Help! Another A4 CVT Dillemma..
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Junior Member
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 3
Help! Another A4 CVT Dillemma..
Hi everyone! Even though this is my first post, I've been following this forum for a while as I had an 01' A6 2.7t before. However, I recently ran across an 03' A4 3.0 with the CVT (
) for an amazing deal in a nearby town. The previous owner owed only about $3k on it and just wanted to pay off the balance to sell the car. I've always loved A4's and even though it had the P R N D flashing and needed new front brakes I just had to get it for the price, especially as it drove really nice. Needless to say, I learned after some online research the next day that I was in for an expensive repair, most probably the TCM needing replacement. I called my local Audi dealer (Bluegrass Audi KY) and the service manager agreed it may be the TCM and asked me to bring the car in to verify that. At the time (only a couple days ago), I didn't have any jerking or jolting and the car seemed to drive allright. He verified that it was only the TCM and it would cost $2550 including CVT fluid replacement. After looking at the price, (and me being a college student) even the service manager said he would look into other options as well. On the way home, the car seemed to shift much worse even though the tech didn't do anything but checked the codes. The car started jolting and what seemed to be slipping? The car is definitely out of warranty as it has 120k and other than this issue seems fine. I haven't driven the car afterwards and am really distressed about the situation, especially as Audi USA only offered me help towards purchasing a new Audi 
...I have been calling various places about possibly changing to a manual transmission or finding a used working TCM? I know its been a long post and I appreciate anyone's recommendation/help...Thank you! By the way, I'm attaching pics of the car to this post...to better base your decision 
) for an amazing deal in a nearby town. The previous owner owed only about $3k on it and just wanted to pay off the balance to sell the car. I've always loved A4's and even though it had the P R N D flashing and needed new front brakes I just had to get it for the price, especially as it drove really nice. Needless to say, I learned after some online research the next day that I was in for an expensive repair, most probably the TCM needing replacement. I called my local Audi dealer (Bluegrass Audi KY) and the service manager agreed it may be the TCM and asked me to bring the car in to verify that. At the time (only a couple days ago), I didn't have any jerking or jolting and the car seemed to drive allright. He verified that it was only the TCM and it would cost $2550 including CVT fluid replacement. After looking at the price, (and me being a college student) even the service manager said he would look into other options as well. On the way home, the car seemed to shift much worse even though the tech didn't do anything but checked the codes. The car started jolting and what seemed to be slipping? The car is definitely out of warranty as it has 120k and other than this issue seems fine. I haven't driven the car afterwards and am really distressed about the situation, especially as Audi USA only offered me help towards purchasing a new Audi ...I have been calling various places about possibly changing to a manual transmission or finding a used working TCM? I know its been a long post and I appreciate anyone's recommendation/help...Thank you! By the way, I'm attaching pics of the car to this post...to better base your decision
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Junior Member
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 3
Oh I also wanted to add that whenever I start the car in the morning, P R N D stops blinking and the car drives fine for about 10 mins..then all of a sudden P R N D dissapears and I'll have to put the car into neutral to get flashing P R N D. After that, it will keep flashing but the car drove fine until the last time when it seemed to slip/jolt out of gear after exiting the dealer's. I started it this morning, and it was not going out of 1st gear for about 10 mins..scary 
...The dealer did say I will not need valve bodies, only the TCM only 2 days ago. Do you think there can be any damage in just 1 day? Will fluid replacement do anything for me? Once again, thank you all for your patience. I know I've been rambling but I really am very distressed. Thanks!
...The dealer did say I will not need valve bodies, only the TCM only 2 days ago. Do you think there can be any damage in just 1 day? Will fluid replacement do anything for me? Once again, thank you all for your patience. I know I've been rambling but I really am very distressed. Thanks!
Site Moderator
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 9,004
From: Nor Cal
Turn around and sell it to another sucker, thats how he got you. LOL
No really its just the TCM most likely, its not that hard to change out believe it or not. You just have to unbolt the tail housing of the trans and remove a couple screws to pull the TCM out. Push in the new one (with new o-rings) and bolt it back up. Most of the fluid will still be in the trans even with taking the tail housing out, so you can just drive it back to the dealer and have them replace the fluid for you. This should cut down the cost to about $1,600. You will need to buy a VAG COM to code the new TCM though, so if you don't have one there is another $250 to add to the bill. You also need a set of i think T45 torx to get the tail housing of the trans off.
