Hi there, first post since buying my allroad 3 weeks ago. It's a 2003 4.2 that's done 130,000 kms. Would really appreciate any thoughts on this.

Was over the moon for the first two weeks of owning it - I picked it up and drove it the 1000km home with no problems, and nothing for the next two weeks with normal use, including using reverse . Then I got the engine and transmission serviced at the best independent audi service place in town (nearest Audi dealer is a 5 hr drive away) and the rocker covers gaskets done too. Then the fun started happening.

First symptoms were after reversing out of a parking space and a less than smooth disengage of reverse the trans wouldn't let me use the tiptronic gear select. Everything else was fine and it was all resolved after I stopped and restarted the car. No CEL came on, which I will come back to.

Similar thing happened a couple of days later when it seemed like the trans didn't want to change out of whichever gear it went into after reversing again. Was fine with a restart. When it happened again the next day I took it straight to the garage. Been there since and has the 17125 (??) code which has kept coming back. Whatever the tcc code is.

I have accepted I need a new/rebuilt torque converter. Maybe even transmission but who knows.

The weird thing is the check engine light doesn't come on for this torque converter code. I assume it should. The garage investigated as they thought it was weird. They found that the CEL doesn't light at start up either, but it does if they induce an engine fault code by removing a sensor. Does this sound like a dishonest owner or garage has tricked the ecu into covering up the transmission codes as I suspect? Does anyone have any idea how I can reverse whatever they've done? Or better still, prove they have done it and hidden the code when I bought it?

Could this be related to a couple of other weird things I have noticed? I have a second key I can't reprogram using the process in the manual and the turn signal lights don't flash when I lock the car. A friend who used to be a locksmith said that sometimes they used to force new key coding and it was pretty crude and could have screwed up the ecu. Sound plausible?

Like I said, I'm resigned to paying for a rebuilt torque converter and probably a transmission too, but might be able to cope given what I paid for it and the peace of mind that it is sorted. But having said that, I have no problem going back to the guy I bought it off if I can prove he was dishonest.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated from all the way down here on the bottom of the world.

Thanks