Had my gearbox fluid changed today

[GH77]

Just thought I'd drop in a tuppenceworth in the interests of being an active member. There was nothing wrong with the 'box as far as I could tell, just thought it was time to take the plunge and do this bit of slightly risky preventative maintenance. Will obviously come back crying to you all should anything go wrong . . . . .

Flush / Filter / Refill - £155.40 inc VAT at Mackie Automatic Transmissions in Glasgow.

Good news is that they said there was no swarf on the magnets and the old oil was a fairly normal colour. (Should I have just left well alone?)

On the downside they did mention the ATF 'sweat' coming from the back of the 'box. Nothing terrible, but they were clearly trying to get me to give them the job to fix it. They mentioned that they would install an upgraded seal. I think they said something about fitting a different rear housing as well. Or did they just say that the rear housing has to come out to fit it? Wasn't paying enough attention, clearly. Anyone know anything about this upgrade? Can the parts be bought and fitted DIY?

[notorious]

I think that they meant propshaft seal, which often leak on these gearboxes. ZF released updated flange that works together with new updated seal to solve problem. Seal is leaking gearbox lube and not ATF. This is not DIY job.

If you're serious about your car I would change that seal. In fact, all leaking seals.

[GH77]

Oh

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by GH77

Flush / Filter / Refill - £155.40 inc VAT at Mackie Automatic Transmissions in Glasgow.

Had mine done recently, plus leaking seals.
That price wouldn't even cover the cost of the (genuine Audi) fluid, filter and gasket (inc. VAT!) that I was charged
And on top I had loads of labour and the driveshaft seals plus oil for the boxes/diffs.

How much fluid did they use, what type and what price per litre (inc VAT)?

[GH77]

Hi,

Can't honestly say what fluid they used. Sorry. I'm presuming that, as ZF's agent for Scotland, they get the job done properly. I do know that the job agreed was for them to purge the old fluid completely, change the filter and refill with new fluid, which the manager reckoned was around 11 litres.

It's always a risk, I know, when you go out with the dealer arena but I made my mind up from being shown round the place, hearing the evident expertise of the manager, seeing the employees diligently at work in an almost sterile-clean workshop, and from various forum member comments. e.g.

Originally Posted by tintin

Mackies are the only ones I'd ever let touch my gearbox, even though they're 200 miles away from me - they rebuilt my 'box, and it'll be back for an oil change later this year. I trust them completely, and would recommend them over any other gearbox servicing location in the UK - they have all the right tools and are very competent.

Originally Posted by PsYcHe

For the gearbox, I'd recommend Mackies, they have the 'sucky, pumpy, squishy, squirty' machine that does the job 'properly', and they're not expensive.

Mackie's own website makes a deal of saying,

"ZF Great Britain Ltd is a supplier of remanufactured automatic and manual transmissions for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, off-highway vehicles, defense vehicles, rail cars, industrial machines and marine vehicles. At Mackie Automatic, we remanufacture torque converters for use on their OEM contracts. We are an "A1" rated supplier, the only company in Europe to receive this accolade. We also are their only Scottish distributor for parts and transmissions. View certificate."

I just hope I don't need to eat my words any time soon . . . . . .

[Adrian E]

At Audi prices the filter is about 40 quid, gasket £25, fluid is £12.50 a litre and Etka quotes 9.8 litres to fill so £190 in parts at Audi prices.

I know I looked at buying from ZF direct and it would've saved me a small amount, but I suspect a main agent will be making a profit still at half the Audi prices - after all the parts are made by ZF and then stuck in an Audi packet so there's probably a 40% markup in there just for that.

If you buy fluid in massive drums the cost per litre drops substantially as well.

Not paying the South East tax will also be a factor and Mackeys have the sucky-blowy-pumpy thing so it's probably not even very labour intensive until you have to run it through the gears and top up the last bit.