Audi A6 Tiptronic Box 110k miles - Change fluid or not?

[Maracus]

I'd be interested to know how you get on

[Silverbullet767]

I'd say change it, mine just kicked the bucket at 150k miles.

[happybiker]

Very interested to hear the outcome to this, I recently bought a 100k mile A6 and although the shifts seem OK I'd like to do some preventative maintenance too, no oil is good for life, right? Anyway I've researched this too and although there is no definitive answer except from ZF mentioned above, it does seem like it can be a gamble.

It seems failures post oil change are either from the wrong oil or amount put in, or on boxes that were about to go anyway. The best source for parts seems to be these guys who do the oil for about £15/litre and the change kits for around £160.

http://www.bristoltransmissions.co.uk/shop/product...


Then you need to find someone you trust to do it. That seems the hardest part, I've found a guy in Meresea Island that will do the lot for £400 and by all accounts he really knows his stuff. However when I called him to enquire he suggested if all is well to leave it well alone!

[blueg33]

Its so tricky - if it aint broke don't fix it vs preventative maintennance

[TurboHatchback]

Thread resurrection here but I am currently debating exactly this question. My A6 4.2 FSI is on 107k and whilst it drives absolutely fine I've been thinking about whether I should be getting a fluid change done.

I talked to Audi and they say they'll do it for £405.55p which doesn't seem too bad though they didn't seem to think there was a filter which doesn't fill me with confidence. Does anybody know any specialists in south (Dorset or Hampshire ideally) who might be able to do this?

[Sea-Doo]

I had mine done on my old 3.0 TDI at 90K.

Sealed for life statement is rubbish, nothing is sealed for life!

Be weary of the £186 quote though, the list price for the oil about £27 per litre and you need 8/9!

[blueg33]

Original op here. I found a solution. Ran the car to 117k miles the. Part exchanged for an Evora. A wheel bearing started rumbling when I was on the way to the exchange. Told the dealer and she honoured the deal we had. Now worrying about a £3k clutch replacement. Do I or don't I before a Europe trip?

[Adrian E]

TurboHatchback said:

Thread resurrection here but I am currently debating exactly this question. My A6 4.2 FSI is on 107k and whilst it drives absolutely fine I've been thinking about whether I should be getting a fluid change done.

I talked to Audi and they say they'll do it for £405.55p which doesn't seem too bad though they didn't seem to think there was a filter which doesn't fill me with confidence. Does anybody know any specialists in south (Dorset or Hampshire ideally) who might be able to do this?

Do it, but avoid Audi dealers. There is a filter - they just don't know how to get to it! You have to remove the sump pan of the gearbox to access it.

Look on the ZF UK web site and search for a local specialist - should cost you £250ish for a fluid and filter change, ideally using a machine that also sucks the oil out of the torque converter, but a dump of fluid and change of filter only leaves a litre of old oil in there. You'll be amazed how little comes out compared to a fresh fill!

Make sure they have suitable hardware for monitoring the gearbox oil temperature as it can only be filled when it's below a set level

[k20erham]

If it's a v10 s8 you cannot get the box sump off without getting the ex off,you cannot get the down pipes off without taking the engine out I changed my oil and would love to do the filter but it's a massive job, it was jurky before I did the oil and I had an engine and gearbox remap done it's wonderful now

[Arsecati]

Another resurrection of this thread. Kind of got a bit concerned myself with this 'sealed for life' statement, but my 07 A6 3.0 TDi Avant has just gone past 172,000 miles and everything is still as smooth as the day I bought it 5 years ago (90k on clock when I bought it). I don't intend to change the car for another couple of years yet, but I think on balance with what I've researched so far - I'm going to leave it as is, as I'm actually more paranoid about possibly opening a can of worms by breaking that currently very reliable, smooth and efficient seal!!! :0/

[amsay]

Hi All. New to this forum, it's my first post.

I'm looking to buy an A6 C6 Audi 2005 to 2008 quattro TDI 3.0 or 2.7 with a manual gearbox. The manual gearbox is available but many more tiptronics out there. The primary reason I want manual is that most have 150k to 200k miles and I believe the manual would last longer or be cheaper to replace (both assumptions).

Should we consider the Tiptronic as not likely to fail with over 200k miles? Any idea if replacement cost is less in
Germany than UK? I'm thinking a used one with warranty would be OK considering the older Audi.

Have you changed your gearbox oil? If so, how many miles have you driven since the change?

If you haven't changed your oil, how many miles do you have on the gearbox?

Please help since we are looking to buy within the next couple weeks.

[blueg33]

Firstly welcome

I doubt there are many manuals out there. IIRC the 3.0tdi Quattro tiptronic has a very good rep for longevity. I am not sure but the 2.7 may use the multitronic box, if it does avoid those cars

In the end I didn't change the oil in mine, I sold it with 116k miles on the clock, still driving exactly as it did when new. Had I kept it I would have changed the oil.

I assume that a manual will need to have the clutch done at some point, not sure how long they last.

The Tip box suits the A6 3.0tdi perfectly

[amsay]

blueg33 said:

Firstly welcome

I doubt there are many manuals out there. IIRC the 3.0tdi Quattro tiptronic has a very good rep for longevity. I am not sure but the 2.7 may use the multitronic box, if it does avoid those cars

In the end I didn't change the oil in mine, I sold it with 116k miles on the clock, still driving exactly as it did when new. Had I kept it I would have changed the oil.

I assume that a manual will need to have the clutch done at some point, not sure how long they last.

The Tip box suits the A6 3.0tdi perfectly

Thank you blueg33. There are far less manual gear boxes than tiptronics in the cars I see on the market here. Scouring the internet, the closest manual is more than 4 hours away from me. From what I've read on wikipedia, all the automatic quattro's came with tiptronic in the A6 C6. The 2wd multitronic. We are strictly looking for a quattro for winter mountain driving so it's either the ultra rare manual or tiptronic I guess.

Since my last post I looked up the price difference for used tiptronic vs used manual. There is not a considerable difference but there are more tiptronics. Being that it's suited to the car and there are plenty of used ones, I'm swaying towards the tiptronic...

[Adrian E]

Try and find a private sale where the owner has history of gearbox servicing - will take some of the potential risk out of it.

[amsay]

Adrian E said:

Try and find a private sale where the owner has history of gearbox servicing - will take some of the potential risk out of it.

Good point Adrian E. I'm definitely waiting for the right deal. I'm an expat in Poland at the moment and it's a challenge to find one not imported from either Germany or Switzerland. But I have a couple months to play with.