I would like to get inside and look at the tip-gate, unfortunately I am about 80 miles away from where I need to be if I screw something up. I also don't fancy taking apart the full console.

 

Taking the console apart does not make the car undrivable. I drove my car for 2 weeks with no center console, radio or dash cage when I was installing my car computer.

The only issue might be the shifter itself - if you screw the pooch on that one then you might be stuck. But even if you threw the magnet away I still think you can drive in D mode.

You commute 80 miles?

 

I am a full time student, and my home garage is 80 miles from my school.

 

So I have a little update.

For several days (5 I think), my car's tiptronic worked perfectly fine. It stayed in drive when placed in drive and went into tiptronic mode when put into tiptronic.

As of yesterday, the car is back to its old tactics of going into tiptronic when the gearshift is moved ever so slightly to the right.

So my question for everyone is: could this still be the magnets, or the TCU, or something else? I am going to see a transmission shop at some point in the next several days and want to see if they can concentrate on a certain area of the transmission to save me some time and money.

Thanks for any replies!

 

Two options,

Take it to the shop and pay someone to diagnose or as already suggested... check the magnets to see if they have become displaced and check to see if the TCU has any moisture. Both are fairly common. The TCU is sealed up pretty well but if it's wet under the carpet you could have issues there.

If you have any strange shifting behavior when the gear shift moves slightly, that's a pretty good sign there's something wrong right there at the magnets. If you have any mechanical skills at all, it should be pretty easy to open up and check

 

+1 on that

 

Thanks a lot - very useful