Transmission Filter Replacement
 

I have 116358 on my odometer and my transmission has been shifting rather hard, especially when cold. I'm pretty sure the filter needs replaced because it has never been done before. How hard is it to replace the filter on a 2004 A6 2.7 S-Line with automatic tiptronic? And is tranny honey ok to put in the transmission, or should I not do that? Oh, and Blauparts says you need to know which specific transmission style you have before ordering your kit, does anyone know which style transmission I have?

This is the kit I was looking at.

Audi Automatic Transmission Filter Fluid Kit - Audi A6 5 Speed

If I recall correctly the filter is inside the tranny oil pan. Not very hard to replace. But the fluid will come out. You must have a vagcom to put the fluid back in to monitor the tranny temp. And you have to have a machine that sucks oil up and puts it in the pan.

Blauparts kit comes with a hand pump. I used it and works great. Also I see that they added one more liter of the fluid. Used to be 5 and was always short about a half liter. BTW the kit comes with an instruction.

FYI you will need T37 torx bit. Use T35 and you will strip some screws...

Alright, is the Vag Com necessary, or can I just pump it in? Because from what I understand if you don't do it right the car goes into limp mode.

vag-com is used to monitor the temperature of the fluid. Add too much cold fluid and you get an overfill. if the fluid is too warm when filled, it will be underfilled when cold. there are tons of people who have just "winged" it and not had any issues but you don't want to gamble with your trans (at least I don't)

The Blauparts kit is good if this is the first time that you are doing a fluid and filter change. The instructions are very helpful, as is the fluid pump.

You don't need the Vag-Com to get a temp reading. When the fluid reaches the proper temp, the pan should be just hot enough that you can keep a finger on it but you will get the feeling that it is almost too hot to keep touching it. I confirmed this with my scanner.

If you don't want to pay the $15/liter price for Pentosin, you can buy gallon jugs of Valvoline MaxLife at Autozone for $15.99. G052152A2 spec for the fluid is just the part number they give to fully synthetic Dexron IIIH fluid, which MaxLife is. The original fluid is ESSO LT71441, and MaxLife meets that BMW spec, too. The only difference is that Pentosin does not have the red dye.

Autozone will also special order the filter for you under their Duralast brand. It comes with a nitrile pan gasket instead of the cork one from Blau, and the filter is manufactured by Champ Labs. I just picked up my filter today and plan on changing all of the fluid this weekend with 3 gallons of MaxLife by dumping the 5.5 liters and filter and replacing and then dumping more fluid and refilling 2 more times. Should exchange about 80 - 85% of the old fluid and only cost me $75. Autozone also has the fluid pumps for sale.

One edit: The pan bolts are Torx 27, and you will encounter problems if you use T25. The Blau kit comes with 4 extra bolt, but they are allen head instead of Torx.

Awesome, thanks guys. I'll see about getting my vag com working, and if not I'll just have to wing it I guess. I'll take a look at autozone, and see if everything is cheaper than the blauparts kit, and I'll for sure replace the torx with allens. I did that with everything on my timing belt as well lol. Is a transmission additive such as trany honey ok to add?

The tranny mfr ZF has the detailed instructions
 

http://www.zf.com/na/content/media/u...s/5HP19FLA.pdf

If you don't have VAG-COM, I think you can use IR temp reader gun to find the right temp. Just point the laser to the fluid and read the temp no. This temp gun is also useful to find out if your cat. is good or not by comparing the temp before and after the cat.

All that Trans Honey will do for you is increase the viscosity of the fluid. That will make the shifts when cold worse.

If you really want to add an additive to the fluid, I would recommend Lubegard Platinum. It's available at NAPA and O'Rielly Auto in my area and I will be using it to help with the shudder on the 2-3 upshift. If your trans does not have any issues, just use straight trans fluid.

Thanks for the link there is a lot of useful information there. I'll look into that and probably pick one up from work. What do you know Radio Shack comes in handy every once in a while lol.

Ok, so no tranny honey. I'll take a look into the Lubegard though, because when its just warmed up and it go from 3rd to 4th the car kind of shudders a bit before it shifts.. I just don't have an O'Rielly around and the Napa around my area isn't very well stocked, so the internet it is lol.