5kTQ trans fill (& flush) - How To

[Michael Spiers <mikes@specnet.com>]

Whelp, got home Wednesday night & pulled the TQ in the garage, changed into my
crap clothes & went out to drain out the old trans & rear diff fluid.  First
thing I noticed was scrape marks all around the drain & fill plugs on the trans
& centre diff - apparently left by a set of vice grips used by a lesser
mechanic...  Anyhow, the fill & drain plugs on both the trans, centre diff, &
rear diff came off quite easily.  One gotcha on the rear diff, to get to the
fill plug ya gotta remove the skid plate that protects the fuel tank.  Once
that's out of the way, you need to pull the right brake hose out of it's
holding bracket so you can get the 17mm hex socket up to the fill plug.  Other
than that, it's child's play.  I pulled all six plugs out, and let it sit from
Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon (unmotivated more than anything.)  To fill
her up again, I jacked up the rear of the car, put both drain plugs back in &
torqued 'em, then filled the rear diff with as much as I could get in, which
was around two quarts.  Put the fill plug on hand tight, let the rear down,
then jack up the front, install both drain plugs & torque 'em, then fill the
front with as much as it would take (about 2.5 quarts), hand tighten the fill
plug, & let her down.  I took her out for a spin, let her get up to operating
temperatures, then brought her back to the garage.  I pulled all three plugs
back out of the trans & centre diff (but not the rear diff) to flush all the
fluid back out, and let it sit for a while I changed the oil & the fuel filter.
 I then jacked up the front of the car, re-installed the two drain plugs,
torqued 'em, then filled the sucker with as much as I could get in (abut 2.5
quarts.)  Hand-tighten the fill plug, take her for a spin (to make sure I
didn't screw up the fuel filter) then bring her back to the garage.  Jack up
the front, then do various cleaning activities to the garage floor for about an
hour to let the fluid shift to the rear of the trans.  I then proceeded to put
another quart of fluid in before it was full!  I'm assuming that driving the
car moved the fluid from the transmission to the hard-to-reach centre diff, and
that's why I could get another quart in there.  After it was full, I torqued up
the fill plug, let her down, then jacked up the rear.  Stuffed another quart in
the rear diff as well!  Put the brake hose back in place, re-installed the skid
plate, & called it a night.  That makes three quarts of fluid for the rear
diff, and a little over three for the trans & centre diff.  Man, that car
shifts like a dream now, the RedLine REALLY makes a difference!  BTW, someone
on this list was wanting to put a magnet in their car, and was wondering how to
attach one.  Well, my TQ had a magnet attached to the drain plug on the centre
diff.  This was the only one out of all six plugs that had one, but I'm
assuming that this is a stock drain plug.  Maybe a worthwhile swap for any
Audi's not having a magnet, 'cuz there was all sorts of metal shavings on this
guy (which makes me a little nervous!)  YMMV...

-- 
-Mike
mikes@specnet.com
mks107@psuvm.psu.edu
87 5000CS TQ
84 5000S (2,000 miles away and a mile high)
90 80 (sibling's mode of transportation I get lynched into working on)