No really its just the TCM most likely, its not that hard to change out believe it or not. You just have to unbolt the tail housing of the trans and remove a couple screws to pull the TCM out. Push in the new one (with new o-rings) and bolt it back up. Most of the fluid will still be in the trans even with taking the tail housing out, so you can just drive it back to the dealer and have them replace the fluid for you. This should cut down the cost to about $1,600. You will need to buy a VAG COM to code the new TCM though, so if you don't have one there is another $250 to add to the bill. You also need a set of i think T45 torx to get the tail housing of the trans off.
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 210
From: New England
Audi doesn't even let us replace the TCM on a CVT.
They would rather us replace the entire transmission before touching it... Audi has NO CONFIDENCE it will fix the problem.
Not to scare you off..... just honest words
They would rather us replace the entire transmission before touching it... Audi has NO CONFIDENCE it will fix the problem.
Not to scare you off..... just honest words
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 210
From: New England
Now certain modules for certain years.... yada yada.... Not saying none of these ideas will work. but you should kno what we see from a dealer point of view
Site Moderator
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 9,004
From: Nor Cal
That depends on the dealer. What audi wants and what we do are two different things.
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Junior Member
Joined: May 2009
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Thank you all so much for your input. I'd like to do it myself and save some $ but I'm guessing the only way to get the TCM is to order it from Germany, right? Please do let me know if you guys know any place that I can get a used/aftermarket TCM that would work. If not, I might just have to spend most of my savings at the stealership
1st Gear
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 17
Ok I've ranted on the crappy CVT issue that I had with my TCM failing for a 3rd time. Granted I have 96k miles, but that's pure nonsense that something like that should even go out once. I know how you feel, but this is something you can try.....
I'm not sure if this will work for you, since I am the orginal owner AND my TCM failed twice already (my case might be unique). What I did was I called AoA and explained to them my situation. I kissed a lot of *** and spoke to them politely and raved how I love my Audi and I was wondering if they could reimbursed me. I explained to them that I did a lot of research online and that this is a common problem with the CVT transmission and that there were lots of service bulletins regarding the TCM. I told them that this is a driveability issue and that it's unsafe to drive my car. The AoA rep said to make an appointment with an Audi dealer service center which then they would contact to see what assistance could be provided.
I took my car to the dealer where I bought the car and had the TCM replaced one time. I spoke to the service manager and explained in a sympathetic voice everything and that I called AoA and they should be contacting him shortly to negotiate reimbursement. I went to Keyes Audi in Los Angeles. $2550 for just the TCM, fluid and bolt/clamp/gasket replacement seems very high. Granted my car is a 1.8, I can't see why a 3.0 TCM would be that much higher.
I believe that without assistance I would have paid around $1600. Audi reimbursed about 25% and they quoted me $1175 over the phone. When I went ahead with the repairs and paid for it, for some reason they lowered it to $1063... so about 30% of the bill.
From what I hear, you might want to check with other dealerships to see what they quote. As far as getting used TCM, I tried for awhile to look for one off of ebay/craigslist and couldn't find anything. Your only choice might be to buy it new.
Anyways good luck
I'm not sure if this will work for you, since I am the orginal owner AND my TCM failed twice already (my case might be unique). What I did was I called AoA and explained to them my situation. I kissed a lot of *** and spoke to them politely and raved how I love my Audi and I was wondering if they could reimbursed me. I explained to them that I did a lot of research online and that this is a common problem with the CVT transmission and that there were lots of service bulletins regarding the TCM. I told them that this is a driveability issue and that it's unsafe to drive my car. The AoA rep said to make an appointment with an Audi dealer service center which then they would contact to see what assistance could be provided.
I took my car to the dealer where I bought the car and had the TCM replaced one time. I spoke to the service manager and explained in a sympathetic voice everything and that I called AoA and they should be contacting him shortly to negotiate reimbursement. I went to Keyes Audi in Los Angeles. $2550 for just the TCM, fluid and bolt/clamp/gasket replacement seems very high. Granted my car is a 1.8, I can't see why a 3.0 TCM would be that much higher.
I believe that without assistance I would have paid around $1600. Audi reimbursed about 25% and they quoted me $1175 over the phone. When I went ahead with the repairs and paid for it, for some reason they lowered it to $1063... so about 30% of the bill.
From what I hear, you might want to check with other dealerships to see what they quote. As far as getting used TCM, I tried for awhile to look for one off of ebay/craigslist and couldn't find anything. Your only choice might be to buy it new.
Anyways good luck
