JCByrd24

For clarity, the 605 really was not missing from my car, it was not factory installed, there is no relay socket unfilled.

Q7/A6Wagoneer

Replacing mine fixed the problem. I replaced the relay and all was well.

JCByrd24

Is your 2003 Avant a 2.7T, I believe those had the 605 but from what I have seen the 3.0s don't. My car does not have one, though the owners manual, which is specific to the 3.0, does say it has servotronic and says there will be hard steering at low speeds if the system fails...

Does anyone know about the 3.0 servotronic system? It is not just a little still like the 605 removal, it is intermittently very very hard to steer at low speeds.

jbchinoca

At the risk of repeating what's already been said here, they used three different relays, a 292, 328, or the more common 605, but all are the same purpose and are completely interchangeable. Regardless of which you have, you would be less likely to notice if it failed except at low speeds or parking. My guess is that it is failing/has failed already. I ripped out mine right away on both of my C5's, and never had trouble parking or any other low speed maneuver, nor did my wife. These relays are only used on US market (maybe Canada?) cars because Audi thought we wanted the Audi to feel like grandma's Buick. Ya don't need it.

JCByrd24

Any good information is worth repeating, but I should have been more clear. I understand that there are different "relays" used, my 2003 3.0 did not have any of them factory installed, I was generalizing stating 605. The Bentley refers to the location as position 13 and under the steering column trim I have a position 3, but it is a hole.

From what I have read, this is normal for the 2003 3.0 A6s. For some reason, Audi apparently did away with servotronic on this model. This is not consistant with my owners manual but there is certainly no wiring in place for a servotronic module. This is consistant with another 2003 3.0 owner reporting.

I'm really freaking confused on this one. The low speed steering effort required is much higher, I'm convinced, than a 605 removal would cause, I can barely park, power steering is gone below 5 mph, than just comes back above 10-15. No mechanical syptoms though. The non-servotronic system must incorporate some speed related assist that's eff'ing up hard core.

bighands

I'd be interested in hearing about your resolution, because my 2003 A6 3.0 is behaving the same.