ZipZoonFly

I scoured this (and other) forum and couldn't find a similarly described AR trans issue, so I'm stumped.

My car:
2003 Allroad, 2.7T, 5 speed tip, 170k miles

In spite of the high miles, the car has been well maintained and the engine runs beautifully. Recently the TCM compartment got flooded and all of the expected things happened - flashing and solid gear selector lights, CEL's, mis-behaving shifts, etc.

Removed the soaked TCM and dried it out. Checked the plugs for corrosion, checked the factory-spliced wire in the TCM harness. Everything looked okay. Plugged the now-dry TCM back in and everything looked normal on the dash - the gear selector lights moved with the actual selected gear, the CEL went out. Everything seemed fine - except that no gear would engage. Nothing. Trans acted like it's in neutral.

Trans fluid and filter changed - correct amount installed, no weird junk in the old fluid. Still no gears would engage.

I acquired a tested-good used TCM (with matching part numbers) and it did the same thing - dash was happy, but no gears were engaging in the trans.

Then I unplugged the TCM and started the car. CEL was on (haven't pulled the codes), but no gear indicator lights on at all (completely blank). However, the transmission would go into reverse (like normal) and drive (limp mode presumably: only 2nd and 3rd gears would engage). No noises from the trans. No clunking when going into gear. Just reverse, 2nd and 3rd.

Plug (either) TCM back in? No warning lights, good gear indicator lights. But no gears will engage.

Anyone else experience this? Ever figure it out?

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

PaperToast

best thing to do for now is get a vagcom scan done and report back
need those codes

ZipZoonFly

Figured as much. My one recent opportunity to scan for codes was done with the TCM plugged in, and in spite of engaging no gears it threw no codes. I simply assumed whatever code(s) it was throwing with the TCM disconnected were communication related. I'll recheck for codes with the TCM disconnected and report back. Thanks.

MrKid

What are you scanning with? VCDS or generic?

ZipZoonFly

Thanks for the replies, gents. This problem child has been abandoned due to the great engineering mystery that is the VW/Audi Tip Transmission. Lordy what a mess those things are...

Just acquired a beautiful '05 AR with a 6MT ready for a TDI transplant. Much more fun than chasing Tip Gremlins.