Hello Friends,

First post here - glad to find that such a forum exists. Hope to be able to contribute some advice too, but obviously I'm starting here with a problem!

I have a 1994 100 estate, 2.6 auto, 140k miles, and now an intermittent transmission problem. Every now and then it seems to get stuck in 1st gear. If I then stop and turn off the ignition, the rev counter doesn't drop to 0. I restart and the rev counter is back to normal, and so is the gearbox. Given that I intermittently see a bulb failure warning come up, even though all the bulbs are good, you might think aha! It's an electrical problem, except that on my drive home from work there are some specific places where I can guarantee that this will happen, long slow dow, turn a sharp corner and there it is stuck in 1st.

So, my first instinct is to worry about the fluid level (but I can't check that, and having real trouble booking it in to the Audi dealer to get them to do it).

I don't want to ask the dealer to troubleshoot this because the car isn't worth that much!

Still, it's in beautiful condition, engine is a peach and the aircon very effective so I want to rescue it.

Has anyone seen this before, or got any other tips for troubleshooting?

Thanks

Steve

ill go with the tranny fluid

local://upfiles/12092/576BC5D0E7A94A959B7D03229B88C67E.jpg

yeah try a filter change and a tranny flush

Well, thanks guys: I can confirm that after the dealer took in the Audi and did the transmission oil flush and replace, the transmission now works absolutely fine. This is only 4 years and 30k miles after the last time it was done, but hey - it's good to be back! I can confirm that I am still seeing this random electrical gremlin occur without the gearbox going open-loop.

I had the same problem when I bought my 1994 Audi 100s with 160K from the dealer. I couldn't get it out of 1st gear. But my problem wasn't intermittent, it was all the time. I took it back to the dealer and they said it was a heat sensor for the transmission.(At least I think that is what it is called, I don't really remember) They told me that by not switching out of 1st was a safety mechanism that the car is supposed to do so it doesn't ruin the transmission. They replaced the sensor and I have never had any problems at all. Hope that helps...