I was a little overdue on the Haldex and the engine oil change, so I took advantage of using my neighbor's auto repair business' shop. Nice having a lift and all the air tools a guy can use.

Haldex and filter - CHECK

Rear Diff filled with 75W/90 Red Line- CHECK

Oil and Filter Mobil One 0W40 - CHECK

Transmission and Bevel Box RedLine MT90 - CHECK and CHECK

Fuel Filter Stock Mahle - CHECK

Flush and Bleed Brakes w/ ATE Racing Blue - CHECK

Grabbed an oil sample to send off to Blackstone Labs as well. Might was well see how the old girl's is working after 83,000 miles on the engine.

Only things left to do this weekend... change plugs, maybe do the DV Relocate.

 

You're up a brake flush on me, I took care of oil a couple weeks ago, and the haldex and gear oils when I swapped the rear end recently. I probably should do the brakes soon though, I dunno if they've ever been done and the car is 7 years old with 139,400 miles on her.



How'd your H'fluid look? Still light colored, or did you notice much debris in it after the orange install?

Trying to figure out if my haldex going was just old age, or a blue induced failure. I mentioned before I noticed the fluid looked darker before I noticed any other problems.

 

No, the fluid looked nice and clear. No metal debris or discoloration, everything looked good. The Rear Diff and Transmission all were still light colored. I only had a few small metal shavings on the magnet in the bevel box.

 

good, hopefully the blue had nothing to do with it.

I was a bit unnerved by my bevelbox magnet. I don't think it could hold more filings, and I actually dragged a chip of something out of the box with my finger. Gears are a little noisy. Not loud enough for anyone else to note, but as i'm virtually conjoined with the car, I notice EVERYTHING. Hopefully the fluid change stopped the advancement of the noises, and with noticeably smoother shifts, I dont think missing 3rd is going to be an issue.

 

hmmm...is the haldex/filter same as the rear diff? if not, where is the rear diff? I don't think i've change oil on that puppy but I have change the filter and haldex oil.

 

The diff is supposedly 'lifetime' fluid according to Audi, as is the transmission, but that's BS, debris build up, fluid breaks down.

There's no filter for either the tranny or diff obviously, but there is a magnetic drain plug on the bevel box. Bevel box drain is located just aft of the pass side stub shaft. Believe it's a 8-10mm hex to remove it. If you drain the tranny but not the bevel box, you'll be missing out on draining about a half qt (maybe a little less). Real good to clean that plug too.

If you want to use Redline fluid, which is a popular choice, MT90 is the recommended for the transmission, and their 75W90 is recommended for the rear diff. Both are 75W90's, but the difference is in the additives. The 'regular' 75W90 is a GL5, a little more slippery, good for the hypoid gears of the diff, not so good for the syncros, they won't spin the gears up to speed quite like they should. Too little friction.

You'll either need a triple square or a big hex to get the plugs for the trans/diff. Rather than buy a big hex, I welded a nut toa piece of bar stock and made my own wrench. Much cheaper, assuming you don't need to buy a welder to do it like that.

 

let me get it straight, 3 qt for the transmission and 1 qt for the rear dif. right?

 

Rear diff capacity is a little over one liter. I put about 1.25 quarts in it before it started running out of the fill hole. Just under 3 qts. will get you full on the tranny.

The rear diff drain and fill plugs are 17mm hex head. I found one at Kragen, they list it as a drain plug wrench for VW transmissions.