I have 96 Wagon with 130,xxx miles on it. Problem is, a few days ago, going out with the GF for date night. Dead stopped at the middle of a major intersection about to make a left hand turn with an unprotected green. Light hits yellow and I'm getting a little impatient waiting for traffic to clear up. Light turns red still waiting for vehicles illegally running red lights. So I get on the accelerator and noticed a somewhat hard buck, followed by my transmission down shifting a little violent into gear. I think nothing of it, and continue to drive as I'm already running late to my destination. I get maybe a few hundred feet down the road and notice I'm doing 35-38mph at 4k. Instantly I know something it up with the tranny. I drive a few more hundred feet to an empty street. Completely come to a full stop, cycle through gears. As I go from park to reverse, I again notice the transmission "slam" itself in to reverse and vice versa into park. I drive about another mile or so to see if anything has changed, nothing. I pull over again, get out to see if there is any transmission fluid leaking. not a drop. I did smell a slight burn smell coming from the engine carriage. So I lugged the wagon 5 miles or so back to the house in 2nd gear and hopped in the old trusty Honda, just in time to hit happy hour at Red Robin.

Now, this leads me to believe, that it is either deathly low on tranny fluid and hopefully by the grace of god, I can fill her up and the clutches within the tranny aren't burnt to hell and we'll be good to go.

It too was raining the day prior, gf was buying food. I read on some forum about something with the passenger wheel well and water possibly damaging the TCU. Not sure how accurate or credible this info was.

I'm fairly well versed in cars, but it doesn't hurt to gather info on something I've never owned.

Thanks for the help in advanced.

 

The first thing to do is get the fluid level checked. The behavior is not normal, it should have been in low gear at takeoff, not downshifting. If the fluid level is okay, get the codes checked, of there is an electronic problem, it should show up then.

 

The check engine light is on, but its been on. I had it checked at Autozone, it was the upstream O2. Previous owner was a moron and hardwired it rather than purchasing the correct O2 sensor and connecting pigtails. Other than that, there are no other codes.

I'm gonna check the fluid level myself and change it out if it is necessary. I really love this car, drove so smooth as opposed to my Honda. Hopefully I can get it back on the rode ASAP.

 

An Autozone code reader may not accesss tranny codes, they require an upscale system. there can be tranny codes stored and no light on as well.

 

Well, changed out the fluid, nothing. Put it in drive, and the car goes no where unless you give it gas and then it accelerates. I'm at a loss for words right now.

 

Sounds like your transmission is in "Safe Mode."

Could be water in the TCM but on the 1996 A4 the TCM is under the rear seat and elevated. I'm not sure about your A6 Wagon. In 2000 A6 cars the TCM is under the front passenger floor.

Find your TCM and if it's wet dry it out in a bag of rice for a couple days, worked with mine...the first time.

 

I had much the same problem and it was the Torque Converter. You have enough miles for that to be the problem, but you really need to pull the codes on the TCM. You need to get to a dealer or a good indie shop. Do you know anyone with a VAG-Com? A Vagcom can pull the TCM codes.

 

Do you all happen to know exactly where the TCM is located. I would like to physically take a look at it. If there were problems with the converter, would the TCM throw a code to notify me of such?

 

I don't know if you can tell if the TCM is damaged by looking at it unless it is smoking and scorched ;-) Do yourself a huge favor and get the codes pulled like several of us have advised. When this happened to me, the exact symptoms that you describe, I had the codes pulled and it was the Torque Converter. BTW pulling the codes should have been your first step. I bought my '99 about three years ago and one of the first tools I bought was a VAG-Com. I bit the bullet and got the Ross Tech...it was expensive (about $200+) but worth every penny. Driving an old Audi can be expensive and more so if you don't know what is wrong with it.

 

Well, I might have found someone with the program that might be able to help me. I started the audi today, cycled through gears and 1-4 all slip and then engage. Whereas reverse works perfectly. This leads me to believe that it could be the torque converter, but if it was the converter reverse would slip just as well. Buddy of mine also said it could possibly be the main line pressure, tranny pump possibly?

I'll find out for sure once I'm able to hook it up to vag-com.