Audi's MultiTronic Gearbox

[Jack_and_MLE]

3200Multitronic said:

Say if the mullitronic box pack in and you are left with a bill of £4000 or more for a relacement. Could you replace it with a tiptronic box instead? I've no idea if it's going to be cheaper but at least it should last longer.

I paid £700 to have my gear box repaired 2.5 A6 tdi, so I don't know where you get your figure from.

Jack

[3200Multitronic]

Jack_and_MLE said:

3200Multitronic said:

Say if the mullitronic box pack in and you are left with a bill of £4000 or more for a relacement. Could you replace it with a tiptronic box instead? I've no idea if it's going to be cheaper but at least it should last longer.

I paid £700 to have my gear box repaired 2.5 A6 tdi, so I don't know where you get your figure from.

Jack

I was talking about a brand new replacement gearbox fully fitted at Audi main dealers.

I'm not 100% sure exactly how much a new replacement gearbox costs tbh, but out of warrenty, a brand new mutitronic gearbox fully fitted at Audi main dealers will not be cheap.

Maybe you can clear this up and give them a call to se how much does a multitronic cost to replace.

[MarsellusWallace]

The price probably has a similar number of digits in it as the Audi dealers phone number.

[Jack_and_MLE]

Why would you want to replace the whole thing if only a few bits inside needs to be replaced?

For me it would be like changing car because a light buld is dead!

There are very good independant garages, so you don't need to go to the dealer.

Jack

[Great White]

Right i have just started looking at Audi A4 S-line estate's for sale i saw a multitronic 2006 2.0 TDI estate and it was a good price for the car itself but i decided to do some reaserch and come across this forum and i started seeing positive on the first page after that there was to much negative after reading this i spoke to my neighbour who is a car dealer and he said immedialtely after i said multitoronic that they cost a lot of money to repair and are prone to go wrong with lots problems it has 90,000 miles and full service history i havnt spoke personally to him yet because i just wanted to see if it was worth it because there is another that is almost £3000 cheaper that is a base model with manual and 66,000 miles and full service history thanks for the help everyone.

If its not worth it back to a good old Volvo.

[ssenna]

Hi I am new to this forum but have been reading it with great interest as I am on the verge of buying a 2006 A4 2.0 Tdi S-line with the multi-tronic box. The people who have posted all the horror stories and warnings, can you just clarify if this relates to the pre 2005 6 plate box, or the post 2005 7 plate version?... or both! as I might have to keep searching for a manual.
Currently got a 2001 manual Tdi with 140k miles... runs as sweet as a nut.
Especially interested in what the techs have to say about it.
Is the 7 plate version much better?
Thanks for any info

[Tame Technician]

7 plate clutch ones are better yes, but can and do still fail, just not in such large numbers.

The modified clutch pack for example wont stop the ECU going faulty.

I'm not sure what kind of percentage of cars had problems when you work on cars for a living you only see them broken you dont know how many are out there going well. But regardless of the improvements from the 7 plate clutch mod and production update (I'm sorry I dont know the dates), I'd still advise stay away.

The all new multi tronic in the B8 8K A4 +A5 has given us mostly only software related faults so far. We did replace one in a 3.2v6 A5, but that car should never had been speced that way, it was far to powerful to be front wheel drive, dont know what the bloke was thinking of when he ordered it, that engine and gearbox just dont get on.

[ssenna]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I have a decision to make as this car has everything I have been looking for for the last 3 months. My reason for considering it was that my brother-in-law has a B6 Avant with the MT box. His reached 150k before he needed any work doing on it. Cost him £750 from an independant gearbox specialist for the 6 clutch plates. I suppose it's like anything, if you are unlucky to have a bad one it's going to cost you.

Tame Technician said:

7 plate clutch ones are better yes, but can and do still fail, just not in such large numbers.

The modified clutch pack for example wont stop the ECU going faulty.

