i bought this car with 214k miles on it about 2 weeks ago. up until just yesterday, it took generally around half a second to shift into drive or reverse.

now, whenever i shift into drive or reverse, it jerks immediately, theres no delay at all. and in addition, drive is stuck in second gear. even if i shift it into 1st or 3rd with my little 'fake standard shifter', it stills runs in second gear.

needless to say my max speed is around 70 miles per hour now, and driving everywhere in second gear cant be good for my poor little audi at all.

is this a common problem? do you think its more of a 'change the transmission fluid and itll be fine' or a 'dude get ready to pay $1000+'?

i only bought the car for $1600 and its in great shape so i may just part it out if i have to..

thank you,
garrett

 

well, you can try to do oil and filter change.
I have similar issue. My tranny takes a while to go into gear.
Most likly Oil filter is clogged, or low oil.
I am not a tranny expert. One thing I have planned for the future, is to rebuild the tranny and engine. Where ever I find a place to work on that.

PS. Be careful with the oil pan and dipstick tube. It can be rotten already.

 

It's a popular myth that the transmission fluid is lifetime. Not true. ZF, manufacturer of the trans, says to service every 40K miles.

It's not hard. You need to replace the filter and some of the fluid. Here are instructions on how to do it. http://forums.audiworld.com/a6100/msgs/53625.phtml