I have 2000 A6 manual, that has developed an "issue" with 1st and 2nd gear, 3rd-6th and R are fine.

Over the past 6 months it has been getting progressively harder to shift into 1st and 2nd, last week though the transmission wouldn't shift into 1st or 2nd. I immediately took it to my Audi/VW mechanic (not a dealer), they checked the engine and trans mounts, the linkage, and flushed the fluid, nothing, everything looked fine, and no debris in the fluid. Their guess (they didn't open the tranny) is a shift fork has gone bad. BTW, after the fluid flush it will now shift into 1st, roughly, and 2nd sort of, but it is REALLY hard to shift out of second.

The Audi shop suggested I call Audi of America and take it to a dealer, but they also thought it may still be under warranty, which it isn't, so I took it to a transmission shop, which I have done business with in the past on other vehicles. They drove it and think it's a collar or bearing, they don't believe it's a broken shift fork, since there would be grinding, etc, and there isn't.

My question is has anyone else had similar problems with this manual tranny? If so, what was the problem?

Also I don't want to take it to the dealer, both dealers in Columbus are horrible, they over charge and never fix it right the 1st, 2nd, 3rd... N times you take it to them.

Thanks

 

I had a 1999 mustang Cobra with a 5 speed and i had problems with my first and second gear just the same way as your describing it and i thought it was my tranny that was bad...but it ended up being the clutch itself it wasnt disengaging correctly in first and second gear so i bought a different clutch and that fixed my problem....when my mechanic took my clutch out he visually inspected it and by looking at it there is no way that u can tell what is wrong with it...i sent the clutch to centerforce and they did a diagnosis on it and they told me that it wasnt disengaging correctly so i ended up buying a Spec Stage 3 clutch and it fixed my problem, first and second gear were smooth as can be...so even if they check ur clutch out and they dont see anything wrong with it.... dont leave that possibility out that something is wrong with it....hope this helped you somewhat


AL

 

Thanks. I have actually been thinking along those lines as well, since occasionally, with the clutch totally depressed, it will clunk going into 1st.

 

Most likely its one of two things. A clutch going out or bad synchros on one and two. Either way the trans has to come out. A visual inspection will usually show chunks of clutch or at least a ton of dust when the bellhousing area is inspected, if there is a clutch issue.

 

I'm having the same issues with my '00 A6. I flushed the fluid, inspected and adjustedthe linkage (not fun), yetnothing obvious. Please let me know what you found out, I hope just the clutch. I don't want to replace the transaxle. Thanks for the help.

 

Sorry Ihaven't checked back for a while, suspect you have had yours fixed by now

I had mine rebuilt by a local shop that does all of my trans work (I have several 100K+ vehicles.... They said they didn't see anything obvious, the clutch was worn, but only ~60%, they had to replace 1st and 2nd gear (teeth missing), and they replaced all of the bearings and bushings and such, not because they were bad per se, just because that's what they do when the rebuild a manual tranny.It was a little stiff when I first got it back, but that seemed to be because it was extremely cold, and the bushings where new, a couple of days it was back to normal.

Hope that helps, sorry for the late reply. BTW, rebuilding saved me over half what Audi wanted for a "new" tranny.

 

Bradleyk - any idea why you were missing teeth on the first two gears? Were you powershifting it? I stripped the teeth off third gear in my Jeep CJ-7, but I was sand-dragging and dropped the hammer in 3rd LOW at about 4000 rpm.

 

I am the second owner, I bought it with 58K on it. The car was clean and ran fine until the 1st/2nd shitfting problem, it showed no signs of abuse and after the rebuild hasn't given me any trouble.The shop didn't really feel this was strange for a trans with 90K on it.If I remember correctly 1st was missing one or two teeth and 2nd just had worn teeth.

 

Well, I just turned 98k on mine and not having problems shifting. I did have to replace the clutch (and flywheel) about 9k ago due to the clutch slipping, but I can understand that since I chipped the car.

Has anyone else had problems with broken or worn gear teeth in their MT6? I cannot believe this is "to be expected" on an Audi with only 90k. They should be engineered to go well beyond that.