I recently purchased an A6 with 100K miles on it...work great for a 1.5months...then BOOM...car didn't want to go into reverse...no big deal..figured it was cold; then it would work after warmed up...well as of yesterday driving my 60mile drive back home the car decided to start down up shifting into third for no reason...then after about 8times stayed in 3rd and wouldn't leave...the gear indicator even pointed to 3rd even when in drive. Finally got home; and car fails to go into any gear but 2nd/3rd. From what i have read the car is notorious for transmissions problems...does anyone have any suggestions that may help keep this fix low in cost and quick!

if not low in cost; are there any equivelent transmissions that I can "swap" in versus having to buy a 4500$ NOS/rebuilt transmission.

Thanks,
m.

 

First, spend the $ to get it diagnosed -- it might be something relatively cheap to correct -- or it might not. Unfortunately Audi autos don't seem to be as bulletproof as the rest of the mechanicals. My 177K 99 A6 had a mixmission rebuild last week by a certified shop. Cost me $3300 and it seems to be fine. I'd shop for the best price at a shop with a good reputation and a written warantee (usually 2 yr/24K miles from an ACRA-affiliated shop). Good luck.

 

What kind of transmission does your car have?
I guess its an automatic and its sounds like there's a problem with the electronic gear detection.. its a small electronic part that's senses the position of the stick and sends signals to the gearbox of the gear you've selected... when it failes it's common that it sends gear 2, 3 or 4 to the gearbox...
It's worth checking before thinkin of replacing the gearbox....

 

wouldn't that be nice: I took it to a transmission shop...but I highly doubt they even took a look at the car..I do not quite know how they can 'detect' what the problem is. About an hour after driving the car back to from the transmission shop...the car actually went into reverse and drove fine.. go figure..

Still lacked a 4th gear: But, when put into 4th you can see the indicator on the dash quickly say '4' then right to '3'. My best bet at this point is the buy a VAG with the connector and check it out...