Hello to all audi owners 🙂

i'm thinking of buying an audi a6 allroad 2015-2018 years with 3.0 tdi (most likely 272hp version).

Asking owners of the same motor/models. is the a6 allroad worth it? 
what are the main issues with it?
anything important to be checked when seeing some of them?
Any suggestion/review about this model is welcome.

 

 

Thank you in advance,

have a great day

2 hours ago, Ghenadie said:

Hello to all audi owners 🙂

i'm thinking of buying an audi a6 allroad 2015-2018 years with 3.0 tdi (most likely 272hp version).

Asking owners of the same motor/models. is the a6 allroad worth it? 
what are the main issues with it?
anything important to be checked when seeing some of them?
Any suggestion/review about this model is welcome.

 

 

Thank you in advance,

have a great day

Got the same engine in a 2017 A4 Allroad. The 3.0 TDI and Tiptronic 8-speed is wonderful to drive. Loads of low end torque. On A6, then you have air suspension as standard. Normally pretty bullet proof, but these cars are getting on a bit, so due diligence and all that.

If you have access to VCDS, then worth scanning the car for any historic faults.

This will be Euro 6, so have AdBlue, DPF and EGR. Use premium diesel and don't do short start stop journeys. Make sure nothing has been deleted.

Suspension wise, if over 100k miles check advisories on previous MOTs. Upper arm and front lower trailing arms (hydra bushes).

Check all the toys work. Sat Nav will likely need update, and potentially need air con regas.

History is critical, so that's oil changes every 5-8k miles, 10k miles at a push. Rear diff gear oil change by 100k miles and ZF make service kit for transmission. Personally I'd do by 8 years or 80k miles.

Check bodywork, but normally age well with very little rust. Rear subframes known to get crusty, so wash down and coat with Lanoguard.

Not aware of issues with panoramic sunroof if fitted. B8 A4 platform was different and plagued with issues. Clean out drain channels. Specific grease from VW to lube guides, although expensive.

Wondering if you bought the car? I have the 2014 A6 C7 Allroad 245hp. Currently on 185,000miles. It’s the best car I’ve owned. Service it regularly, including transmission at 60k, using the recommended oil and you shouldn’t have any problems. I’ve had very few issues with mine apart from the usual wear and tear items like wheel bearings, CV joints. Replaced both rear airbags, £150 ea on eBay, no major issues. I bought mine 3yrs ago with full Audi service history and have it serviced every +/- 5000 miles. Passes MOT each year with no issues. I would definitely buy a newer one however it’s hard for me to justify as only use it 6 months per year.

Bought exactly this car about 4 months ago and have to say I’m loving it, just bought some new febi engine mounts to fit after Audi inspection showed one was weeping, believe they should be changed after 40-50k miles, reasonable price so long as Audi don’t fit them, labour rate of over £200 oh in Stafford but there service plans are reasonable if you want to keep up a FSH for resale, upgraded to CarPlay cost £50 for sim and £60 for box to have it wireless, easy self install, cat doesn’t need remapping, stick is more than good enough, make sure gearbox is serviced, had Audi do mine, S-tronic sounds expensive to fix if goes wrong so look after it, make sure a decent tyre is fitted and I promise you you’ll be happy as such a comfy car, if want a racier car don’t get an Allroad look to the S6, friend has one and too still a ride for me

I’ve had mine for 4 years now (2015 model), I love it! It was the lower power version but having found a local specialist, he explained that the 3 engine versions were identical apart from the software, so one software update later and it became a different car. Uses less fuel than it used to as well.
my previous Allroad has taken me through 2 foot of flood water & a foot of snow, the height adjustable air suspension is just so good .

(you can alter the base setting I’m told if you want the lower setting to be really low!).

OK, issues, I’ve had no issues with the air suspension, on this model, the pump is inside the car, so little to no damp or debris gets in.

Theres a reported issue of a water leak from inside the V of the engine. I had mine done when I had the timing chains changed. (Shouldn’t need them unless the cars been abused or not looked after at some point), I just got unlucky and bought one! So if there was any hint of chain rattle, I’d walk away, it’s expensive!

check the air suspension works over its full range. I’m sure someone else on here can explain how to check for air leaks.

There are known issues (& fixes) for a leaky sunroof on here in other threads. (It happened to me, I fixed it after watching one of the videos).

