Well I changed the tranny fluid in my wife's car last night, and since this was the first time in 230K miles, I wasn't sure what to expect. I got the fluid/filter kit from Blauparts, which had everything I needed for $130 delivered. I started out by stripping four of the pan screws and had to use an extractor to get them out. Fortunately, the good people at Blauparts included four extra pan screws in the kit. They've obviously done this before! Miraculously, the fluid still looked good when I drained it (a little gray, but still translucent), and I was glad to see that there was very little metal on the six pan magnets. I'm not sure why in the world Audi chose to use a 17mm hex on the fill plug (probably the same reason that the caliper pins require 7mm hex keys - no one has them), but fortunately I found one at Sears.

The car shifts great now, even this morning when it was only 33 degrees out. I'll have to see if it stays like that, because I had to do the final level check without the benefit of the fancy vag-com set up, but I'm sure my engineering approximation was within a degree or two. Surprosingly, this job was more intimidating than actually difficult, and well worth the trouble given the improvement in shifting. I guess I'll change it again at 460K miles whether it needs it or not.

 

Good to hear. We change mine every 30k, and have been since around 115k. Even after 30k of use on the fluid, the new fluid makes a huge differnece in the smoothness and feel.

 

I'll probably change it a little sooner next time too. One thing I'm definitely going to do is replace all of the transmission pan screws with socket head cap screws. Those Torx panheads that are in there now are way too easy to strip.

I'm also confused as to why Audi doesn't just provide a simple dipstick. It would be a lot easier to keep an eye on the fluid and the whole stand-on-your-head-and-pump-the-fluid-in-from-under-the-car-while-it's-running thing would be unnecessary. I guess the Germans just like the Rube Goldberg approach. They may have been so busy coming up with a front suspension design with twice as many links as they really needed that they didn't have time to make the transmission easy to service. I can't complain about the durability though!

 

Just be happy we have an oil dipstick. Our 3 series does NOT

 

Unbelievable. You're right, though. That makes the A6 seem almost reasonable. This is my first foreign car, so I'm learning about all the "special features" as I go. I'm sure this won't be the last one, but at least it keeps things interesting!