I've got 168K on my 2000 A6 Avant and per the manual its time to change spark plugs again. I've done so every 32K so far, but am wondering if it's wasteful to stay on such a short schedule. The car is running fine and my gas mileage is as usual. If I'm not mistaken, many other cars have less frequent changes specified. Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

My two bits are:

1) Do you like the way your a6 runs?
2) Do what the manual says.

Its better to error on the side of caution. I know there are many people who say the parts could last longer. True and false.

I tend to be someone who goes for the preventative maintenance approach. Hasn't bit me in the *** yet.

 

I have done them on my 02 Quattro at about 40,000 for the same reason. Mine has 132,000. HAs yours given you any nasty repair bills that I should be aware of.

The 2 that come to mine for me were the cats most recently, crank sensor and the really expensive at $2500.00 were the cam chain tensioners. Any info would be appreciated

thanks Ed

eddie@kwalyti.com

 

Thanks for the advice on the plugs - I was leaning toward continuing replacing at every 32K even though the car is older and its probably overkill and will do so.

Ed, you asked what big problems I've had over the years:

- an Air conditioning evaporator coil leak @ about 130K. I'm told they are rare in this car. The entire dash had to come out. Normally a $2,000 job, but I got lucky and had a salvage yard that specializes in Audis in NJ do it for about $1,000.

- main engine crank seal completely blew @ 140K. About $1,000 all together.

- was told both cats were bad. brought it to a different mechanic who was able to figure out that the cats were good but the pipes leading to them were falling apart and he welded new pipes and fixed the problem for much, much less.

smaller stuff I remember:

- airbag harness and clock spring in steering wheel needed replacement
- I live with frequently resetting a code (1432) for secondary air injection. so far people haven't been able to figure it out
- replaced ABS module myself

Dave

 

Caveat: I put mostly highway miles on my A6. I generally change the plugs every 60k miles. I have not noticed any decrease in performance or gas mileage as they get older nor any improvement immediately after replacing them. You could always pull one out and inspect it for wear, carbon, gap.

 

Dave, I also had the secondary air injection and was pissed that I took it to the dealer

The pump is in the right front bumper under the headlight. There is a big hose that snakes to the right (from the pass side view) of the motor. Mine had a a pretty big hole in it, due to heat and oil. The hose you can get for about $100.00 for Sunset Audi and install, maybe an hour

Let me know if you need more info

Ed

 

The secondary air has been a pain because for years it was intermittent. Years ago one shop replaced the pump and hose from it, which was stupid since only one side was showing a code. Then I brought it to the dealer and they couldn't figure it out and said I'd need to replace the engine head if it didn't go away!! So I lived with resetting the code myself every few weeks when it popped up. More recently it has become near constant and yesterday I brought it to a mech I trust and he said the combi valve was definitely bad and replaced it (about $250 in parts and $250 in labor. I'm hoping that worked and even though it wasn't screwing anything up I could notice, somehow I feel a whole lot better about the car now that I finally dealt with it.

 

Dave, that is worth noting in case it pops up in mine.

Any control arms or shocks? I see some age cracks in my front arms