Advice from Germany
 

Hi,

Having spent the best part of 6 hours yesterday in the car with Chris, i got to hear some great insights into how the Germans view the gearbox issues.

With regards to ZF, apparently Audi told them to make the gearbox cheaper as it was too expensive and hence some of the issues post what seems like 100k miles.

Also, Mr Sagert, ZF gearbox guru that works at the plant recommends a number of things...

1. Full service every 60,000 km as documented here

2. The reason for the shunt is that the little balls start off at being 10mm big but over time shrink in size to around 8mm or less causing pressure issues.

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...F/IMG_9903.jpg

3. Driving in tip-tronic (apparently) wears the gearbox down more quickly

4. It is recommended that when shifting through the auto box to do this slowly and stop in each position for 1 second so the pressure changes are smooth. (As opposed to quickly going from 'P' to 'D'

I'm not saying this is all correct but it is interesting to hear how the germans feel about the gearbox issues.

-Oli

Hello Again,

The only slight difference is that Carl in ZF mentioned servicing the box every 80,000 kms.

All the other advice concurs with what you have below Oli.

Cheers

Niall

Hi Oli,

yeah, that's a nice summary, you've given.
Audi dealers themselves got an advice by Ingolstadt to do the oilchange every 60.000 km. But unfortunately that happened some years after selling the A8. :D

Chris.