New A6 2.7T-Brilliant Black/Melange, PSK, etc, lease with AOA
LOVE the car but need info on;
1 Break-In Not necessary according to dealer
2 Reasonable chrome wheels/tire combo(not $600 each wheel)-17 in?
3 They say new wheels will void the warrantee-is this correct?
4 Wash/wax info-can I use a duster since this car picks up dust from driveway to garage
5 Detector hookup/mount info
Thanks
Mark

 

Go for the Valentine One, it is great.

I think the manual speaks to break-in, but maybe I imagined that. I would avoid using the cruise control and avoid driving hard, especially early on. I remember some threads earlier on break in. You can use the forum's search functions to find them.

Audi says the first service should be at 8k miles, which seems too long to me. In fact, going 8k between oil changes feels a little careless.

I have seen dealers get a car out and start demo'ing its power without even warming it up, so it surprises me little that they would say a break-in is not necessary....

As far as aftermarket wheels voiding the warrantee, I don't know but would like to know more.

 

1: I disagree with your dealer. Your manual is specific about the break-in period. Also when we took delivery and were introduced to our service dept., they were very specific about not running at same RPM and not driving at full throttle or "hard" for first 1000 miles. After that, have a ball! They even said not to "baby it" after break-in period because they have seen delayed ring seating causing excessive oil consumption. I changed my oil at 4000 just last week. The mechanics all told me 8000 was just fine, "but if it were my car" response. I know oil is much better than it used to be, but I cant seem to break that old habit. No break-in additives used anymore by the way.

2: All I can tell you is that you do not see any chromed alloys in Europe because the chrome prep and procedure has a negative effect metallurgically speaking. There are no TUV certified wheels that are chrome alloys. Perhaps an engineer in here can help?

3: I am of no help here, have not heard this one. But am curious about it.

4: I have no experience with dusters, but dust seems abrasive to me.

5: Valentine One! Mount as high as possible, but I have heard tinting strip at top can decrease performance.

Congrats and best of luck!

 

For the wheels, try the Mille Miglia Spider 17" wheels (about $175/wheel at Tire Rack, or try Town Fair Tire, if there's one near you). I got a set of the Spider Wheels with 17" Dunlop SP9000's for $1400 total, and sold my original wheels and tires for $700 - $700 total cost upgrade...<p>DLow

 

Partial answers:

Ques 3- I never, ever heard of new wheels voiding warranty.

Ques 4- NEVER use a duster. You might use a wet cotton towel lightly pulled over surface, followed by drying with dry towel. But, don't do this if dust is heavy or there is any chance of scratching clear coat.

Ques 5- I hooked up my detector to fuse #27 (heated steering wheel). I use an old Escort which works perfectly for me. (I think all those believers in the Valentine just like to throw away money) Anyhow, on my car, #27 is vacant, but provides 12 v when ignition is 'on'. I mount the detector just
above the dash in the left corner of the windshield using the suction cups and bracket that Escort provides. The sensitivity is excellent this way- and this has worked just fine for me for many years in many different cars. I solder a piece of thin brass about 1/8" by 1/2" to the
end of the positive lead. (My plug is center positive). This is inserted in
the left side 'pincers' of the fuse contacts and braced with a piece of heat shrink tubing. I recommend an in line (2 amp) fuse be place in the negative line which can connect to any ground point. There are several handy places. The power line is run between the dash and wind-
shield (easy) and sticks out with about 5" of curly line to connect to the detector. Although this is very easy- (about 30 minutes) to do- I don't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a VTVM, and a solder iron (and knows how to use it) and a little knowledge of the bad things that can happen if you don't know a little about basic electricity.

 

I recall reading consumer reports or something like that a while back where they did a <b>very</b> thorough study of oil changes. They found that after disassembling the engines of new test vehicles (about 40 NYC Cabs) that had 3K and 6K change cycles over a year, microscopic evaluation of the engine components showed virtually NO difference. So going 8K should not be a problem, I suspect.

 

You may be right, but cabs are operated much differently than the average Audi user runs his/her vehicle.

In some ways, cabs are probably harder on the oil and engine. However, 3-6k in a cab probably involves significantly fewer thermal cycles than for a normal passenger car, because cabs are run all day. Some of the toughest miles on a vehicle come before the engine reaches normal operating temperature. For a cab, six thousand miles may happen in two weeks with 14 cold starts, whereas a passenger car may take three months for only three thousand miles with 150 cold starts.

Clearly, the conditions are drastically different enough to not use those findings to inform us here.