DIY gearbox service

[dougisaacs]

Hi everyone, I've just bought my first Audi, a D2 S8 and thoroughly enjoying it . I understand that the gearbox is the weak spot on these so I'd like to do a transmission service. When I read the audipages instructions it seems to say that if you leave the tranny to drain overnight all the ATF fluid will drain out. Whereas, elsewhere I've seen people say that you have to use a specialist pump to change all of the fluid. Anyone give a definitive answer on this please?
Also, I understand that you can't just use any old ATF but do you have to go to Audi for it or is it available elsewhere and if so what is the name / spec of it?
Thanks in advance, Doug

[The_Laird]

My advice - do not do it yourself!

Get a proper ZF specialist to do it. It's not that expensive and this is what they'll do that you can't:

1. Warm the fluid in their 'pumpy squirty' machine
2. Flush the whole box (through the oil cooler connections I think) with the warm oil
3. The flush goes through a very fine mesh filter to remove much finer particles than the gearbox filter will
4. Provide some level of diagnosis from any fine particles in the mesh, e.g. apparently brass particles indicate some level of bearing wear

There is a school of thought that draining the box yourself and then refilling can just disturb, but not remove, any gunk, and gearbox failures soon after DIY servicing are not unheard of.

I have a D2 S8 that's clocked over 170K miles, but it's had 3 gearbox flushes and still seems OK. I pay around £150 for a proper gearbox service - much better than up to £3K for a new box!

BTW, welcome to the forum - and photos of your car are a must!

[MikkiJayne]

Welcome

Yes, the gearbox is the Achilles heel of these glorious machines. 'Sealed for life' doesn't do them any favours at all. There is a bearing which collapses, the life of which will be prolonged by nice clean oil. Likewise there are a number of other design flaws for which fresh oil makes no difference at all, like clutch housings shattering. How many miles are on yours?

You'll get just over half the oil out (5 litres) by removing the drain plug and letting it sit, but not all of it. You'll get a little more by removing the sump, which you need to do to change the filter (might as well if you're doing the oil). The only way to get it all out (9.5 litres) is by stripping the whole thing down, or by using a special machine which hooks in to the cooler lines and replaces old fluid with new while it's running. There are a couple of specialists with this kit mentioned on the forum, Mackies being one.

You do need a special pump to put fluid back in though as the filler port is underneath in the sump. I have this one: http://www.ffx.co.uk/tools/product/S...FcEy0wodHY4H0A



At £80 for the pump, £100+ for the oil, £30 filter, and £20 gasket its a fairly expensive job but not prohibitive.

The oil by the way is Esso LT 71141. There are plenty of cheap oils which claim to be compatible but I think you'll find probably 100% support on here for using only top quality branded stuff or Audi genuine. Audi call it G052 162 A2 - £15 for a 1 litre bottle. Mobil do a version of it which is £12 per litre: http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-69401-mo...ion-fluid.aspx
For the marginal difference in price I just use genuine.

We have a South West 8-meet on the 28th by the way if you're interested in meeting a few other enthusiastic owners http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11924

(oops too slow! )

[dougisaacs]

Thanks for the replies guys. If I can get it done for £150 by a specialist then that sounds decent value. Anyone know of a place I can get it done in S Wales or west of England? Very rarely the box does seem to judder, seems to be in higher gears and under load, dont know if that's a common problem? Otherwise it's good, no clunks or knocks when shifting from P to N to D and clean shifts etc. The car has 108k miles on it and has a very good history with a new gearbox sump (!) and fluid change at an Audi dealer at 77k but I guess that may well have just been the 'half' change described above.

Newbie question but how do add pictures?! Do I need to host them somewhere online first or can I upload them directly?

[johnny_quattro]

When replying to a post on these forums, scroll down a bit and you'll see the option to 'Manage attachments', which gives you the ability to add the photos you want.

[ainarssems]

If you want cheap oil for DIY change this meats VW specification for D2: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8-2x4-Lite...item54239e424a

[dougisaacs]

Originally Posted by johnny_quattro

When replying to a post on these forums, scroll down a bit and you'll see the option to 'Manage attachments', which gives you the ability to add the photos you want.

Ta. I think I've added a photo of my car!

[The_Laird]

Nice looking car!

There's a ZF specialist in Chester that comes recommended on here. I'll look it up and post a link

[MikkiJayne]

Ooh very nice - a proper Ronin rep

Chester Automatics - http://www.transcentre.co.uk/

They definitely know these gearboxes very well - I bought some parts from them when I rebuilt mine.

[The_Laird]

As promised:

http://www.tyresmoke.net/forum/topic...transmissions/

http://www.transcentre.co.uk/