So I still want to hold onto my 2.8 B5, but apparently the valve body (automatic) is gone; the car slipped out of gear one day on the way to work and now its hardly drive-able. I dropped it off at a transmission place (used them before, friend of a friend). He said that it drives if I let it warm up for a couple minutes, but when I went to pick it up, I couldn't even get it out of the parking lot.

Anyway, Where should I go from here? Is it worth getting a rebuilt valve body or should I go new? I'm assuming this isn't an easy job to do myself.

 

I don't think that a valve body "wears out' so that one day it just quits; something else happened. Does it drive in Reverse, or 1st gear? Are the gear indicators on the dash following the shifter position? Are those indicators reversed; dark charactors on bright background? Any transmission fault codes? Is the pump working? Do you know that the ATF level is correct? That's where I'd start.

I would not waste time with the valve body unless you checked the other things first. If you pull a trans cooler line at the radiator, then start the engine, do you get a flow of ATF out? If you do this, you'll have to refill the trans properly. And if you've never had the fluid changed, I would suggest having the pan removed, and then inspect for abnormal sediment or iron fuzz on the magnets. Change the filter, refill with Valvoline Maxlife, then see how it works. That looks like a nice, clean A4, that is worth some troubleshooting.

 

A transmission that drives after it warms up is usually low fluid level, or a bad pump in the tranny. Have your level checked by someone familiar with a ZF transmission, level is checked from underneath the car, at a certain fluid temperature and can be a major pain to get right and can make a huge mess if you've never done it before.