lithium15

A friend of mine has a 2001 s4. He bought the car with about 50,000 miles and it now has around 98,000 miles. He has a GIAC chip in it. This all started when about a week ago he was going to purchase the tip chip, he brought the car over to my house to just vag the car and it came up with a code that read something like Torque converter stuck or open. Somehting to that affect. we cleared the code and then today we vaged the car again and got the same code. I have driven his car many times, the day he purchased and almost about once or twice a month until now. He has had it chipped since he bought it. The car does NOT drive any diffrent frin the day he bought it. What does that torque convertor mean. Is his transmission dieing or what? Should he still purchase the tip chip, will that help him or hurt him. Once again the car drivers flawlessly and shifts great i think for an automatic. PLease shed some insight

lithium15

PS. For all that i know this could have happend the day after he bought it, never vaged car before

Black2001S4

Automatics employ a method where at top gear, the torque converters lock up so there is no power loss from the engine to the tranny...

(Not the greatest explanation, need more?)

ryoung

And it unlocks when coasting, which is the opposite of what's "normal". Many auto's lock during coasting to better take advantage of engine braking.

FBAnder

does in the S4 as well

FBAnder

Lithium, check your buddies RPM @ 60mph in 5th. Mine sits around 2200 RPM at that speed and gear. I'm bettin his is a little higher.

850 T-Gul

Hopefully this doesn't happen to you but I had a similar situation happen to my 01 S4 over the summer. I got a code and the dealer said my TC was locking up or not locking up or something and it needed to be replaced. When the code came on it was reset and it came on again, the entire time I felt nothing going wrong the car, it felt exactly the same. I had a third party warranty so there was a lot of back and forth time between the dealer and the warranty people but it was at the dealer for a month. Total cost was a little less than $3,000 but some of that may have gone to pulling and rechecking the TC for the warranty people, but it was a hassle to say the least. Oh yeah make sure the dealer bolts your engine back in all the way once its done, that was kind of annoying as well.

vegasS4

BOTTOM LINE..the TC needs to be replaced. I have a tranny core if interested in L10 conversion

lithium15

would getting the TIP chip that giac makes be a bad idea?

vegasS4

no