[Radman]

Well I took the jump and and had the ATF fluid changed last week with ZF Lifeguard 8 as it was quite a lot less expensive than Audi OEM and highly rated by those in the know apparently. The old fluid didn't look too bad and there wasn't much stuck to the sump magnets at the time of draining (mileage exactly 100K). Since then I took a highly entertaining run to Ayrshire at the weekend to give it a good shakedown including fairly rapid run back down the A71. The verdict? The gearchange which was very smooth before is now all but imperceptible and seems faster in tiptronic mode. The car seems to drive even more effortlessly and there is also a marginal improvement in the recorded average mpg from 36.7 to 37.5. I wasn't expecting this but the car returned an indicated 41.6mpg for the Scotland journey and I wasn't hanging around which even impressed my diesel hatchback owning passenger. The droning noise however is still there and doesn't really seem to have changed. This was disappointing but the improved driving characteristics and confidence from having renewed the oil certainly justify the expense for me.