Hey guys, I am new here and am having a problem with my Audi. As mentioned I have an '01 Audi A6 2.8L Quattro with over 100k miles on it. I bought the car about a month ago for my step mother but she decided to go towards the SUV route. Nonetheless I'm trying to re-sell the car to atleast get my money back.

I drive the car every now and then just so it wont sit around for too long in my drive way. When I do drive it on the highway everything seems to be fine. Once I hit the local traffic, it's fine for about 5-10 minutes then all of a sudden the car goes into limp mode. It will not go past 2nd gear and at times it wont even go past 1st gear I think. When the car isn't in limp mode it shifts extremely smooth, drives with no problem. FYI the tranny from what I know was replaced about 3 months ago, replaced tranny itself has less than 80k on it. There is a check engine light and the code is P0441 which has something to do with the Fuel purge valve or something of that sort. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I'm obviously going to have a problem re-selling this car knowing it may go into limp mode at any moment.

Another FYI, whenever it does goes into limp mode, I shift the car into the manual part (Tiptronic I guess?) and I can shift into 3rd, 4th, 5th gear with no problem. So when the car DOES go into limp mode, that is what I do to get around it. I've put less than 300 miles on the car since I bought it, I drive something else. Car has other issues but I doubt those have anything to do with the car going into limp mode (Slight oil leak, needs new ball joints etc, maintenance more than anything).

I know it's a stupid question because it can be anything that is causing it, but maybe with the symptoms I've mentioned someone may be familiar on what is exactly causing the vehicle to go into limp mode. I'm hoping to god it's not a bad tranny, but to be honest I doubt it because when it's not in limp mode it drives perfectly fine. Any help would be appreciated!!!

I'm located in Long Island, NY if that's relevant in anyway. Who knows, maybe one of you guys know a specialist.

 

I would wager a guess and say transmission fluid level. The transmission is a sealed system (no dipstick). If they did not use the vag com interface to watch the temperature of the tranny fluid, have the car level, and add fluid until it runs out (capacity can vary from 9-11 qts) you may be experiencing transmission problems.

My guess is that the level is low and the tranny is starving out causing you to go into emergency mode.

I'd call a shop experienced with VW/Audi to do it right. It's not really a DIY unless you are super-handy.