My gearbox bit the dust again..

06:45 on my way to work down the M1, pull into Watford Gap, fill her up, pay, set off and THUD....

PRNDS lit up, safe mode. Thought it couldn't happen again so soon, how wrong was I.

Limped along to the A43 turn off, pulled into the lay by and turned her off to see if it would reset.

It did reset, but then I was marooned...

Basically, it would go into drive, but then pulling away and it wouldn't change gear, stuck in 1st with the constant threat of an almighty bang coming. I tried the selector, tiptronic, nope

RAC had to come out and pick me up on a flatbed again, after me basically telling them I was not about to risk driving all the way down to Hays to VM Transmissions again in 1st gear. It's with Parish now, he cleared the codes and forced it to throw the fault again, it read as speed sensor or incorrect ratio.

He's gonna take a look and get back to me with the tale of woe...

Seriously guys, this may be the last straw as I cannot afford this car any more. It's the time it takes out of my working week and the hassle trying to fix up alternative transport, days off work, working time back when it needs fixing.

Then it's the money, I mean this will be expensive if I can't get it done under the warrantly from it's previous episode at VMT.

This is now officially the most unreliable car I've ever owned (and I've owned some pretty cruddy cars in the past).

Why oh why did Audi use this POS gearbox, and why did they not give us brits the manual option?

Ok, moan over - I'll keep you posted...

Surely there must be something that as a group(Owners club) that we can take to Audi about this? The Sale of Goods act says things should be fit for purpose, it appears these cars gearboxes aren't.

Even if its just heavily subsidised new uprated boxes or something

[A8 Doc]

I was shocked when I read this, then realised it was a D2 not a D3. The D3 tiptronic is a million times better!

[Oli18]

ah mate, i'm so sorry to hear that. It will be interesting to hear what caused it.

What did VMT change last time around? Will they cover it and what was it that made it go in to limp mode this time around.

Hang in there mate. You know that the car is awesome and the best thing on 4 wheels - a real shame you've had to go through this again...that is not something you'd expect after having it rebuilt/fixed so recently.

-Oli

[PsYcHe]

Hopefully nothing too major, but sounds like a clutch basket or the TC has gone

Hmm, well it turns out it was a sticky solenoid that eventually broke. They fixed it under warranty, so no charge. I suppose I should be grateful.

Just got to dismantle the exhaust again now and re-assemble with paste to achieve silence and more than 15mpg, as they didn't put those stupid sleeves back together properly again so it's blowing like a tractor.

Then I've got to clean the black hand prints off the boot and bonnet.

Thought I'd be happy to get her back, but she's lost some of her sparkle in my eyes after all this recent unreliability

[Oli18]

Hi mate,

Well, i'm really pleased it isn't anything that wasn't fixable and it turned out to be cheap. I know it's not ideal having it break down but at least it wasn't anything serious and you got it all under warranty.

As for getting that sparkle back, you'd be surprised what a good day of detailing does to fall in love with it all over again! :-)

-Oli

[PsYcHe]

Take it round the back roads! That'll put the smile back.

wish mine was something so simple

Anyway, happy for you mate.... now go and treat it like it ought to be treat!

Yes, I empathise with you Entwisi - you probably feel the same way, happy enough doing jobs on your car, but daren't try fixing the gearbox yourself, or simply don't have the time or resources to even attempt it. So what do you do? You have to entrust it to someone who may/may not care about a job done right, and pay them a fair bit of money in the hope that they do care.

I hope you see a solution soon too bud

Well, what I didn't mention about my motor after it was returned from VM in Hayes was that last night on my way home it developed a loud rattle at around 2800 to 3000 rpm. When it first happened, I nearly cried as it sounded so terminal. The thing was loud enough with a blowing exhaust without a terrifying rattling sound too (I thought it was something inside the gearbox).

Anyway, I decided I'd buy yet another new exhaust sleeve - you may remember that last time they worked on it, they mangled the sleeve putting it back together. I bought a new sleeve from Audi, they supplied the wrong diameter, so I modified it and it was ok. Well this time round, both sleeves were blowing. I'd re-assembled it with exhaust paste, VMT obviously don't bother.

So after taking another 2 hours out of work which I'll have to work back tonight (7.30pm finish ). I bought another sleeve, this time a Bosal one from that place on Uxbridge Road. They had only one in stock, 61mm ID, £20. I used paste again, it's all gone back together perfectly and doesn't blow any more.

I had a look round for the rattle, couldn't see anything initially until I took the plastic sump pan off and a piece of black plastic fell on my head. I looked around for ages to see where it came from, then started the car up to see if it was still rattling. Oh it was rattling all right, the engine driven fan was trying to munch it's shroud! Somehow (I don't know why) the shroud has been snapped at the bottom, causing the broken end to protrude into the fan blades when it's revved. I've had to take the shroud off and I'll look at repairing it with some araldite or perhaps a soldering iron.

Do you think the engine will overheat without the shroud for the fan, or will the secondary fan keep it cool enough?

Anyway, I've perked up a little now that she's all quiet again. I've noticed the gearchange has smoothed a little now, less of a lurch into gear first thing in the morning and less pulling at the brakes when stopped in drive.

However, I don't think I'll be using VM in Hayes again now as I've not been overly impressed with the service really. They may have sorted my gearbox problems (only time will tell) but the problems I've had with the rest of the reassembly have left me thinking I'll be trying elsewhere from now on. I can't blame the shroud on them, but it seems odd that it happened after leaving there. I can't really accept the exhaust blowing though. Surely they must hear that it doesn't sound right? They also forgot to put the battery cover back on, left a bit of a mess for me to clean up. Not really worth the £1700 I paid out to be honest

Some might say I should have taken it back in to be put right, but I'm working long hours at the moment and haven't got time or alternative transport to be mucking about, so that's why I've ended up doing it myself as at least I know it's done properly now.