Adblue, if you don’t drive high miles or it’s left empty for any time, the residue in the pipes can crystallise & eventually block up. 

 Adblue systems were fitted to some early cars  before it was a legal requirement sometime in late 2015, so can be disabled in the software without any MoT issues. Those built or registered (not sure which it is) after that date, then it has to be working.

The S-Tronic gearbox needs routine oil changes, every 40k miles apparently, both hydraulic & lube oil. Some of the gearboxes have a filter inside, so get that changed at the same time.

Other than that I can’t think of anything else. Others may have some more.

mines recently developed a little rattle from the rear door, it’s been ‘listened’ to and we both think it’s some wiring come loose, (probably held by a sticky pad that’s lost its stick over 10 years).

Good luck, Personally think they’re one of the best cars on the road., but then I’m biased!
 

Mike261265,

Interesting bit about engine mounts. I’ll get them checked at its next service.

Thanks

On 7/11/2025 at 3:52 PM, Aspen5121 said:

Wondering if you bought the car? I have the 2014 A6 C7 Allroad 245hp. Currently on 185,000miles. It’s the best car I’ve owned. Service it regularly, including transmission at 60k, using the recommended oil and you shouldn’t have any problems. I’ve had very few issues with mine apart from the usual wear and tear items like wheel bearings, CV joints. Replaced both rear airbags, £150 ea on eBay, no major issues. I bought mine 3yrs ago with full Audi service history and have it serviced every +/- 5000 miles. Passes MOT each year with no issues. I would definitely buy a newer one however it’s hard for me to justify as only use it 6 months per year.

Think servicing every 5k is a tadge OTT. Audis schedule is 12 or 18k depending on its use & designated maintenance cycle.

if the oil isn’t getting badly contaminated, then it shouldn’t need changing earlier than Audi specify.

Do you know something I dont? I’d like to know out of curiosity as 5k just seems far too often.

10 hours ago, 56Doc said:

Think servicing every 5k is a tadge OTT. Audis schedule is 12 or 18k depending on its use & designated maintenance cycle.

if the oil isn’t getting badly contaminated, then it shouldn’t need changing earlier than Audi specify.

Do you know something I dont? I’d like to know out of curiosity as 5k just seems far too often.

Depends on your attitude to preventative maintenance, All my diesel Audis were over 150k miles and running sweet and that was based on 8-10k mile service intervals. On my 3.0TDI I've moved to 5k intervals. It's likely to be my last diesel, and possibly my last Audi, so want to hang on to it for as long as I can. I also service the car myself - so the filter and oil aren't going to break the bank and I'm not doing the same mileage I used to. I think because this is the first chain-driven Audi, then I want to avoid chain rattle, as that will be an engine out job to change plus the tensioners. 

Spartacus 68

think the service every 5k is probably sensible, I’m only doing around 6k miles a year now that stopped work and I do worry about doing short journeys in the main, it does get a run to Cornwall and back, about 600 miles a few times a year but carbon build up is a worry for me, not sure I should be worried but given it’s a 15 plate and only done 73k miles, like you I want to preserve it as long as possible, never had a car this comfortable that is such value for money, plus want to keep away from the dreaded swap to electric as long as possible because they are not right for me at present, I hate stopping on long journeys and if go to the continent why would you want to spend half your time looking for chargers and then sat in either a queue for one or waiting to get to a point where there is enough in the battery to reach a destination?

1 hour ago, Mike261265 said:

Spartacus 68

think the service every 5k is probably sensible, I’m only doing around 6k miles a year now that stopped work and I do worry about doing short journeys in the main, it does get a run to Cornwall and back, about 600 miles a few times a year but carbon build up is a worry for me, not sure I should be worried but given it’s a 15 plate and only done 73k miles, like you I want to preserve it as long as possible, never had a car this comfortable that is such value for money, plus want to keep away from the dreaded swap to electric as long as possible because they are not right for me at present, I hate stopping on long journeys and if go to the continent why would you want to spend half your time looking for chargers and then sat in either a queue for one or waiting to get to a point where there is enough in the battery to reach a destination?

I was advised to use wood quality fuel, (shell BP etc) rather than supermarket stuff but lots of short journeys winter do the dpf any favours, I was buying dpf fuel additives as well, not sure if they did anything but thought it worth it.