I'm not sure what kind of percentage of cars had problems when you work on cars for a living you only see them broken you dont know how many are out there going well. But regardless of the improvements from the 7 plate clutch mod and production update (I'm sorry I dont know the dates), I'd still advise stay away.

The all new multi tronic in the B8 8K A4 +A5 has given us mostly only software related faults so far. We did replace one in a 3.2v6 A5, but that car should never had been speced that way, it was far to powerful to be front wheel drive, dont know what the bloke was thinking of when he ordered it, that engine and gearbox just dont get on.

[amir_j]

Tame Technician said:

but that car should never had been speced that way, it was far to powerful to be front wheel drive, dont know what the bloke was thinking of when he ordered it, that engine and gearbox just dont get on.

• sighs*

Think you mean what were Audi thinking of allowing such a combination to be possible...

BMW do certain cars only in certain combos eg auto only with 535d as the manual can't cope and Audi should have the foresight to prevent such issues too. The customer is ordering a car and is not required to have any tech knowledge as a pre-requisite.

[Dracoro]

amir_j said:

Tame Technician said:

but that car should never had been speced that way, it was far to powerful to be front wheel drive, dont know what the bloke was thinking of when he ordered it, that engine and gearbox just dont get on.

• sighs*

Think you mean what were Audi thinking of allowing such a combination to be possible...

BMW do certain cars only in certain combos eg auto only with 535d as the manual can't cope and Audi should have the foresight to prevent such issues too. The customer is ordering a car and is not required to have any tech knowledge as a pre-requisite.

Have to agree. Think the statement should be I don't know what the SALESMAN was thinking of when he let the order through. However, if Audi allow the combo, they have to support it.

[ssenna]

Tame Technician, I don't suppose you know why the multi-tronic has a higher emisions figure and therefore slightly more expensive road tax?

Edited by ssenna on Friday 1st January 18:01

[Tame Technician]

I didnt know they were different.

But if they are, its because the engine produces more CO2 on the EU3/4 emmisions drive cycle than if it was bolted to a proper gearbox. They test all cars following exactly the same drive cycle when new cars go through EU type aproval.

Why they produce more CO2 I dont know, could be due to weight increase, MT box's are heavy, but thats unlikely as its nominal when you consider the weight of the car. Most likely because the engine is reving higher for a given road speed, higher revs means pumping more air, hence more CO2.

[pitch3110]

TT,

I have a 143PS 2.0TDI B8 with MT and lovin it lots.
The only downer I have is it creeps lots. When sitting in D with foot on brake or HHA engaged the engine really labours.
Knock it into N and the engine note and vibration alters llots.

Is this norm or is there a sw update available.

Ta

[3200Multitronic]

pitch3110 said:

TT,

I have a 143PS 2.0TDI B8 with MT and lovin it lots.
The only downer I have is it creeps lots. When sitting in D with foot on brake or HHA engaged the engine really labours.
Knock it into N and the engine note and vibration alters llots.

Is this norm or is there a sw update available.

Ta

I've got a 3.2 multitronic, I don't have a problem with it creeping forword as such.

I seem to have nervous moments with hill starts. I pass the same T juction daily, which is on a hill and is always busy. My multi does not like moving slowly in traffic going up. Stop starts going uphill makes the gearbox very erratic. Sometimes pulling out, the revs drop and the engine seems like it's going to stall, then as you put more power on, it comes back to life and shoots off the line. Very scary experience.

[pitch3110]

3200Multitronic said:

pitch3110 said:

TT,

I have a 143PS 2.0TDI B8 with MT and lovin it lots.
The only downer I have is it creeps lots. When sitting in D with foot on brake or HHA engaged the engine really labours.
Knock it into N and the engine note and vibration alters llots.

Is this norm or is there a sw update available.

Ta

I've got a 3.2 multitronic, I don't have a problem with it creeping forword as such.

