I have worked on Air cooled and older water cooled VW's for a few years but this Audi beater I just got is throwing me for a loop. I put 320 miles on it yesterday, I just got it chipped a weeks ago and had numerous errands. Well this morning I decided to replace the plugs, the previous owner had auto lite platinum's, and I wanted to go NGK. Before I started I had to move the car and It wouldn't reverse. The lights came on, the indicator indicated R but it did not move. I managed to push it and it went in the forward gears around my little gravel circle but not well at all. There was no clunking or bad noises when I put it in gear it just didn't want to go. Well I cleaned the plug that is alongside the transmission and I checked the TCM. The car now will go forward, albeit very hesitantly at first. While I was checking it this morning the PRNDL lights lit up indicating it was in limp mode but that went away. There is a check engine light on, UNFORTUNATELY I AM AT MY DADS SHOP AND HE LOST MY SCAN TOOL ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO. One more note I went to check the level and condition of the transmission fluid and when I opened the test plug copious amounts of transmission fluid came out. I wanted to make sure I had the right plug (It was the larger of the two) and the same thing happened when I opened the small plug. The car has 115k on it and runs well. Also it has been extremely Damp and rainy the last 3-4 days.

 

I just got codes C0315 c0300 p005e p0735

 

Ok I changed the trans fluid and filter still no reverse, however when the car went into limp mode I had reverse. I drove 200 miles today and I noticed that originally the car would not go into first via tiptronic, then 100 miles in the check engine lights went out and the car would go into first gear. Then it wouldn't. I am at my wits end. Right now it is out of limp mode, no reverse, no check engine light!

 

We had the same problem with our 99 a4 1.8l quattro turbo after cleaning out the heater core with the water hose. Something got wet under the hood. The next day no reverse! After months of trying to fix it - we borrowrd a friends scan tool. We never used one and didn't know what to do. Another friend took it and used it on the car. 5 minutes later it had reverse! He said he just cleared the codes and it worked. We have since acquired a code reader and have used it many times to fix a variety of different problems. Hope this helps.