shaul

hi all,
i recently bought an s8 d2 2001, believe me you're gonna hear a creasy story!

i bought the car from 2nd owner who didn't drove the car since 2009, he said it was his 4th car at home so he didn't needed her, but he did mentioned that he rebuild the transmission at zf in my country through audi main dealership and drove with the rebuild trans for 2,000 km only.

i took the car with a trailer, changed fluids (not to the gear box), new battery, tiers and so.. i went for a drive - with a big smile on my face i pressed the pedal hard, went till 7,000 rpm (s8 after all) it's an amazing machine I've got to say, ran perfectly, but when i came to the headlight and stopped -it happened - the trans went into limp mode. (i tried to stop the engine and start again but it didn't helped).

i called the man who sold me the car and he was decent enough to tell me that i will have to wait a few hours till the trans will get cold - thats the only way to get out of safe mode, and so it happened - but then the trans went very hard going down between 2nd to 1st.

i went to audi's dealership and scanned the comp, there were 2 codes:

1. incorrect ratio.
2. torque converter is on lock mode (or something like that)

i told them that the trans is new rebuild by them on 2009, so they went into the history and saw that that was 100% same problem in 2009, thats why he got the tranny fixed in zf, another thing - mentioned in the history - after zf rebuild the tranny, the problem remained, so they ordered him a new valve body from Germany.
and thats it - no reports since than.

anyway, the dealer said i have to rebuild it once again, but it will cost about 3,500 $ !!!!!
so i went to the best company in my country for fixing Audi trans, i told him everything, we closed on the price for complete rebuild with zf kit (2,200 $), after one week i got the call - the car is ready ! ya hu!

i went to pick up the car, it ran great till after 20 min on traffic it happened - the 2nd to the 1st (while stopping only, in acceleration - no problem) went very hard.
while going back i tried to press it till 7,000 rpm, and once again - limp mode!!!

to make a long long story short after rebuilding the trans for 4 times, in the fourth time he got the car on a trailer directly to audis workshop - they diagnosed 2 problems:

1. the maf (airflow sensor).
2. the brake sensor.

they changed them (waited 3 more weeks for the parts) but nothing!!

anyway, they gave me back the money, said there sorry but the problem is un fixable - its only to get a full replace of the gearbox, wiring and computer something like 6,000 $ after all charges - while getting a used part that maybe after 6 months it will die and my money with it.

anyway, i went to another place, they told me that the problem could be only at the valve body, they had one valve body, installed it and the problem between 2nd and 1st went away magically, i went with the car for about 1,000 km all happy, till i tried my luck and pressed the pedal hard (till 7,000 rpm) - and than it happened once again - limp mode, the problem between 2nd and 1st came back also

the codes are always thaw same:

1. incorrect ratio.
2. torque converter is on lock mode (or something like that)

please please please advise!!!!!

Best Regards,
Shaul

twentysevenlitres

TCU maybe?
After 4 rebuilds and yet another valve body, it can't be a hardware problem (unless after 4 rebuilds the torque converter was never changed!).
So that leaves software = TCU...

Have you tried tiptronic as well as drive? Which are you in when it goes to limp?

shaul

thanks for the fast replay,

as far as I know every time they opened the transmission they repaired the torque, in the first time they opened they showed me the parts inside there were lots of sings of overheating, in the last time they changed the torque, but it didn't helped.

about the tiptronic, never tried to work with that it was always caused by pressing to the floor in "d" mode, ill try tiptronic to see if it will make a change.

about the tcu - I want to try that, anyone knows where I can get parts that tested and they're work?
I don't have a problem to try and buy a torque converter and tcu - the only problem is that in my country (as far as I know) that's the only S8 D2 2001 (after facelift) so there are no spare parts..