mustangbuffs

ic5 can you tell me who you got your trick valve body from. Thanks. Hows your car doing?

Aldrich67

I am having the same issue with my reverse gear. I tried changing the fluid and filter but it still does the same. When it's cold, it doesn't engage as well when the engine is warm. Even it's warm it feels like that you need to rev the engine high to get the reverse going.

I would assume it's the F-piston rather than the valve body? I wanted to do it myself and just worried about getting the car high enough to remove the transmssion as I do not have a car lift.

mustangbuffs

most likely it is the transmission. Mine is kind of odd though. Mine works great when cold but slips a little when warm. It wasnt working at all for about a week and then all of a sudden reverse started working again. It still engages slowly but works! I dont get it. I havent even done the fluid and filter yet. Weird!

Aldrich67

You mentioned that the transmission mechanic knows what's wrong. Is it the F-piston that he is chraging you $1500 to rebuilt?

iC5

Hi, I've been out of the country for a while since my last post, sorry I couldn't get to the questions sooner. I've had 3 A6 4.2's and they have all had reverse issues. I beat the crap out of these cars indiscriminately and have successfully tackled every issue you can have with them I assure you all. In one case on my first one, I had replaced the tranny valve body which took care of it. In my second I had replaced the F clutch piston, which had severely deteriorated. The last issue I had that caused me to lose reverse in my current vehicle was the clutch drum that had a hairlike crack in it, I pulled my tranny out and re-rebuilt it 3 times but couldn't find the problem until I pressure tested the drum and found bubbles escaping from it. Replaced the drum and solved my problem. The bottom line is that these are the only areas of the tranny that would cause you to have irregular or total loss of reverse. The F clutch piston is the most obvious source of failure in these units followed by a bad drum and rarely a valve body, although it does happen. Dan

mustangbuffs

Yea thats what he is saying. But im not going to use this guy as I just found out he screwed another customer on a easy trans rebuild on a suburban. He didnt do crap to the trans except clean it to look like he worked on it. No way im going to give him my hard earned money for nothing.

mustangbuffs

Thanks for the info Dan. What would you think would cause my reverse to stop working and now work again. although it still engages slowly when the car warms up.