much and let the attention be driven to the oval OEM ornaments.

If I overlooked something just let me know and I will add up the missing information.

cmg_r

All installed less the custom pipes - see how it looks with the original ornaments and how much i cut from the pipes.

cmg_r

And this is after all was done.

cmg_r

RS6 facelift:

Pieces needed (in my case at least):
- front bumper, side grills (that hold cruise control radars), plastic pieces that hold the bumper, etc. (you can look for the small items in ETKA to make sure you don’t miss anything) – see eBay for good prices, but try to find a bumper that is completely equipped – there are many small pieces that cost a lot if you buy them from an Audi dealer (which is also an option, of course).
- Front grill (depends of your taste: black, silver, with or without the Quattro logo, etc.). Make sure you get the holder for the camera (if you have front camera), the holder (plastic) for night vision camera (if you have one), plate holder, etc.
- Front fenders (left and right)
- Plastic holders for where the bumper matches the fenders
- Wheels housing protectors (two pieces each side – one plastic, one “carpeted”)
- Screws, clips, etc.
- Customized side skirts
- The plastic shield under the bumper (it is different than the one on the car).

Complete front bumper:

I got the complete front (like new) from eBay.de bidding on it. The price was (if I remember correctly) around 2500 USD. It included the bumper, black grill, bumper lower lamella, side grills, camera holder and camera (bonus) and the plastic shield under the bumper.

You can make this price seem more human and worth it if you sell your complete front as well and just consider the difference.

The fenders, wheel housing protectors, holders were bought from Audi (couldn’t find anything online). The fenders are damn expensive (650 USD each VAT excluded).


Installation:


The installation was done in an Audi shop. I recommend doing this in a shop because it is more complex. Normally you can do it yourselves except the customized side skirts and painting (of course).

Steps:

1. Remove the front bumper from the clips and screws. (See ELSA program for instructions about removing properly and without trouble the bumper/grill assembly).
2. Remove the shield under the bumper.
3. Disconnect the parking sensors cable and corresponding jack
4. Disconnect the camera system
5. Disconnect the Night vision system (if available)
6. Disconnect the radars (cruise control)
7. Disconnect the headlight washers
8. Remove the wheel housing protectors.
9. Remove the side skirts
10. Remove the fenders
11. You put everything back in the reverse order after you made sure everything is properly secured and aligned. (Bonnet, fenders, bumper, etc.)

See below pictures of the car with all elements removed - naked front and with the fenders and headlights on (alignment process).

cmg_r

Challenges:

The main challenge is to align the fenders with the side skirts because the fenders are wider and they won’t match at all the side skirts.

You will need to customize your side skirt, which is not necessarily difficult but meticulous and requires a lot of mounting and un-mounting in order to have them fit perfectly.

We used glass fiber and auto wood tar to create the “extra parts” that will be glued to the side skirts. We also secured them with expanding bolts to make sure everything is proper fit and stays there “forever”.

After we were done there was a lot of polishing to make sure we get the perfect lining with the rest of the side skirt and also look like the line from the fender continues on the side skirt.

Challenge 2:

Once this was done and aligned we went to the painting cabin.
If you have a difficult color (like I do) you will need to have very good painter/s.
Also expect to paint more elements in order to have the color perfect. The factory recommends painting more elements to smoothen the color and make it look factory like. In my case although we actually had to paint only the bumper and fenders we painted the bonnet, the front pillars and the front doors too. (Instructions about how to smooth the paint and what elements need to be painted can be found at Audi shops that do painting).

Below some pictures to understand how the side skirts needed to be modified.

cmg_r

Labor costs were quite high, but the team that worked on this put a lot of soul in the project and made everything very meticulously. Also there was no deadline or time pressure. The only thing we all wanted was to do something really nice and as close as possible to a real RS6 saloon if there would have been one done by Audi.

The final result is impressive (at least for me) and I am extremely happy with it. All my thanks go to the guys that worked on this project: for their passion, patience and good will. They made sure everything fits perfectly, paint color is factory like and everything not only looks great but functions perfectly (LED headlights, camera, wheels alignment, etc.).

In the next posts i will explain what the LED headlights swap involved and more.

Thanks!

cmg_r

And some shots with the headlights on.

KevinGary

You certainly invested a tremendous amount of time and money into the car.

jr'sAudiA6

That is one hell of a result!!!!! Certainly one of a kind. Fantastic job.