Went over to Audilvr's transmission place today at lunch. Explained my problem of TC dropout and thumping.

The guy who worked on Audilvr's car (Tim) came out and we both thought there was a good chance it was a valve body. He said you can't get rebuild parts, just the whole thing from a ZF distributor, I know Tozo's guy had problems getting rebuilt parts, don't know if he ever did.

A valve body is about $700 from Autohouse in Zeeland, MI, where they got the one for Audilvr's car.

I said for $900, I didn't want them to get a rebuilt valve body and then not have it work....for that money, I would do the rebuild.

BTW, they charge $850 labor to drop the tranny, rebuild it and install it. Add another $700 for the valve body, and another $600 for parts, fluid, etc., you get the $2200 Audilvr paid.

The guy then called Autohouse and called me back, he said they told him two things:

1. Needed to be recoded to european standards, I told him I already had that done (00011 coding).

2. A bad ground, he said it was behind the glove box.

Told him I knew what he was referring to.....so I go look at the TSB and check out what it says at the top "Feedback noise from the climate control system, VARIOUS SHIFTING COMPLAINTS, radio reception poor". Guess cleaning the ground points is a pretty easy start to making sure that's not the problem. Or does somebody want to beat me to it?

<img src="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/electrical_equipment/brake3.JPG">

 

Very interesting! Who ever beats PaulW to it, please post photos.

 

Very good info to have.

 

Im ripping it apart as soon as i get home...

 

Sitting in my office, I couldn't....just finished pulling the glove box, getting to the terminals, taking them apart, cleaning them up and putting some contact stuff on them.

Now I'm going to hook up my reverse wire to my Nav Plus unit that never got done.....

Then I will put it back together and go pick my kids up in a few hours.

The contacts were not dirty, but one screw was really pretty loose....the spec is only 7 lb-ft, but the other two were tighter.

Will report back, but I just don't think it will fix it....but who knows?

Got pictures also.

 

Fixed my radio problem!

 

Bastard

 

I looked at mine and they look perfect no rust nothing. what did you see

 

My FM radio went out last month, and the dealer service guy suspects an amplifier board inside the rear of the headliner. Sounds like an expensive fix. I'll have him check this first as a cheaper solution and report back.

 

it is a step towards further happiness.