A6 Avant 3.0 LeMans

[StuCo]

Hi all, I am currently looking to buy an A6 3.0 Le Mans. I have my eye on one at the moment but would appreciate some advice before buying. The car I'm looking at is a 59 plate with 100,000 miles. It has the tiptronic gearbox and a good spec. 

 

I know the usual things to look out for when buying a second hand car but never having owned an Audi I'm not wanting to be caught out with something particular to Audi cars. 

Any advice would be much appreciated. 

Thanks in advance. 

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum Stuart! 

Your making a good choice with the a6 model you have selected as it is the best bar far. Excluding the s6 or rs6. The Le Mans has lowered suspension (more so than the s line) and has electric everything including auto closing boot and reversing camera :) 

in terms of faults the common one is the intake manifold swirl flaps failing. Now a replacement intake manifold will cost you around £500 but you can buy repair kits which cost around £80.

youll be able to tell if this has been done by the service history. If the car has Audi service history then you can ring them to see what has been done. Ideally contact the dealer who has done the servicing. 

Also make sure all electrical items work as they should as fixing electrical parts can get costly. 

I would also recommend you seeing if you can get an AA or RAC inspection carried out on the vehicle. The seller is reluctant or refuses for you to have one done then I would walk away as they or the car has something to hide. 

Also make sure there are no warning lights on the dash such as the engine management light. As this could be caused by a clogged dpf filter. The dpf filter was fitted to 3.0tdi a6 models 2008 onwards.

The filter gets clogged due to too many short journeys and it means the filter can not burn off the particulates which occurs on longer journeys. As such it becomes more and more clogged until it breaks and at which point it can cost you over £1000 to replace the dpf. 

The other reason why the engine management light could be on is due to a faulty egr/egr which again is another £1000+ job to fix. 

With regard to the gearbox make sure the gear changes are smooth and that there's no jerkiness or hesitation. Make sure the changes are smooth with the paddles/manual mode too. As obviously any repairs will be costly! 

Just to make you aware performance Audi ran a buyers guide on the 3.0tdi Le Mans in their last issue :) 

If the car has good service history and drives well then you'll be getting a very nice car indeed abd one of the nicer Audi models on the second hand market :) 

hope iv helped :) 

cheers 

Steve 

[StuCo]

Thanks Steve, that's been really helpful. The swirl flaps etc are nothing new to me as I've had them all on both of my previous cars. It's good to know that the gearbox is robust though as this was one of my main concerns. I'll look up the article you mention to get as much info as possible before committing to buy. 

Thanks again

Stuart

[Steve Q]

Your more st welcome Stuart :) 

glad I could help :) 

cheers

steve