A4 Avant Auto Problem

[bullyrag]

My 2004 A4 Avant TDi Auto (6Speed-Tiptronic) has started displaying weird problem. Every so often it over revs and will not accelerate as if it has gone into neutral. Sometime the management fault light comes on the dash but not always. After a few seconds everything returns to normal although if light is on it remains on. It has been to Audi specialist who say diagnosis say main ECU has lost communitcation with Transmission ECU and I can replace Transmission ECU for about £600 which may not fix fault. If it doesn't then the next step is to replace gearbox! (about £1600). Car has done 61K miles.
Is it worth replacing or is this the start of something major?

 

[Nickynibbles]

Sounds like the typical symptoms of a worn clutch. However, being that its an auto clutch its hard to believe that its worn out! More than likely your mechanic was onto the root cause, some electrical failings in the control unit causing the clutch to partially disengage giving you the clutch slip your experiencing. It could merely be a sensor playing up, or the ECU itself. If you dont have vagcom already, suggest you invest in the £20 max it'll cost to get a cable off ebay, then you can run a diagnostic on the car yourself to see what that shows up. Im pressuming the car is now out of warranty? Was the car ever in an Audi dealership during the warranty for a service for example & you mentioned this problem to them?? If they dismissed it you could go back to them and see if they'll do something about it now. Another option is get yourself an aftermarket warranty for the car, make sure it covers the clutch, gearbox, ecu & other major electrical components for at least £2k payout. Most policies will only cover failure of components rather than wear & tear though, watch out for any mileage restrictions. If by any chance you do start to suffer a failure of the gearbox or clutch then you'll be able to get it sorted!

 

[bullyrag]

Thanks - Spoke to dealer, all out of warranty as suspected! Didn't mention it before as it has only just started happening. Already had diagnostics run, would VAGCOM be any different?

 

[Macduff]

Thanks - Spoke to dealer, all out of warranty as suspected! Didn't mention it before as it has only just started happening. Already had diagnostics run, would VAGCOM be any different?

I'd suggest talking to Audi direct or getting the dealer to try for some goodwill from them. 61k is only just past the warranty limit and it's really not good enough for a gearbox to fail at such a low mileage.

If you get no joy from that route then you could try the CAB as sale of goods act was changed in 2003. The basics of it are that if you could be protected for up to 6 years (5 here in Scotland). Not sure if it applies to cars though.

 

[bullyrag]

When you say Audi direct, is there a Head Office contact you know of?