Common faults, failures and other things to look out for?

[dewitts]

Hi guys,

i'm looking into buying a 2.0 TDI 2012 and wanted to find out what issues to avoid and look out for in the process..

I have had a Passat B6 which experienced the balance shaft failure at 205k (apparently this part fails at 100k and is £1000+vat for the part and is a Dealer repair) Sold as it was on ebay!

Firstly i'm wanting to know if the same applies to the A6?

Secondly if there's any other common faults or expensive failures that need to be looked out for on this model?

I was thinking it would be nice to have a sticky with something like a buyers guide with things like this listed in it.

Thanks

[johnsimcox]

A couple of faults that crop up are

1. On early C7 A6's there was an issue with the way in which the door seals around the speakers in the front doors had been fitted resulting in water entering the interior of the car. Audi has a fix for this and hopefully all cars affected have been fixed, but be aware just in case
2. You will see reports on this forum and elsewher of fuel filler flaps failing to open requiring a replacement of the mechanism. Pulling the emergency rel;ease cord does not solve it as it is the actuator that sticks not the lock. I have had this fault on both my 2012 and 2015 cars.

Other than that they are pretty reliable, although not many have reached the sort of high mileages you mention. As with everything Audi when things go wrong they are expensive to fix so investing in a warranty, at least for the first year is probably worthwhile.

[Whippy53]

Chocolate flywheels on manual boxes comes to mind. Make sure gearbox oil is changed every 38k. Other than that?

[dewitts]

Thanks for your replies guys, the one i'm looking at has 90K on the clock so if it suffers with the same balance shaft failure around 100k i'd leave it where it is, unless I have a warrantee that puts me well past that figure