I have a 1997 Audi A4 1.8T Quattro Automatic and randomly when the engine is cold car won’t go into reverse, also in position number 2. I can feel that the transmission doesn’t engage in these two positions, only after I switch to every gear a few times. All other gears would work. I‘ve noticed that the selector on the dashboard gauge doesn’t move either on reverse position and #2. It jumps to the next position. I don’t know what the problem could be and there were no signs that the transmission was bad. I will appreciate any ideas, or if anyone has heard of any similar problems please tell me.

 

there is a gear selector sensorswitch/sensorthat can go bad. Try to find someone with vag com to scan your tcu for fault codes.
http://www.steve-hall.com/cgi-bin/VAG-Locator.pl

 

Hi onepoint8tee,

Thanks for answering my posting. Here are the updates to my problem.
I'm trying to locate somebodywith a VAG tool using the link that u posted, but no luck. No one answer yet to my emails.Therefore,I went to a few shops in my area-Queens NY)specialized in transmission repairs. Two of them are AAMCO (Woodside-Northern Blvd& 60ST) and LEE MYLES (Flushing-Northern Blvd & 154th ST).I had Bad experience with both.I would not advice anybody to go to these repair shops.Spent a lot of time and I did nothave a diagnoses. First ones were tellingme that I need a new tranny, and I shouldn’t think that is something minor cuzmost Audi's have lots of transmission problems. Also they weretrying to charge me a lot of moneyincluding a diagnose fee which was suppose to be free; second repair shop, even though, according to them, they fully tested, after three hours of waiting was giving me shady faulty reasons but they couldn’t tell me exactly what’s wrong. Also they avoided giving me a written diagnosis.After I left the shop one hour later all the lights came on in the dash board gear selector indicator, (PRND32). Also Check engine light is on. I scanned with my OBD2 and I’ve got the following codes P0705 (TRAN. RANGE SENSOR MALFUNCTION)/ P442 (EVAP EMISSION SYS –SMALL LEAK DETECTED)/ P1613 MIL CALL UP CIR. OPEN- SHORT TO B+ which I don’t know what means). Do you have any idea if this “range sensor selector “ is the problem? If yes, where can I buy it? Do you have any idea how muchtheselector sensorswitch would cost to be replaced in a auto shop?
Thank you

 

I found what the problem was. I spent $20 to fix it.isworking fine in reversesinceI fixed , last Sunday13.

 

i have the same problem. What did the problem turn out to be in your case?

 

Well, what I did the first time was that I disconnected all the connectors going to Transmission Range Sensor located on the transmission (driver side) and I cleaned them well with a few cans of electrical cleaner spray NON CONDUCTIVE. Put all of them back and cleared the codes with my OBD and that was it. Yesterday the problem came back again. I did the same trick but no luck. I've got the 705 codeagain. I suspect that there is a bad connector or a short somewhere in the connectors. Probablydue tosome moisture, snow mix with some oil traces that I could seeunderneath in that area. This happened after a little snow fall. I don’t have much time to look into the problem right now. However, if I’ll figure it out what was wrong I’ll post it here. If anyone experienced something similar, please advice. Any suggestion is welcomed. Thanks

 

Yup. The tranny range sensor/switch is what I was talking about. Just replace it. Its about the only thing to replace on an auto tranny if yorue not replacing the whole tranny itself.

 

Hi onepoint,
I've read many of your postings, andrealized that you have a solid mechanical kowledge in Audi cars and you are a great help for many people. Thanks for sharing it. Well my questions are:today I test thetransmission again by moving the selector stick from one gear to another. Movin from P to R , N ,D and back again, trying to engage transmission in the reverse. What I've noticed is that sometimes itgoes in reverse like 4 times out of 20. Of course I had to clear the limp mode most of the time with the OBD.I remember that when I cleaned the connectors, they were like pin connectors in a round housing. Is the pins housing made by two half parts? can I take it apart and look at the pins inside?do you have schematics to show where on the gear selector switch goes thecable from the stick shift? I'mplanning to give a close look to that connector but I'm not sure which one is on the switch selector. I could see three of them. Two on the lowerside, withround housing, and another ontop with a clip for release with no pins.Is there any other connector beside these three?Thanks for your sugestions.

 

As I said, I am updating my postings. I found what the problem is. There are 2 round connectors on the tranny driver side. One goes to the valve body and the second (female connector, withthe wires that comes from inside the engine), connects to the neutral switch (male). Well the second one that connects to the neutral switch (female) have the pinscorroded and two pins are broken inside. I took it appart and I noticed a lot of green on the pins (if you take a good look inside the female connector). I think that there are eight pins on the female housing. I will post pictures on the forum. Now I'm trying to find new connectors male and female to replace the old ones, or new pins.