Furry oil pan magnets, excessive?
 

I had planned to take my car up to Mackie's for a gearbox service including lower front valve body replace. I am self employed and my work is pretty quite this next week so I decided to do the work myself.

I have done gearbox services on this type of gearbox, 5hp19 and 5hp24 three times in the past without any issues but I have never seen magnets with this much debris on them before.

I changed the oil and filter in this gearbox only 2 years ago and have only covered 2000 mls in that time. The magnets were obviously cleaned when I did this work.

The gearbox has no issues and no codes. The work I am doing is purely as preventative maintenance. Well, that was until I saw the magnets.

This debris has built up over only 2 years and 2000 mls. I was also surprised at how dark the oil looks.

Car has only done 88000mls. Is she getting ready to test my commitment with a gearbox refurb on the horizon?

Any opinions much appreciated.

Tore the filter apart and visual looks pretty clean. Could see only a few bits of clutch material. Ran a magnet over it and it looks like a different story.

Only 2 years and 2000 mls since last change.

Looks like the pin has been pulled on that grenade.

Can't be a good sign I'm afraid.:(

I'm actually hoping that I'm panicking over nothing. Whilst the magnets look pretty dramatic, when I run them between my finge and thumb it just turns to a black greasy substance. Now that I know is much more normal.

Cars gone back together. New front lower valve body, new filter, new sump pan and new oil. I'll let you know how it goes.

Looks like your gearbox is making ferrofluid :D

Does it make any unusual noises? If the o-ring is missing from the filter the oil pump can cavitate as it sucks air on acceleration or corners. Cavitation can then send metal fragments around the system which end up on the magnets.

Haven't heard any strange noises. As far as I was concerned this was a routine service with a new valve body added. Nothing at all to indicate any problems.

I realise this is going to be controversial but I have shortened the pick up tube on the oil filter by 4mm. It sits awful close to the bottom of the pan.

I'll let you all know if this causes any problems or noises.

I've ordered 21ltrs of transmission fluid so that I can repeat the drain and fill prcess a few times. It seems really wasteful but is the only means I have of changing as much fluid as possible.

I'm still waiting for the oil to arrive so haven't had chance to run the car yet. I'm not particularly expecting any issues as the car ran fine before I started this work. Unless the fresh oil doesn't do it any good.

I am now just trying to understand how this box could have created so much debris in such a short space of time. The oil and magnets were fine when I did this job 2 years ago. This was one of the first jobs I did on this car after buying it. To assess the box before spending lots of cash on other stuff.

I intend to change the MAF sensor before putting the car back on the road, just incase that is having any impact on how the box is shifting.

Is there anything else I should be looking at. Anything that may be causing the car to damage itself?

Is this the correct part number for the MAF for my 2002 Audi s8?

077133471K

Pretty sure that's the one.
If you're anywhere near South Bucks I can lend you my spare one for testing; I bought it a while back in case that was the cause of some of my weird problems. Can't recall which is now in the car, original or replacement.
(The problem turned out eventually to be a too-sensitive brake pedal switch that needed adjusting.)

Thanks for the reply and thanks very much for the offer to loan me your spare. I think I'll just buy one though and fit it. I'm not really sure if there is anything wrong with the one that's in it really. I'm just trying to understand if anything may be causing the car to shift gear whilst under load.

I'm not sure at all what the shift strategy is for this car and what could cause the box to damage itself. I'm not even sure that there is anything going on at all. The box could just simply be wearing out.