More Transmission Seal Issues
 

Hi again, so im in the middle of replacing the valvebody seals...

The ones I got were the four small rubber tubes and the large main sealing part (the rectangle plastic part)

But once I dropped the valvebody, I saw the large rectangle one, but I didnt have the smaller rubber tubes. From al the vids I saw online, they just simply pull out of the tranny and you replace with new ones... but on mine, there are no rubber tubes, only metal springs held inplace by circlips????? Plus I have the wrong filter/gasket from the parts store...fuk

Anyone else run into this issue?? Do I just replace the main seal?? Are there other o rings behind these springs?

...search didnt show much

Could you take some pics and post them please? What gearbox code do you have? Should be a 3 letter code printed on the main casing somewhere, also appears on the car’s build sticker.

Below are the ZF part numbers which apply to my KHA gearbox as far as I know, but I haven’t bought them yet. Will be interesting if you could compare to the part numbers you have. For the 6HP19A, the “short sleeve” and “long sleeve” are the smooth ones, not the ones with ridges I’m the outside which you see 6HP19 videos. Does your car have quattro by the way Sallad?

part numbers below for reference.

Valve body to case bridge seal ZF 0501216014
Electrical connector O rings ZF 01V927322A

Short sleeve ZF 0734 317 389 (3 pieces)
Long sleeve ZF 0734 317 370(1 piece)
Oil change kit (includes filter and 7 litres lifeguard 8) ZF 1071.298.027

The videos you’ve seen are likely the 6HP19 (2 wheel drive), I guess yours is 6HP19A (quattro version, same as mine). The part numbers I have for the seals are as follows:

Valve body to case bridge seal ZF 0501216014
Electrical connector O rings ZF 01V927322A


Short sleeve ZF 0734 317 389 (3 pieces)

Long sleeve ZF 0734 317 370(1 piece)

I checked the ZF parts reference doc and although I didn’t realise it, seems like those smooth sided cylindrical seals are retained with springs and circlips, unlike on the 6HP19 where they have that kind of ridge in the seal which seats them in place. I’ve posted the pages below and the doc is at https://aftermarket.zf.com/remotemed...9a-catalog.pdf


By the way, I’ve rewritten this message from scratch as I managed to balls it up and deleted the lot while trying to add the last page of ZF part numbers below!



https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...c423ba75f1.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...3b346aaade.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...05ab0dd866.png

Good info thanks...

Im done the repair, basically dropped the pan, then the mechatronic unit, replaced the main seal, which is the long one, not like any pic Ive seen. Its about 3 inches long. And I did not replace the sealing tubes, as they were not the right ones. Took a few hours from the time I started jacking the car up, till done.

My tranny code is KTT, and yes its a quattro.

I drove my car around a bit after the repair, so far seems good. Shifts smooth. But the real test is when its cold out.



Heres what I did...

Drove the front on ramps.
Jacked the rear level with the front.
Installed jack stands or "Trestles" if you're British
Removed the four 16mm bolts that hold the cross member that across the pan.
Cracked the fill plug slightly (the side of tranny, not bottom one)
Removed drain plug (front corner of pan, small bolt)
Drank some of my Vodka...
Made another Vodka (while tranny drained)
Remove all the bolts around pan
Drop pan, careful, still oil in it
Removed wiring plug (turn the retaining ring)
Pulled off the wiring harness clip (metal clip that hold the plug in place)
Loosen the larger bolts on the valvebody
Got most of them out, then slowly lowered it down while pushing the wires out of the hole
It'll drip oil everywhere the whole time, tools are slippery, its not cool.
But its easy, just a lot of bolts to remove.
Once its off, just remove the main seal, and replace.
Put it all back together.

...thats what I did.

Thanks Sallad, this is excellent info for me. I have some questions while it’s still fresh in your mind.

- once the metal clip which retains the electrical connector is removed, I suppose the connector and wiring loom will push through inwards into the gearbox casing, but perhaps better to do this only once you’ve got the valve body off?
- how did you approach getting the last bolts off the valve body while still supporting it somehow? I’ve read that it’s a heavy unit (10kg?) so holding it up with one hand while unscrewing the last bolts without straining or twisting the valve body or bolts must be a challenge? I’ve wondered about rigging some kind of truss to wedge it in place while unscrewing the last bolts.

Good to hear that despite being a biggish job, there’s nothing too difficult. Have you reset the adaptations and done an adaptation drive to reprogram the gearbox, or have you found that shifting remains ok without needing to do this? You mentioned the cold weather being the key test - were you undertaking this to deal with torque converter lockup clutch shift problems (rpm fluctuations)?

First I unhooked the connector on the outside of the tranny (just twist the connector loose)
then remocved the metal clip with a flatblade screwdriver
then push the harness inwards towards the valvebody
once you start lowering the body, you can push the harness all the way out

i just kept the middle bolt in place, the held it up and romoved the last boltthen just lowered it by hand... it’s not too heavy

it was harder putting it back in, cause you have to hold it up and get a bolt started. But again, nothing crazy

The issues I was having, is it would slip when it was cold, I had to rev it to get it to move . But after a few mins of driving it was fine, just hard shifts sometimes


nothing to reset, it just drove like a new tranny lol

Ok thanks for the info. Sounds like your issue is fixed and I suppose it was the main bridge seal which you replaced which was possibly leaking before. You must be pretty pleased with the outcome. If you have vcds it would be pretty interesting to capture the current adaptation values and then see how they change over time as the car performs more adaptation cycles with the new bridge seal in place. Covered in detail here:
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...g-you-2973888/

My issue is with rpm fluctuations due to the torque converter lockup clutch slipping in cold weather before the transmission warms up. Most people on forums straight out say that a torque converter replacement is the only fix, but I’m clinging to the hope that it might be rubber seals and that replacing them before putting too many miles on the car will solve the issue without needing a new TC.

I noticed this black oil pipe which runs front to back within the gearbox and has two O rings as per the exploded view below. I wonder if this is part of the pathway taken by the oil as it actuates the torque converter clutch, and maybe I should replace them while I’m doing my transmission service. You can get a pretty good view of that oil pipe between 11:55 and 12:00 in this video. I hope it just pulls downwards and is retained in position just with the O rings.


The cylindrical sleeves which you were not able to change are associated with clutches B, C and D which handle gearshifting, and as my shifts are not problematic I may leave these unchanged as you did, just because I’m wary of breaking something while getting those circlips out. I’ll definitely be changing the bridge seal though.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...1d3a0c4bf.jpeg

After about 1100 Kim’s so far still working, so I guess I did ok with the repair.

im still noticing a slight hard shift in the 5 gear area... may still do those small tubes

If you do, then please let me know how those clips come out and how it goes. If it turns out to be a nightmare then you might save me falling into the same trap. It will likely be sept before I tackle mine :)

Well, bad news, it’s slipping again when cold.

Im in the process of getting new vb sealing sleeves ordered... damnit

i hope this fixes it again.