I am posting this because I had such a hard time finding useful information on how to change the transmission fluid in my 2011 Q5 3.2 S-Line, so forgive me if its common knowledge....


I got a killer deal on a 2011 Q5 with the 3.2 and all the options last year, the only downside was that it had 177k miles. The previous owner was a friend of mine that did mostly interstate driving and it had all the service records from an Audi dealer in NY. I was really happy with the vehicle but was uneasy with the fact the transmission fluid had never been changed (lifetime fill). Ive had cars with manual transmission before with a lifetime fill, and even they benefited from a fluid change. The guy I bought the Q5 from had asked a couple of dealers about the transmission change and they wanted close to $1000 for the service.


I went ahead and bought the transmission change kit from Blau parts, that included the filter, gasket, and 9 quarts of Ravenol 8hp. The instructions did not mentions the 2 cross-members that need to be removed to get the pan off, or that you need to support the transmission since the second crossmember is also the transmission support.


I ended up buying an online service manual online, the images are attached.


Just a few tips if you attempt it yourself...


- you need to support the car from the lift points before removing the cross members, you cant use a wheel lift or a pit.


- be sure to warm the transmission before draining it, sounds obvious... you spend so much time just getting to the point you can get the pan off its easy to forget. What I wanted to try was testing out the fill level before I drained the pan, just for piece of mind. If you do this, make sure than you have the car running before pulling the fill plug, thats where I went wrong.


- The Blau kit had the wrong O-ring for the drain plug, so don't plan on using it, I would have ordered one if knew that was going to be the case.


- The transmission pan bolts are very weak. I had the ZF specs for the torque settings, which was 12 n-m. I carefully tightened the bolts around the pan 1/8 of a turn at a time, and I still broke a pan bolt with my 1/4 in drive torque wrench. I was able to get the bolt out with an easy out, and the Blau kit comes with extra pan bolts.


- Filling the transmission is messy and difficult using the pump that comes with the Blau kit. If I had to redo it, I would dump 8q of the transmission fluid into a clean container and use a transfer pump to fill the tranny.


- Last, they tell you to get some specific software to read the tranny temp off the CAN-BUS. I had an OK diagnostic tool with the Audi software to reset the service intervals and it wouldn't read the tranny temp. I ended up using an IR temp gauge and shooting it right at where the fluid was dripping out of the fill hole. I assumed that i was loosing between some temperature from the fluid that was dripping (3-8 F). Its critical that you cap the transmission with it dripping when the tranny temp is between 35-40C, this is 95-104 F from what I remember... I ended up capping the fill plug when i was getting readings at 95F.


Again, I just wanted to share what I have gone through in this process, I assume that not many have a 2011 Q5 with 177k on it so I may be one of the first going through this. If you have any specific questions about doing a fluid and filter swap, feel free to ask.


BTW, transmission model is 6HP-28

 

Hi there,could you put all of the 8liters into the transmission?

thanks,Joe