docfarrow

My 2000 A-6 4.2 recently went into 2nd? gear when I stopped after driving for awhile and would only crawl along. The gear indicator light was solid red for all gears. When I turned the car off and restarted, it operated normally. What is going on?

Harleyguy

It went into limp mode. Need to use a VCDS scanner and get codes including transmission codes.

docfarrow

Code said I needed a J217 transmission control and that the part is no longer available or at least really difficult to find. The car is in really in good condition with only 113000 miles but not really worth that much. Any suggestions?

Harleyguy

Authorized vendor on this site can maybe help you out with this. OCLES is the business name. They are in the Reno, NV area. They have a lot of experience in this area and the C5 4.2 liter cars with the automatic transmissions is a passion of theirs.

ocles_inc

Thank you, Harleyguy. You said it better than I could. :-)

As to the part, yes, these switches are rare. As I understand things, it's the switch where the shift cable meets the transmission.

I've just sent an email to the US ZF distributor, asking if he has any for sale. If he doesn't, I can pull one off one of our little fleet of driving 2000 Audi A6 4.2 V8 cars. and offer it for sale, used and guaranteed to be in good working order.

~Tanya

docfarrow

Thanks for the information. If you find the part let me know. My mechanic sounds a little reluctant to place a used part.

Harleyguy

If the part is that rare, would you rather try a used part or none at all?

ocles_inc

I still haven't received input as to the availability of new parts, nor their pricing, nor a good price for used parts. I don't have a used one on the shelf either, to my knowledge, so unless I can find one, the way I'd provide it is to take one off one of my driving cars and turn it into a non-operating vehicle for a while, I'm open to do that, if sufficiently motivated. However, I want to make very sure the part I send you doesn't show any hint of the same problems you've experienced. What symptoms did you experience that led to the conclusion that this particular items needed replacement?

Thank you ... I'm sorry if this is frustrating.

docfarrow

Sorry for not responding sooner. The symptoms were I would be driving along both at high and low speeds and it would down shift and all the gear position indicator lights would turn red. When it happened on the highway it ran fine until I got off and stopped. It would not run properly until I turned ignition off and back on and everything worked normally. If it happened at lower speed it would go onto a gear that would not allow me to go very fast so I would stop, turn ignition off and on and things were fine. It began to do this more and more frequently but it has to be warmed up. I am not sure if I want to spend the money to get it fixed which is too bad because it is a nice car. I don't know what to do with it however. thanks for your interest in my problem...appreciate it!!

ocles_inc

Hello again, thank you for describing the symptoms. It's cool that you've narrowed it down to the J217 so clearly. As good timing would have it, I just heard back from the ZF distributor today. The ZF part number you need is 0501-321-903 so that might help you chase it down. To buy the new one from ZF, the new price is just over $480 and he doesn't have them in stock, they're a special order from Germany and might take a month or two. That way you know it'll probably last another 18 years. :-)

If I'm your best option, I'll either find one in my stash or pull one off a 2000 4.2 whose transmission we'll be redoing anyway soon. Its J217 part is fine due to how the car drove so knowing that is a plus. My price tends to be 1/3 of the new price, and that's the case here too, so $160 plus shipping plus tax. And if you don't like it or it doesn't fix your problem, send it back for a refund of what you paid.

For other folks reading this thread: this parts fits only on the early A6 C5 Quattro 4.2 V8 with transmission code ECF. Later models need a different part, which is $325 new from ZF and $110 used from me.

Regardless of where you buy it, I hope your story has a nice ending.