Gearbox gone pop

[M-A8]

PM me your post code please.
I'll see if can pop in over the weekend.
How about weekdays between 11-2pm?
It would most likely be weekend anyway but just in case.

[Johnmed]

Sorry to hear about your 'box. If it was me I'd jump at the chance of a member scanning the car for you, if you can't yourself,.. and then go from there. Worst comes to the worst, whack a £500 'box in and move on.

[manca]

Thanks John yes if I can get away with that it's the best of a worst case. I have pm'd Marcin who is as always too generous with his time and expertise. I'm feeling slightly more optimistic thanks to the people on this forum. It's a gem of a place.

[M-A8]

Sorry mate, been busy but I'm back now.
Will PM you in a minute.

[M-A8]

Hi
Sorry, had an absolutely manic day today.
So, I will be with you tomorrow morning.

Spoke to my Audi garage in Harrow and two weeks ago they have done two swaps on A8, one 3.0TDi and one Q7 3.0Tdi.
Bad news is that on Q7 you don't need to drop the engine down where on 3.0TDi A8 you have to drop the engine with the suspension frame in order to disconnect gearbox from the engine. Cost of the swap inc driver which is part of the mechatronic inside the gearbox is £960.

But, you can't just swap the gearbox as it won't work with the others gearbox driver or control unit however you want to call it.
You have to remove your original driver unit (from mechatronic) and swap it with the one on the new gearbox. If you just swap the gearboxes it won't work, simple.
So the one main thing to hope for is for your driver on your gearbox to not be faulty as new complete mechatronic is £4k. If it's mechanical and electronic side is fine then it's a ''simple'' job, they do these jobs all the time.

Before making any decision we can always send them VCDS scan so they can have a look at it first, before transporting car to them if you decide to go with them or any other place.

Guys, what's the best plan for tomorrow?
- Full scan, save it and clear all the faults.
- Delete all the faults one by one or just engine and gearbox??
- Start the car, attempt to drive until it goes into limp mode and do another full scan or just gearbox and engine?
That is obviously if car will move at all after loosing drive completely as Adam said. It could be mechanical or electronics just cut the gears off completely for safety ?!

I am simply going there to help a forum member and give him so hope and starting point in process of making decision.

I've got very little understanding of mechanics so if I used a wrong term don't jump on me straight away as I always could misunderstood something.
What I would say is that they know what they are doing amd what needs to be done re gearbox swap so it works, their reputation is impeccable and they have no time for BS and I know them for 6 years now and I will vouch for their work and what they say.

[Adrian E]

It's sounding very much like a mechanical failure to me, but I suppose it's possible the box electronics are trying to protect the gearbox if they've detected an issue?

I don't think clearing the faults, once saved, will make any difference.

Ref the mechatronic coding - presumably with the right software this can be recoded, even for a 2nd hand unit? I imagine it's a form of component protection to prevent theft?

[M-A8]

I don't think CP or recoding is the limitation here.
They have a ''contract or connection'' with Audi and remove CPs all the time.
They have VAS, VCDS and the new software which has replaced VAS, all genuine.
They don't mess around hence they are one of the best if not the best and most honest garage in London.
Unless there is some specific device costing tens of thousands of pounds which only dealer is allowed to have, hence the swap is required if you dont want to pay £10k+ for new gearbox with Audi.

[Adrian E]

That seems really mental

I'm not doubting their ability/knowledge at all, by the way. Wasn't sure if they had all the dealer level kit but seeing as they do clearly there's more to it.

I wonder if there's anyone in Eastern Europe who can remove the need for coding from the gearbox ECU? A lot of used parts on ebay have CP completely erased before sale, so the car never looks for it. Don't know how they achieve that mind.....

[M-A8]

From what I understand you can code mechatronic which includes the driver, but only if it's new - £4.5k, soooo...hence the swap of bits is required.

Are there any checks (such as output test) you can do on VCDS to test certain components to eliminate electronics and confirm mechanical failure.
I don't want to drive to Adam all the way just to do a quick scan and drive back home if there are any additional tests we can do.
I'm good no anyway i just don't want to waste an opportunity for him.

[H-M3]

Originally Posted by M-A8

PM me your post code please.
I'll see if can pop in over the weekend.
How about weekdays between 11-2pm?
It would most likely be weekend anyway but just in case.

Any excuse to drive his V10