4Driver4

Let me see if I am following correctly...
You argue, apparently, that Audi's specified interval for oil change (10k miles) is too infrequent and would result in engine failure if followed. That I get.
Then you say that the trans oil should never be changed because if the engine oil interval is too long then it is possible that the tran fluid interval is too short? I would have thought you might conclude the opposite: if the engine oil interval of 10k is too long, then Audi's trans fluid spec of "never" might also be too long...?

FWTW, ZF, the manufacturer has a maintenance schedule for your trans, a variant of which is used in many makes of car. Yes a tranny is not an engine. That is why it has a different fluid change interval.

This thread is turning into trolling. If you don't want to change your trans fluid don't. But don't try to argue that the manufacturer is wrong. Both Audi and the manufacture are correct in their statements about the trans.

In other news, we change the oil in our A6 every 10k miles. The car has 175k on it right now.

raj99

4driver, I'm with you on this one...just sounds like the ramblings of a person who has more opinions than facts. Witchhunt, you should be aware than maintenance is maintenance, engine related or not. Mind you, you are also the same person who's not inclined to swap out belts "because they look fine"...LMK how that works out for you

Witchhunt

No I'm just going by what the dealer said. If anyone in the world would want to do something unnecessary it would be the dealer. He said just leave it. Not trying to fight. Do what you want. The oil changes he said were definitely not 10k. Especially on a this direct injection motor
he's seen cars with cars with 50k miles completely shot because someone FOLLOWED the manual so whatever. You say potato I say patahto. Good luck.

4Driver4

I'll take the manufacturer's recommendation over a dealer. Most dealers will toe the Audi line and perpetrate the BS that transmissions are "sealed units"...whatever that means. Dealers don't repair transmissions; they just replace them, so they know very little about cause and effect of proper trans maintenance. Cars that have issues after a service are usually due either the wrong fluid used or the wrong amount used or both...or the car had some undisclosed issue that the owner was trying to fix by changing the fluid.

I first changed the fluid in our old 99 A6 at 150k miles. The car shifted "fine" but I read about the ZF recommendation and swapped the fluid and filter. The difference was immediate and quite obvious. That car received two more fluid changes before we sold it at 315k miles...still running the original trans.

You can do what you want, but it doesn't make it right, or a good idea. YMMV.

Witchhunt

so I want a dealer who knows nothing about transmissions to change my fluid? I can't do it myself, my Australian Shepherd is super smart but she won't do it so any suggestions? Seriously it's one of the reasons I don't do it. I dont want to drive out of there with a car that has no reverse. It shifts so nice you would think it was new
Seriously, I know that's what would happen

Marco Busiello

Good Morning everyone!
today I started to change the transmission fluid of my 130K miles Audi a6 2010.
the transmission change kit has 8 liter total, filter, gasket, and inspection plug seal.
I am usig an OBD2 to read the transmission oil temperature
during the refilling process:

• before the first start-up only 2l of fluid went in prior to overflow,
• I turned it on for 20 sec and switched back off
• added approximately 0.75l
• turned it back on and start filling, until it reached a temperature of 50C.
• at the end, another 0.75l when inside and then started to overflow

I let it sit until it cooled down to 30 C and restart the engine.
When I opened the inspection plug the fluid started to come out like it was foaming.
I was gravity feeding the oil, did the foaming happen because there was some air while the pump was running?
any insight about why only 3.5l are going in?
could not find any post about a similar issue, if I missed it please direct me to it

any help appreciated.
Marco

haloguy628

That's about right. If you droped the pan and changed the filter you would be able to get another cca 2 liters in. There will always be lot of the old fluid left in the converter and the passages. However by draining some and adding some new fluid you will feel difference.

You may do another change in couple of miles and I suggest you drop the pan and change the filter. It's not that difficult as the filter is exposed once you drop the pan. After that you will have approx 80% new fluid.

Marco Busiello

thank you haloguy628.
i have actually dropped the pan and chaged filter and gasket as well as cleaned the magnet.

Marco

dzywicki

When I have changed my trans fluid (3 times on 3 different A6s), I did the initial fill until it overflowed. Then I started it and switched through all the gears (with my foot on the brake). Then went underneath and did the rest of the fill. So I didn't do the intermediate start/stop like you did. Not sure about the foaming. between 3.5-4 l sounds right. Now that you know how to do it, changing the filter is not that much more work. The hardest part is getting the couple of torx screws out that are behind the frame support. I removed the frame support which made it easier to get some of the torx bolts out from the front (IIRC it was the front ones).

Marco Busiello

Thanks guys for your replies.
I have topped it off this morning about 5.5 l total.
The foam dissolved, it was probably giving an erroneous ATF level: it think the foam was because i was gravity feeding the oil initially, way too slow, and the ATF pump was getting some air in.