Major difference in performance after tranny service

For VAG(VW and AUDI group) cars, they are very picky on how the tranny service is done. You will most likely screw up in the first try regardless how well you have prepared. But once you master the procedures, you are likely to extend your tranny lifetime to 300K mile range by doing the service every 50~70K miles....like every 4 years..?

For this type of work mostly only dealer can do it, not even other Germany car specialist (like MB, BMW,)can do it.

I wanted to change the fluids in my audi tranny and I first went to a BMW specialist thinking to keep my hands clean but he screwed up the volume of the fluids by following wrong procedures and as the result, there were issues from losing of power and rattle noises from tranny area. I had to figure out how to do it myself because dealer wants $700+ to do it and wait time is one week (replace fluids and filter). By DIY, my total cost eventually come to about $100 for supplies.(fliuds, filter, pump etc, )and tools.

here is the link that will save you $700+ and much headache later if you are handy. It took me 4 months+ time to figure out how to do it right.

http://www.taligentx.com/passat/maintenance/atfchange/


From my experience, I'd say the best time to do it should be during winter time when it is cold out so you drive your car on local and highway for half an hour until the tranny is full warmed up and operational.(this is to make sure the torque converter is filled with fluids and make more space for you in the oil pan, other wise you will have hard time to fill in the proper amount of oil because some of the oil has to get sucked up from the sump to make space for new oil you will fill into the oil pan). another thing is to have at least two people to do the job, one in the driver seat doing the gear shifting work when you are filling the sump, better yet to have the third person help you pumping away while you monitor the fluids level, when at the right temp range the fluids will trickle out from the fill plug hole. But if you are the only person under the car doing the filling job, you are very likely get panic when you need to do a few things at the same time, pumping the fluids in, using the thermal scanner to scan the surface temp of the oil pan, and trying to put back the fill plug when it started overflowing, thus making the whole procedure less accurate. anyway, even with the help of my advice and the link in below, you may have to do twice of the work to get the fluids level right. but give it a try when sump surface temp drops below 20 C degree, you have only about 3~5 mins time to do the whole filling job while engine is running. ( 35~45 C degree temp range is defined in Bentley manual).

Get one or two strong magnets from old harddrives and put them in the pan when you open it up, clean the old magnet in it and the pan with brake cleaner...prepare lots of shop towels

Also get all supplies ready ahead of time like crushers for the plugs and gaskets and filters. use brand new ones and don't recycle old ones. use torque wrench to torque to spec if you are going to go the full 9 yards.(meaning dropping the oil pan and changing the filter as well). Don't over torque anything in there). Get a good high output fliuds pump from marine shops...

and finally, use jack stands or borrow a car lift, so you don't get crashed while working under the car...
Be safe and then save.

Let us know how it goes...and good luck.

所有跟帖： 

• You rock! -internuts- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/11/2009 postreply 06:52:04

• thanks a lot. few question.. -coorslight969- ♂ (990 bytes) () 04/11/2009 postreply 14:49:09

• for those who listen, believe and use dealers... -hard2get1- ♂ (420 bytes) () 04/11/2009 postreply 22:09:13