2012 A6 Faulty 3.0T Thermostat??
 

Hi,

I have a 2012 A6 3.0T. The thermostat has been replaced twice at 9,100 and 45,500 miles because the car overheated. Thankfully the warranty covered both repairs. The service manager told me that out of warranty it costs about $900.00! Evidently the supercharger has to be removed to get to the thermostat.

It seems odd that I have had to replace the thermostat twice in such a short time. I checked the truedelta website and I found 17 2012 A6 3.0T owners registered. Five of them have had thermostats replaced under warranty. This seems excessive to me. I spoke with the service manager at the dealership. He told me he has replaced a "number" of thermostats and that Audi has requested the part be sent in for inspection. I asked if it was just the 3.0T or other engines as well. He said it is "mostly" the 3.0T.

I called Audi USA to find out what they knew the gentleman on the phone said there are no service bulletins and there was nothing more he could tell me.

Have other A6/S6 owners had thermostat issues?

I am probably going to sell the car. The thought of being stranded with an overheated car and paying $900.00 to have it fixed is not my idea of a good time.

I too have had my thermostat replaced. When I talked to my service manager he told me this is a known issue and that a newer thermostat part has been installed to replace the one that failed. It is my understanding that the original thermostat assembly was made from plastic and that it would warp interring with the operation of the thermostat. Supposedly the new thermostat assembly is made from aluminum. In my case the engine overheated indicating the thermostat would/could not open. I have since put about 20K miles on the replacement with no issues so far. Another point of interest is my failure was sudden no warning what so ever. On the day it happened I had been driving it a track without any problems. It did not overheat until we were on our way home.