OK, quick question time. I know of an available early B5 A4 (it's a 96) with a non-tip automatic transmission, and said transmission is bad (stuck permanently in limp mode, diagnosed via vagcom as being pretty much shot). I'm pretty sure a tip conversion would be quite expensive (new electronics, yada yada) and therefore pointless, so does anyone know if this is the same transmission found in any other cars besides an equivalent A6 or Passat (another pair of cars unlikely to find for parts around here)? I have the chance to pick this car up for a song (around $1500), but it's kind of pointless if I can get the car very cheaply but have to put $3500 into another transmission. If I can get one at a reasonable price or out of another VW model, say, for a few hundred bucks, then it'd be completely worth it. But I'm not wiling to end up dropping $5k after parts, on a 96 auto 12V. Where else might I find this transmission? Being that it's a 12v motor, I don't know what other cars shared drivetrains with it, and there usually isn't much non-30v 2.8 discussion around here. Anyone know? Or, while I'm on the subject, anyone have one of these lying around that they might part with?

 

You can slap on a tip tranny as long as you have the TCM for it, it won't have the wiring harness for it so the TIP won't work.
You could actually slap on an automatic right out of an audi 90 2.8L if you wanted to.

 

But even so, by doing this without changing harnesses, I'd essentially have a tipless transmission? As in, the transmission would have the capability of tip (the mechanisms) but the car would have no way to use them, so it'd just function fine as a normal auto transmission. I'm gathering from your post that the 12v was kind of the workhorse, standard V6 in Audi's lines until the 30v was introduced, and that they used it in several of the older cars. Do you know if VW also used this transmission in any cars, or if it was exclusive to Audi?

 

Its the same bolt pattern as the old passats, but who knows how they wired it. It would bolt up, but im not 100% sure that it would work correctly.
Now from an old school audi like the 80 or 90 it would work without any modifications.

 

Oh and yes it would be a tipless tranny if you used a tip trans. You would need to tear out the ENTIRE interior to run the tranny harness.

 

Perfect - thanks man. I have no intention of doing such a thing, but it's nice that the option is there to shop a wider array of parts cars for a functional transmission. I appreciate the info.