upops

I have a 1998 Audi A4 2.8L Quattro Automatic with 100k miles. It needed a new transmission. So i paid $2,000 for a entire transmission rebuild. It came with a 3month warranty 3k mile warranty. I drove it 100 miles and it stopped going in reverse. Towed it back. They put in another rebuilt transmission. After 250 more miles Now it wont go in reverse and making all kinds of noises. Towed it back again. Now the tell them the reason it keeps failing is because it needs a new transmission cooler. They want me to pay for a new one. I tried arguing it was misdiagnosed in the first place but they wont budge. They said they will install the transmission cooler and put in another rebuilt transmission if i bring them a transmission cooler. My question is does that make sense? Can a bad transmission cooler cause 3 transmissions to go bad? With 100 miles and 250 miles between the 2nd and 3rd transmission? I want to make sure this makes sense before i pay for the part and hope this doesn't happen again.

They said the reason why its the transmission cooler is because everytime it comes back the coolant is always clogged up with metal and other debris. They always power clean and flush it but it always gets clogged back up.

Essential what they are saying is the transmission cooler is causing a newly rebuilt transmission to fail each time.

Do you guys think they are telling the truth?

Also how do you guys feel about using a universal transmission cooler?

Kris Hansen

main radiator) before changing the transmissions?

There is not a lot of capacity in the trans cooler, so either they are filling you a line of BS, or your radiator is disintegrating.

upops

According to them they did flush the lines

Joey T

And then monitor trans temps with your VAG COM. Had they caught the plugged radiator the first time you would have paid for it then. Who are they getting the remand from?

Kris Hansen

Well they should have caught this the first time then!

Joey T

So the shop has had to eat a trans, and labor, but he is out nothing besides his time, and now the money he would have spent the first visit if they had caught it.

For the record, I call bull****. I think the rebuilder is doing a bad job. I used to workin a trans shop, the builders always blamed the coolers when they had a difficult to build trans go bad.

Nevermind the fact that they left clutch plates out.

Kris Hansen

it's a temperature regulator. It ensures that the temps never exceed whatever the radiator runs at. Most importantly, it helps the trans fluid warm up.

I didn't think anyone but ZF was rebuilding these things anyway?

Joey T

Other than that, I have not heard good things.