But if you’re only doing 5k ish a year, then buying the premium fuel may be worth it. I haven’t tried that but might start as my mikes in the Audi has dropped to around 2k.

i stopped doing frequent long journeys a year ago and thought long & hard about using the Audi for the, almost daily, short trips. I decided to cash in some pension money (I’m 68 now, it doesn’t have to last as long!) & buy a 2nd hand small ev, that’s working out ok as it turns out I’m doing about 5.5k a yr just locally! but it means I don’t get to drive the Audi as much, which is bugging me🙄.

like you I’m not convinced EVs are that useful, cheap or convenient for long trips (especially with my 17’ kayaks on the roof!), so I’m thinking one of the new to market, long range PHEVs may be a possible option to replace both cars if I ever decide to sell the Audi on. 
that’s a dilemma that keeps going round in my head just now. 
Do I upgrade the headlights to LED with a 360 camera etc & keep it for another 3, 4, 5 years, or sell it and buy almost new to get the updated tech? Upgrades I’d like to do will cost around £4k all told, is it worth it? Haven’t figured that one out yet!
 

2 hours ago, spartacus 68 said:

Depends on your attitude to preventative maintenance, All my diesel Audis were over 150k miles and running sweet and that was based on 8-10k mile service intervals. On my 3.0TDI I've moved to 5k intervals. It's likely to be my last diesel, and possibly my last Audi, so want to hang on to it for as long as I can. I also service the car myself - so the filter and oil aren't going to break the bank and I'm not doing the same mileage I used to. I think because this is the first chain-driven Audi, then I want to avoid chain rattle, as that will be an engine out job to change plus the tensioners. 

If you can do it yourself that makes more sense, but while the cam chains are expensive, (there’s 4 of them apparently at the back of the engine). I’m not sure if they took the engine out. But I can check. Think the cost was around £4k (not sure as I had the water leak in the V addressed at the same time, plus service & gearbox oil change. Total was around £7k!)

manufacturers always recommend an annual service if mileage is below the service interval, although they’ve never been able to justify it in conversations, 

I was an engineer before I retired. One of the roles I had was to validate & update maintenance schedules for the RN’s submarines. So we spoke to a lot of manufacturers, including oil companies to check the oils, change intervals etc we were specifying were still available & correct. But those conversations often digressed, especially if they were also a car nut. 
One of those conversations got onto oil & oil change intervals Forrest cars. They told me :- In a petrol car, synthetic oil simply will not break down unless something else drastic happens to the engine, massive overheat, fire, impact, material breakdown from faulty manufacture etc. under normal conditions the oil will outlast the engine, which was quite a revelation.

in diesels though, its slightly different, due to the higher combustion pressures, vastly more combustion products get past the rings into the oil, which, while it doesn’t do the oil any harm, means you slowly build up crud being pushed around, so diesels do need  routine oil changes. 
The specialist I use for servicing uses top quality oil but it’s around £12 a litre to me on top of the labour charges. 
but, as I can’t easily do it myself (old age and old injuries catching up with me!), I just have to grin & bear it😏.

However, something I’ve always done since the early 80’s is to use some ‘Slick 50’ oil additive to the oil when I buy a car.

bought some originally as a ‘let’s give it a try’ basis n my Mk 2 Fwd Cavalier (1800 transverse engine in that) About a year later the car developed an oil leak, but it wasn’t obvious, so I missed it, this happened when I’d mostly use the car for long trips at weekends & it would sit in the base car park from Sunday night to Friday midday, apart from the usual Thursday trip to refuel etc. I’d normally check the fluid levels too but for some reason missed doing that for about a month, when I did remember to check it, the dipstick didn’t reach the oil! But, there were no other signs, engine hadn’t been running hot, no pinking, nothing. When I got it somewhere we could look at it, there was a fine jet of oil from the head gasket at the back of the engine. I’d got lucky in that it hadn’t caused a fire. New head gasket needed & all was fine, garage said no signs of overheating anywhere (they had the sump off to look at the crank too.) we put it down to the slick 50, I’ve also had a car dump it’s coolant over a 4 hour trip too, (split hose), again no engine issues and only realised something was wrong when I heard ‘bubbling’ noises after we’d stopped. (What was left of the coolant boiling). 
refilled with boiling water, vented off and all was well. Had to get it drained & refilled with antifreeze but small price.

I can thoroughly recommend adding a bottle or 2, it only needs doing every 50k and at around £30 a bottle, I’m happy to spend that to help protect the engine.