Hey all, I am new to the forums and almost as new to Audi Ownership. I purchased my 2002 A6 with 92,000 miles in march. The car runs great but recently the gear selector display began not showing which gear is selected. Very occasionally the display goes into safe mode (The whole display constantly flashes). From what I've gathered these CVT's are pieces of crap and either the TCM or the whole tranny is failing. I have 2 questions, first of which is does anybody know of a somewhat inexpensive fix, like maybe someone who can reprogram my TCM besides the dealer. and 2, is there a way to swap a different transmission onto my fwd 3.0, and if so what transmission. I'm on a tight budget but am willing to get my hands dirty, and have been working on domestics for 10+ years so have a decent comfort around a wrench. I live just south of Kansas city. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Drive it into a tree. Collect insurance. Buy a non 3.0 CVT Audi.
or
1 gallon of gas, a bic lighter, and a large empty parking lot, as far away from a fire department as possible.

ooo ooo ooo how about you just happen to accidentally get out of your car as it just drives itself off a cliff. Maybe hail (aka small hammer) severely damaged your car. Need a tree down?

* I'm not suggesting you commit insurance fraud.

 

maybe used TCM would work.

 

Solving problems with CVT's is best left to an expert. Lights not lighting up on the gearshift is typically the TCM but like I said, the CVT's are special! One thing you can do is to determine if the TCM has been wet.

Installing a different tranny is possible but not economically. You would need an entire donor car and months of spare time to change the systems over including installing the quattro drive of the tiptronic unit or a manual with its different engine management system.

My suggestion on this one is if the tranny is bad, jack up the radiator cap and drive a new car under it!