[V6-12v] A6 transmission mystery

Thu Jan 8 13:46:06 PST 2009

Yes, it seems pretty definite that the main input shaft is corroded or
somehow fouled inside the valve body.  The entire transmission linkage is
disconnected and the shaft is REALLY stiff to move.  The question is has
anyone had that happen before?

The mechanic in question is arguably the ONLY Audi specialist of sorts. He
is a BMW/Toyota Master tech, and is the only person who I would trust an
Audi (or any other German auto) to here in Maine.  There is one Audi dealer
that I have some regard for, 100 miles away. The nearest Audi dealer is a
Ford dealer about 40 miles away, and there is something not very reassuring
taking an Audi into a large service facility where there are forty nineteen
Ford Focusses (Focussi?) waiting in line.

This is not my car.  I am merely asking if anyone within earshot has had
this kind of issue with one of these transmissions.  The owners of the car
were given the car (I am told), and will NOT do a $2000 transmission...which
is a shame because the car is really worth keeping in service based on the
overall condition at least as far as I could tell from my casual look as I
walked out of the garage last week.

Roger

-----Original Message-----
From: v6-12v-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v6-12v-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Jonathan
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 3:36 PM
To: v6-12v at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [V6-12v] A6 transmission mystery

Hi Roger,

you seem pretty certain that it is a corroded shaft, has your mechanic 
actually seen the shaft to tell you that it is corroded, or am I 
missinterpreting that as "this is what we think"
**********slight tangent**********
I have a 96 FWD automatic that's done almost 260K, the only problem it has 
with the transmission is the F125 Multi-switch has a corroded connector, so 
unless the car lives near the ocean it's entire life or has been abused by a

previous owner who didn't put the right oils in it when it needed it, I
don't 
know why a shaft would corrod so badly. (Oh that switch, apparently tells
the 
computer what gear the car is in, so the dodgy connector means that gear 
changes aren't as smooth, or sometimes it sh**s itself as it thinks it's
lost 
the transmission - interestingly the windows trick of turn everything off, 
leave it for a minute and turn it all back on again works)
*********************
I also guess you haven't taken it to a Audi specialist? If you want to get
the 
car working, I've often found from my own and other peoples experience, that

even through Audi specialists are more expensive per item done, they often 
can find what needs to be done and do only that. My dad had that problem
with 
his A4, he spend thousands trying to fix the "airbag light coming on" at 
local mechanics, to take it to Audcare, who replaced a dirty connector for 
free, which solved the problem.

If you're mechanic ends up taking anything apart around there, you need to 
find out if there are any alloy parts before hand.
- Someone else on this list might be able to help with that. -
This is because threads in alloy parts are only designed to be assembled
about 
3 times before the thread rips out. Or assembled about once if done by a 
mechanic who knows nothing about alloy parts. (My boss used to be an 
engineering manager at a transmission manufacturing company. They mad 
transmissions for Massaraties among other things)

Anyway, if there are alloy parts, make sure your mechanic has Heli coil or 
other high quality threading wire. Use google to understand what it is. I 
found this out the hard way when a bolt holding my brake caliper on came out

and jammed between the rotor and the wheel. At least that was a bake failure

which caused the car to stop :D

Cheers

Jon

> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 10:14:08 -0500
> From: "Roger Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com>
> Subject: Re: [V6-12v] A6 transmission mystery
> To: <davidtorrey2004 at yahoo.com>,	<v6-12v at audifans.com>
> Cc: v8 at audifans.com, 200q20v at audifans.com
> Message-ID: <81EFE2EEABE1448B860023708DA7146B at ROGER>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>
> More information.  The gear selector has been completely disconnected.
The
> problem is the shift shaft itself is very very still down into the
> transmission.
>
>
>
> Thus the question is has anyone experienced this problem before?  We are
> hoping that there might be a "fix" short of a complete transmission tear
> down or replacement.
>
>
>
> Roger
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Torrey [mailto:davidtorrey2004 at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 8:35 AM
> To: v6-12v at audifans.com; rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com
> Cc: 200q20v at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [V6-12v] A6 transmission mystery
>
>
>
>
> When you say the gear selector is hard between gears, do you mean
> physically shifting the gear selector between D1,D2, D3 or the automatic
> upshifts are hard between shift points?  Is the gear selector solenoid
> valve engaging properly when you depress the brake pedal?  I have 177K
> miles on my '93 100 CSQ Avant and I have never experienced this.  I did
> change to fully synthetic transmission fluid at 35K miles for whatever
that
> is worth.
>
>
>
> David
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 1/7/09, Roger Woodbury <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
> From: Roger Woodbury <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com>
> Subject: [V6-12v] A6 transmission mystery
> To: v6-12v at audifans.com
> Cc: 200q20v at audifans.com
> Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 9:19 PM
>
> I am sending this query to everyone that I can reach about a transmission
> issue with an A6 Avant that my wrench has.  The car has a very hard gear
> selection problem that needs a diagnosis and solution if possible. Perhaps
> someone on one of these lists has had or heard of a similar problem.
>
> The car is a 1997 A6 Avant Quattro with just over 200K.  The car is in
very
> nice overall condition but was towed in yesterday due to the very hard
gear
> selection problem
>
> What happens is that the gear selector has a very stiff troubled movement
> from Park to any gear, and then from gear to gear.  It would appear that
> the main transmission input shaft may be corroded within the gear set
> itself, or perhaps within the valve body of the transmission itself.
>
> Short of doing a complete tear down we are wondering if this is something
> that anyone has had happen before. The car's overall condition is
> excellent,
> not even considering the miles:  the car looks like less than 100k not
more
> than twice that.  Maintenance is current.
>
> The car was given to the current owners and they will not do a $2,000
> transmission job on the car but will move on to something else. Our
> question is whether or not this might be something simple, or it will
> involve a major operation to get the transmission to move from gear to
gear
> smoothly.
>
> TIA,
>
> Roger
>
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