A6 4.2 litre

I know it has been a while since I last visited the forum - but since I lost my second auto-transmission back in December, it took some time to get motivated again - and come up with a good solution. Happy to be back on the road! (with a big thanks to “redneck truck”)

I have been toying around with this idea for a while – since I lost my first trans back in 2007 – but did not have the ambition or the time to try. “Redneck truck” was a great help with his write-up on his 6MT swap on his 2001 A6 4.2, as well as a great resource for answering and providing input to my email questions. I also reviewed the posts from TozoM8 on his successes for 6MT swaps – a lot of good info.

My driveline came from an A6 2.7t with approx. 76K miles.

It had been originally a California car and the components were in great shape. I purchased the kit from Audis4parts now located in Arizona (great group to work with).

I did the entire project in my two car garage with several 6-ton high lift jack stands. I backed the car onto ramps, then lifted and supported the front end about 22”. (Did not even need to remove the rear wheels.)

The first weekend I started this project, I was able to remove the entire driveline and install the new final drive unit. The second weekend, installed the rest of the driveline, and the third weekend was used for clutch/brake pedals, exhaust, wiring, and clutch hydraulics. Probably the toughest part of the project, at least for me, was installing the return spring on the clutch pedal (even harder than routing the clutch hard line).

For the electronics, I wired the clutch pedal interlock switch into relay 53, and the clutch pedal position switch through the brake pedal switch and #39 into the main cpu (per instructions from Redneck truck and Audis4parts). I also removed and reconnected the range selector switch (set to neutral) and solenoids from the auto trans as TozoM8 did.

I have been driving the car for two weeks and have clocked almost 300 miles. The car drives and runs well – as you would expect from a MT car. Idle is good, no surging, and the “dreaded” engine light has not come on (so far – keeping fingers crossed)!

Key in the ignition ready to start.


Started and idling. (I know I need to fix the center display)

Now I just need to find an RS6 exhaust – anyone know where I can find one?

Thanks.

JT

Wow - VERY cool! I sure wish I had a 6MT in my S6 Avant. Maybe SOMEday...