Hey guys,

I have been having trouble with my 2001 A4 1.8T Quattro. The transmission seems to slip in cold weather, but as soon as the car warms up its fine, i can go into TIP, no problems shifting at all. I do know the shop i took it to when i first bought the car said one of the Valves gets stuck, but not to worry as its more of an annoyance than anything. This happened between downshifting from 4th to 3rd gear, it would pop i guess you could say.

I was driving in the mountains and my car was sitting outside allday in the cold, the car would not go into gear. It went into the fail safe limp mode, but once i shut the car off, and started it back up again, fail safe was gone, and was working normal.

Anyways she is in the shop for a new o2 sensor, coolant resevior (sensor is bad) and an oil cooler gasket leak (which the oil cooler was replaced no more than 4 years ago and I hardly have driven 12k miles). Decided to ask him to check the codes on the transmission and the incorrect gear ratio was the only one being thrown.

The mechanic working on my car said its either 2 things, a trashed tranny, or low fluid, but he said there were no leaks anywhere so he just assumed trashed tranny. I have taken it upon myself to do research and read if there are any other things that could be wrong before i spend a couple thousand on a transmission rebuild. Like i said, no problems really unless its extremely cold outside (im talking well below freezing weather).

Any other thoughts of what it could be? It may be time for me to just sell the car for parts maybe.

 

Way cheaper to add a quart or two of fluid to the car, than to replace the whole tranny. My son's 96 leaks about a quart of fluid a year, and come winter (of course) it starts to hesitate to shift into gear until it warms up a bit. Sometimes you can hear a little bit of pump whine when its low, sometimes you can't.