I see yours has the cable tie too, and the loose shroud at the other end.

So how long for the whole job, and what were the "tricks of the trade"? Remember estimated time to put back AND test.

The switch is reassembled now, so just about to put it back in. Realistically, this is just a temporary solution as the contacts are actually worn, not dirty, but its a Sunday with no motorsport curiosity so no great loss.

There's England v Fiji highlights in 5 mins tho. +++

Apparently mine had one seized bolt which took some effort to get out and they were almost at the point of calling it a day. I guess allowing for the other work (control arms / tie rod and freeing up all adjustment points for the 4 wheel tracking) it must have been about 3 -3-5 hrs.

Thinking back to that comment, now you've had yours out and found only wear (similar to mine?) maybe this needs to be viewed as a "consumable" replaced maybe on a similar cycle to the cam belt?

Looking at mine carefully I could see a bit of "clumping" of the lubricant/grease so do wonder if it's just a combination of wear, debris etc. making it less reliable as it ages. The sliding contact design doesn't really seem to be engineered for tens of thousands of operations, after all it moves presumably every time there's a gear change, maybe with changes in torque converter slip as well?

I thought it moved together with the selector in cabin not with the actual gear engaged.

Fixed :D

Yes it does - seems to be about the 100K mark, although my '99 made it to 200K before the gearbox died and that never had the problem - probably because it spent most of its time on the motorway. The fundamental problem is the moving contact which touches the single contact in the silver-coloured section. The points on the contacts are rounded so they move nicely over the stationary bits, but that one has been flattened by riding up on to the contact and off again. The only solution would be to replace the sprung contact, but its not possible to hand-make something like that easily. Not for less than a new switch anyway. Its going to be an option for the future when the new switches are NLA though.

It does - its directly attached to the gear linkage. The switch is rather clever though in that the arrangement of the contacts allows the TCU to know not only which gear is selected, but also which direction the shifter is moving. So, it knows when it was in N and moved towards D, but with the bad contact it moves out of N and then gets an implausible signal - only half the contacts it was expecting, and throws a code.

Pro-tips in a little bit +++

I had this same problem with a previous car, not Audi but auto box. I took it apart cleaned it, contacts were good, but heres the key to my mind, upon reassembly, get to Maplins and get a tube of silicon grease and get it into all the contact points etc then smeaar some round the top cover before securing it back to body. Since you now have some silicon grease left, get it into every electrical connector you can find, especially on both sockets of the F125 switch

Well, I've just been for " a bit of a thrash" - all legal mind - and I "think" I've got my old car back. +++++++++
None of the odd hesitation and other little nagging doubts that I've had on and off for ages.

And, another minor miracle, just plugged in VCDS and "01119 - Gear Recognition Signal (Intermittent)" :tuttut:
No! It's not there! First time EVER after moving the car more than a few yards. :cheers:

So, only time will tell, but I'm feeling seriously optimistic.

So how, if at all, is it involved if I change gear with the thumb buttons on my steering wheel? :Confused: