Calimus

Getting back to this as I'm about to start ordering the filter & fluids. Has anyone come across a write up/How to on the fluid changes? I thought I saw one a while back somewhere, but I'll be damned if I can find it again for some reason.

tenspeed

It's not a DIY but it's a transmission thread that's active.
FYI, Cost of replacing the ZF 8HP fluid and the 3 differentials oil

chris200

2013 3.0 Prestige and she's going well. In the shop currently for 2 front lower control arms and new rear shocks but other than self induced damage that's the most I've had to do. I've had a few issues with the drivers seat - leather coming loose and lumbar support - but that was covered under warranty. I finally got sick and tired of the 2 local dealers - prices, incompetent and crappy service, so have gone to a local specialty independent. My commute is just over 40 each way, freeway or good (not jammed) major roads and driving it in the A6 is a pleasure. I might have to do the plugs myself now I've seen the instructions in here. I just asked for the latest MMI and map updates do we'll see how that goes.

Calimus

Changed the fluid and trans filter yesterday. It's a bit of a process. Getting the car level wasn't too hard.

Front frame brace has to be removed along with the rear trans mount bracket and mount itself. You will need to support the tail shaft to keep the trans from wanting to fall.

With the trance hot from a short drive, the fluid comes out real easy. Pan came off with no effort. I'm not pretty sure the fluid/filter was changed in this car at some point, though I couldn't say when. All I know is that I've put 70k on this car in just over two years so it was due.

The good news, almost no metal on the magnets of the old filter. The bad news, they say that in doing this you will replace 4 liters of fluid. it's not really the case. I only got about 3 1/8 liters out and that's all I could put back in. So I figure what I will do, it do this whole thing again in 30/40k miles and that will bring me to having replaced about 80% of the old fluid. I took just a few pics, not enough for a set by step. I'll post something up over the next few days for those that might be interested in savin themselves $1,100 on doing this.

tenspeed

I wouldn't worry too much about the remaining 20%. You're doing much more than most Audi owners.

I would be interested in seeing a write up.

Calimus

I'll certainly put one up. I was pretty frustrated that I couldn't find one anywhere and I've been searching for the last few weeks. However, that presents me with the opportunity to create one. While I couldn't take step by step pictures, it's not really needed. The few pictures I took are mostly enough and I might just jack the car back up a little for a few extra pics just for reference.

I still need to change the rear diff oil, was just too damn tired to bother yesterday. I't been a long time since I did this much work in one sitting and truth be told, I've gotten fat & mostly inactive with my current job the last few years so I'm paying the price today. This has been a great motivator for getting of my *** more thats for sure.

Calimus

Just a quick update. Car is at 162k now and I've gotten about 1k since i changed the trans fluid. Car is still running great. Took it in last weekend for the fuel pump recall so that's finally done. Nothing else to really report.

Acuransx

Thanks for the update. That's good news. I intend to keep my /15 3.0T for no more than 65-70K miles -- hope to be as lucky as you have been.

Calimus

Time for another update. Currently at 165k and a bit of a revelation. So last Thursday the battery in the car finally bit it. I had a weak start in the morning and though I might have left something on in the car that doesn't automatically shut off. As I had a 100 mile drive ahead of me, I figured the battery would be back at full charge by that point. Upon reaching my destination, I shut the car off and tried to restart it just to be sure. The battery didn't have enough left it in to even turn the engine over at all.

Lucky for me a co-worker met me at that location and I was able to jump start the car and get a new battery from local parts store. While driving home that night the revelation came into play. A few months back I changed the trans fluid/filter in the car as it was getting some rough up and down shifts. Now the fluid/filter change did help out a lot, but not as much as I hoped, I just attributed it to having 160k miles on the trans.

Fast forward to the batter replacement and on the way home I realized that my shifts where way smoother, almost back to new car level smooth. Just to prove this I did something that was a no fail way to get the trans to jerk a bit and that was to bury my foot in the throttle while in 8th gear at around 70mph. The shift down to 7th and 6th had been producing a rough shift since the turn of the year and it persisted even after the fluid change.

low and behold, this time it was smooth as a baby's ***. I repeated the action a few times to see if it was a fluke and sure enough, it was smooth every time. I also noticed that the car's idle was a bit smoother as well which made sense once I thought about it.

So, this was the original battery that was in the car which makes it a hair over 5 years old. Aside from what I thought was trans issues turning out to be failing battery, the only other indication I got was the 1 weak start on the day it totally failed. So those of you with 12''s and 13's that might be having some rougher shifts than normal, maybe see about having your battery checked. because the trans uses a ton of electrical power as does the rest of the car and the alternator can only make up for so much lost capacity.

Also, the batteries in our cars are a fair bit larger than normal to help with the shear amount of electronics in the car. The more I took that into account, the more I realized how easily the failing battery could effect the trans without showing any other signs.

Also keep in mind, I drive my car a minimum of 100 miles a day, so it's rare that my car even gets a break on the weekends. There's very little time for the battery to sit and get weak, which is why I think it lasted as long as it did.

Nakedhoof

I have another view of what happened. Your alternator is the real culprit here. That new battery will help for awhile, but the alternator is designed to run all of the equipment in the car when you're driving, as well as recharge the battery. The battery is supposed to also be charged during this, as starting the car takes the most juice of anything you can do. Otherwise, how would the battery get charged at all?

The larger size of the battery is to complement the auto start/stop system (if you have that), so that you will have juice enough in the battery to do the start/stop numerous times while you're driving in stop and go traffic, as I do much of the time. You probably have a failing alternator, and it will eventually reveal itself.