skijour

Where to start? At 120K miles tranny seems to be hunting in and out of torque converter lockup at steady light load in high gear, barely noticeable. Then it starts making the dreaded metallic/hydraulic whirring sound. Taken directly to Audi in Anchorage, AK. They state they only change-out trannys, suggest we take it to a tranny shop. Finger through the Yellow Pages, (mistake?), find a shop that says they just did another A-8. Take it there, they say the torque converter is toast, and change it out. Car now defaults to the 'limp-home' mode. Audi won't touch it because the tranny shop did the work and used a non-Audi tranny oil. (Tranny shop checked, none was available in Alaska, Audi confirmed this). Audi's Scanner System is PROPRIETARY, per the tranny shop? (If I had my own VAG-COM set-up, perhaps I could have reset it?) They work with a ZF shop in Florida, (I believe), and pin-by-pin troubleshoot and reset the tranny, and get it running. By now I'm down $4K+.
Drive it down the Alaska Hwy no problem, but soon thereafter it will not shift properly. With an older automatic I would check the linkage, but with this electronic beast, I wonder if their is a problem with the valve body assembly?
I was at sea at the time, but the wife tells me the car started in Park, when she put it in Reverse the car moved forward. She then put it back to Park, then put it in Reverse and it backed-up. She then attempted to put it in Drive and said the lever felt 'bound-up'. She then called a tow-truck and put it in storage. (Some of this info I just found out, as I just returned from my job on a containership.) (Linkage once again sounding suspicious?)
???Any guidance is appreciated???
p.s.I know that I made several errors along the way, but I've got to put them behind me and move on.
p.s.Has anybody dealt with Phoenix Transmissions, on eBay, with a very high approval rating?

operafan

I have the same thing going on with my '98 A8 which has 86,000 miles on it. It sometimes feels like bad gas or moisture in the line, or a fowled plug - all of which have been addressed. I can sometimes see the tach needle actually bouncing as the car searchers for the right gear. I do find that keeping the RPMs up helps "get through" the problem - but it's only temporary. I also experience no problem when the engine/transmission are cold. But after a few minutes driving, it's there again and it's very annoying. My dealer is great to work with and has tried a couple different things (with the engine - not the tranny). I'd sure appreciate hearing how someone else might have gotten rid of the problem. This is otherwise such a fine automobile. I've had it for 4 months and I love it!

$500

Go to Audipages.com and read Paul W's suggested fix for this problem. I followed his instructions and 90 - 95%of my problems disappeared. i got the car from a guy who got scared by the Audi dealer who was talking somewhere between 3 and 10 grand for the fix. John in Toronto