Gurgling sound

[broudav]

Just picked up a new RS7 (Nardo) about a week ago. Great car! When stopped (parked/at a light, etc.) , I can occasionally hear a sound like water running through a hose/piping form the dash area - sounds like coolant passing through lines. Doing a web search - seems like this can be caused by air in the coolant and system may need to be "burped"? Anyone hear this sound with theirs? I guess air could easily be in the system from the factory fill - all through have never heard this on another "new" car before.

[Calimus]

I'm assuming that you have the stop/start feature on the RS and that the engine cuts off when you are stopped and thats when you can hear the sound. If so, that is the cooling system, but most likely not because it needs to be burped, but the fact that electric pumps continue to flow the coolant to your turbos so that that they don't cook the oil that sitting in them when the engine stops. My 02' A6 2.7t did the same thing (had to replace the secondary electric pump once, what a pain).

[InvigR8]

I hear a water flowing like sound in my '14 when I am stopped at a light with my engine still on (no auto start/stop), but not a bubble or gurgle like noise that suggests air to me, FWIW.

[S6Express]

My 2013 S6 does this too. Dealer said they fixed it, but they didn't - it still does it. Sounds like water running through a faucet.

[visualguy]

Just picked up a new RS7 (Nardo) about a week ago. Great car! When stopped (parked/at a light, etc.) , I can occasionally hear a sound like water running through a hose/piping form the dash area - sounds like coolant passing through lines. Doing a web search - seems like this can be caused by air in the coolant and system may need to be "burped"? Anyone hear this sound with theirs? I guess air could easily be in the system from the factory fill - all through have never heard this on another "new" car before.

Had the same thing on my 2013 S5. Convinced myself it's most likely normal, so never had it looked into. Even if not normal, seemed like any "cure" would quite possibly be worse than the disease. I try to avoid having mechanics mess with my cars unless really necessary.

[chucky0731]

I'm assuming that you have the stop/start feature on the RS and that the engine cuts off when you are stopped and thats when you can hear the sound.

The 2016 RS7 does not have start/stop feature in the USA

[Arnie49]

The 2016 RS7 does not have start/stop feature in the USA

I have a 2015 RS 7 I hear the gurgling sound behind the dashboard also. It is not the radiator coolant. It is the water discharge from the AC condenser which is right behind the dashboard. If it was winter than it could be the heater core but I hope nobody has their heater on now. You would be surprised how much water flows out of the AC.

[broudav]

Thanks to everybody for the responses. I got in touch with the Audi master tech at my dealer today and he said the following [quote]: "That car runs an aux water pump along with the water pump on the engine block. If there was a air pocket in the system you would be having an over heating condition. I wouldn't worry about it. There are a lot of coolant lines behind the dash. And they all have their own actuator that will let the coolant flow. And they open up at different times depending on being stopped or moving or temperature. It's a new coolant system they have, helps keep inside warm using less energy and helps keep engine block at a normal temperature. It's a pretty cool in depth system." Of course I'm not using the heater now - but sounds as if the noise (like water flowing around) is normal enough not to worry about it and luckily overall minor.

[quad_drive]

Good thing I read this post. I have 2012 A6 3.0T, I have the same running water noise behind the dash when the car is idle, with fan speed running at low speed like 2-5... I thought about bring it in to the dealer since I have another 8 months of factory warranty left. I am a little hesitant to go to the dealer and have them take the dash apart. I guess I feel better now that this is somewhat normal :-)

[visualguy]

"That car runs an aux water pump along with the water pump on the engine block. If there was a air pocket in the system you would be having an over heating condition. I wouldn't worry about it. There are a lot of coolant lines behind the dash. And they all have their own actuator that will let the coolant flow. And they open up at different times depending on being stopped or moving or temperature. It's a new coolant system they have, helps keep inside warm using less energy and helps keep engine block at a normal temperature. It's a pretty cool in depth system."

I wonder how long all this is expected to last before something goes bad, and then how do you even get there to fix things without tearing apart the car...

[Calimus]

The Aux water pump in my 02' A6 lasted 11 years and they had it in the valley between the heads, which is pretty much the worst place to put it heat wise. I haven't dug around in the engine bay too much in the C7 just yet aside from oil/filter/spark plug changes but I need to to locate those. However, with better engine design, more heat extraction and such, I'd say the pump should last on average 10 years. Though as with anything YMMV

[quad_drive]

I thought I should share this. I had the same issue with the running water noise behind the dash. It sounded like my home AC unit when the freon was low. So, that gave me the idea to check the refrigerants (R134a) with those off the shelf refilling kits from Walmart that shows the pressure reading. My was a tad low, so I added a few pump of the R134a to bring the pressure up to the higher end of the 'FILLED' zone on the gauge. The noise seemed to have diminished right after. So, not scientific proof, but it worked for me. Figured it doesn't hurt to try and it's pretty low cost ($20).