DrCold

A few months ago I took my 2006 Audi A6 4.2 in for service and got this wild idea to have them change the transmission fluid while it was there. The car is sitting at around 70,000 kilometers, and in the interest of a long lasting transmission I figured a fluid change was a good idea.

Doing research on various sites, I had expected the fluid change to cost upwards of $800. Worth it? Probably not, but I was more than willing to pay the price for peace of mind. When I returned to pick up the car, I was presently surprised with the $200 cost for the transmission fluid change. I asked the service manager if that was the right price and the right fluid and he assured me that the Audi universal fluid was correct. Almost instantly after leaving the dealer I noticed that the car was shifting very rough and almost as though it was having trouble downshifting (imagine someone driving stick and being a little too quick on the throttle and slow on the clutch). When I asked the service manager he said this was normal and that the transmission was just adapting after the fuild change.

Now, months later, it's still doing it and might even be getting worse. When slowing, the car will upshift to 2nd and then 1st when coming to a stop and it is rather harsh and causing a slight shutter.

Is this normal? Should I be going back to the dealer and raising hell? Or do I just need to learn to live with it. From what I could find on the various Audi forums, the fluid should cost around $80 a bottle. Do you think it would be worthwhile just to pick some up on my own and take it to an independent shop? I just want to make sure I'm not causing even more damage to the transmission in the meantime.
Thanks!

BigDYL

There's NO WAY it can only cost $200. Even if you only do just a drain and refill with the right fluid, anywhere between 4~7qt@ $40/qt (cheapest I can find), you are looking at at least $200+ on just the right transmission fluid, not including the labor.

You need to find a shop that really knows the Audi machines inside out ASAP and get that redone for sure.

pcamaj

as i was told here in the forum , whenever they do work on the tranny "they have to do the adaptation of the tranny" it wont happen by itself..." im pretty you will here more in here i just thought id add my 2 cents...

socalclimber

x2. Get it to a reputable shop familiar with Audis and have them check fluid level the right way, or redo. Or talk with service manager at your dealer.

I had it done on my C5 4.2 at a dealer in SoCal and it was $600 (3 years ago). I'm with BigDYL on this, the parts alone are prob > $200 at the dealer. They should have put in a new trans filter kit with the fluid and done a "drain and filter change" not a flush (where the fluid is sucked out, not drained).

The filling process is temperature dependent: you fill from below until it runs out the fill hole, and at a certain trans temperature as measured by hooking up a VAG-COM diagnostic tool, you put fill plug back.

It's very possible that it is underfilled and that's causing your hard shifts.

mystrodo

I can't imagine your 6sp ZF Auto not improving with fresh (proper) fluid. ZF certainly supports changing it. My 06 A6 3.2 Quattro has ZF6HP19A and according to ZF it's critical I used the proper fluid for this transmission..in my case it was Lifeguard6 or it's exact equivalent (see below).
There are some excellent threads as you can imagine here on this subject but almost all of them eventually link to ZF. Turkeybaster115 researched and posted great info:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...ght=lifeguard6

BTW, get what that so-called SM put in-in writing-..hopefully it's on your receipt.

DirtyVegasTT

Not normal at all. Go back and try to figure out what happened. Longer you wait the sooner this will become 'your' problem.

Was this done at an Audi dealer?

I can't believe that you were told that hard shifts are normal after a tranny fluid change...

DrCold

Thanks for the info guys.

This was done at St. James Audi in Winnipeg, MB. The service manager told me it's normal and that this "universal" fluid they have is the only transmission fluid they have. I told him I didn't think that was right, but being they are the only dealer in the area and I couldn't provide him any concrete information, I went with it.

They claim that this fluid they used was prescribed by Audi.

I'll give them a call and see if I can get them to look at it. From previous dealings with this dealer, I doubt I'll get anywhere. They are less than willing to work with people (from my previous experience).

If I can't get anything from them, I'll probably just end up buying the fluid myself and taking the car to an independant dealer.

-Glen

DrCold

Called the dealer today. They had me schedule a service for next Thursday. Still insisting that there is only one type of fluid and that they need to do a test drive to see if they can reproduce the symptoms.

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. Hopefully it hasn't been to long and my transmission isn't damaged.

KevinGary

I don't believe that there is a so-called universal ATF fluid for our cars. Our cars originally came with ATF fluid number G 052 162 A2. Then a TSB was issued, which is in the TSB library that we set-up together, requiring a new ATF fluid number G 055162A2. You should check your receipt and see what fluid number they used.

DrCold

I took a quick look at the receipt and all it says is Universal Synthetic ATF. Drafting an email to the service manager right now to see if he can give me the part number of the fluid usesd.