Tiptronic banding?

[2003 S4]

Advice please guru's.

3rd Gear seems to take an age to engage on my 2002 2.5 TDI Quattro tip, producing what some are calling the banding effect (the engine revving then the car speed catching up later)

Can anyone tell me if this is normal, if it does not sound normal how can I get it looked at?

I know these things can be costly. Not long had the car but I can’t go back to the dealer (which is 180 miles away) and say I think there is a problem, I need to go back to him and say xyz is the problem etc etc.

Cheers

 

[etronic]

First of all did you or any previous owners have done gearbox maintenance (oil service)? If not do this first and check result.

 

[2003 S4]

I don't think any oil change on the gear box has ever been done. A friend of mine put me in touch with an Audi technician today, he checked through the records and it appears not. I'm taking it to audi tomorrow and they are gonna give it a test drive.

The contact at Audi mentioned about doing the oil change, I've read alot about people who changed the gearbox oil and fixed all sorts of issues! Don't really understand how changing the oil can fix problems but I'll give it a go if its worth it.

Do you know how the oil change fixes so many things?

Cheers

 

[etronic]

Don't really understand how changing the oil can fix problems Cheers

Oil in the gearbox functions as oil in engine - lubricate components. With time soot builds up (not as bad as in the engine) and oil looses it's properties. Soot clogs filter and valves what goves effect of "lazy" shifting. Usually it gets better after few minutes of driving ( oil heats up and gets thinner) but with time goes much worse....

 

[2003 S4]

Ok mate, cheers for the advice. It's going in at 12 today for testing. I recon this oil change will be the course of action.

 

[2003 S4]

Getting the oil replaced at an independant on Monday. Will post results here.

 

[rodge55]

I thought the Tiptronic box was sealed for life and doesnt require an oil change !!

 

[2003 S4]

Well, it appears that it is not sealed and is on a regular basis a fix for many gear box problems.

 

[DGSdale]

The Tiptronic 'box certainly isn't sealed, its just a case of Audi stating that it is filled for life and the oil doesn't need changing. I can't help wondering if your 2.5TDI is Tiptronic or Multitronic (I thought by 2002 they were Multi). The two 'boxes are very different & the Multitronic should have it's oil changed every 40,000miles

 

[2003 S4]

It's quattro so it's Tiptronic. The Multitronics were put on the none quattro models. Apparently multitronic can't handle the load put on them by the quattro. This was confirmed when most of them failed with a 6 plate clutch (it was a 6 plate something) inside them and had to be upgraded to 7 plate.

 

[2003 S4]

Ok guys the saga continues........

Had the gearbox oil change done. The indi who did it said that when they took off the sump pan (or something like that) there were 2 bolts lying on it!! The oil was thick as anything. They changed the oil and put the bolts back in. Now the car seems to jump out of gear when in 5th, resulting in not being able to use 4th or 5th until the engine is restarted.

Is this limp mode?

Taking it back to the indi on Tuesday who are going to plug in the computer to check for fault codes and check the gearbox oil level as this can apparently cause the issue of the car going into limp mode.

Someone else suggested that it could be because water has got into the wiring that controls the electronics of the gearbox, what do you all recon?

At least it would hold gears before the oil got changed.

Advice from anyone with similar experience would be appreciated.

 

[etronic]

If it's worse than before garage must have f*&@%d something up. And you're right GB goes into limp mode... Where did they installed these two bolts?

 

[2003 S4]

Thanks for your reply.
The only thing that is worse is now the gearbox goes into limp mode, the gear change itself seems to be ok.

Interestingly I have found that the gearbox is going into limp mode at the same place when on the way to work. It happens when going round a particular bend on a particular duel carriageway.

I spoke to the garage who did the oil change to inform them of my findings. They are thinking that there is now not enough oil in the gearbox. When they were changing the oil they said it was pretty much clogged up in there and now the new oil they put in has spread we need to put some more in.

Not sure where the bolts were meant to go but before the oil change when I went over a bump in the road I could feel the accelerator vibrate. Now this does not happen.

The next bit is what I really want answering, no one seems to be able to.

I’m still not sure about the whole gear change on this car. Although the gears lock in, from second to third seems to take an age with what seems to need a lot of revs. An example of this would be using the gearbox in Tip mode so I can see what gear I am in from the dash. When I select third I get a revving clutch slipping sensation then when the car is up to about 25mph the gear will lock in and the revs will drop.

Basically, from selecting third and seeing that I have selected third on the dash the time it takes to engage on average is about 4 to 5 seconds. Is this normal? It looks like first and second are close in ratio and the ratio in 3rd is not so close as first is to second.

Does this sound similar to what any other A6 Quattro 2.5TDI Tiptronic (not multitronic) drivers experience?

Cheers

 

[singhl]

I have a 2005 3.0tdi quattro tiptoronic, on which the gearbox failed totally, had it fixed, but when I got it back had the same problems as you are saying, the gearbox specialist sent it to the local audi garage who advised a different oil and reflashing the gearbox software to a different version that specifically fixed the problem you are having, It is a known issue at Audi and a decent Audi tech should find the fix from their service bulletins,

One word of caution, I was told that having either the different oil or the newer software on their own (ie one without the other), was a sure fire way to fry the gearbox.

I had both done (at the gearbox specialist cost) and have no issues since, I used Beechwoood Audi in Halesowen.