I seem to have nervous moments with hill starts. I pass the same T juction daily, which is on a hill and is always busy. My multi does not like moving slowly in traffic going up. Stop starts going uphill makes the gearbox very erratic. Sometimes pulling out, the revs drop and the engine seems like it's going to stall, then as you put more power on, it comes back to life and shoots off the line. Very scary experience.

Ta for this, I think I will drop it into the stealers for a check over.

As for your other bits, I do not experience anything like that.

I like the box alot having the options of CVT in D, steped changes in S and the flappy paddles in M to play with.
ta

[andy rob]

just found this thread, wife has 06 reg A6 2.0 tdi with yes you've guested it 7 speed auto & has been complaining for months it making a grating noise in neutral or when off the power & slowing down but never happened whilst i drove it, car reg august 06 so 3yrs+ 4 months & has just come around to 40K, I've just heard what can only be described as something loose in the box, chain hitting or catching ? so have parked up car & am waiting to hear back from audi to say if they will honour any goodwill to repair bill.
If id have read this 1 year ago.......
shes had car for 2 years & have had no other trouble

[maus92]

I have had transmission issues with my 2003 A4 1.8T Cab Multitronic for 2 years now. The first indication of trouble was the delay in disengagement when coming to a stop - the car felt like it still wanted to go forward. Just a slight surge. Naturally the car was out of warranty when the problem revealed itself. My independent shop suggested cleaning and resetting the air intake system to remove any crud that might be gumming things up. Tried it, no joy. So I took it to my local Audi dealer. They ran an Audi procedure: backing up, moving forward while watching the VAG values. The Audi factory "solution" was to flush the transmission with three changes of transmission oil. While this service was being performed, I went back through my records and discovered that the transmission oil was not changed by the dealer at the recommended service interval. I brought this to the attention of the service department, and they agreed to cover the cost of one of the 3 oil flushes. Needless to say that this procedure didn't work, although it seemed to improve the situation to some degree. Since the car was otherwise running fine, I decided to live with this idiosyncrasy.

About a month ago, the transmission started to flash the PRND indicator, and went into "limp" mode. This usually happened after the first cycle of the day when the car was still warm. Starting up first thing in the morning was no problem, and driving any distance was fine. Restarting an hour later after stopping somewhere is when the problem showed up - but not alway - just randomly. In the US, the car was recalled for faulty ignition coil packs. On the day that I took the car in for the coil pack issue, I stopped at the Post Office just prior to dropping the car off at Audi. Bang, the PRND indicator starts flashing again, so I ask Audi to check it out.

It seems that the Hydraulic Control Unit (valve body) has failed. The dealer claims that they can operate the valve body via their test equipment, and verified that it was defective. So, yesterday, after $1,701.33, I have an A4 with new HCU installed, and it seems to be running fine, maybe faster off the line - even the surge seems to be gone. I'm going to monitor the car closely for the next few days to see if it is not just my imagination, but my question is: do I have a case with Audi that the failure of the HCU can be traced to the failure of the Audi dealer to change the transmission oil at the proper interval? Would a slowly failing HCU cause the surging issue?

Edited by maus92 on Thursday 14th January 14:26

[Micribra]

Thanks everyone for the very useful information in this thread. I can see that the jury is still out on the Multitronic gearbox of the new Audi A4 (2008-). I am about to buy a new car and I am oscillating between Audi A4 2.0 TDI Multitronic (136bhp) and BMW 318d Steptronic (136 bhp). Like many other people posting here, I like the smoothness of the Multitronic gearbox. The BMW Steptronic gearbox in the 320d Xdrive I have tried was harsher. I couldn't find a 318d Steptronic to try. The smoothness of the Multitronic is really the only reason why I would get the A4 instead of the 3-series. Do you think it's worth it? Should I stick with the 3-series? I'm looking for a durable car that would last for the longer term. I would like to keep it for about 7 years. Any comment/opinion/advice will be much appreciated. Thanks a lot and all the best to everyone.

Chris

[b19rak]

I've got a new B8 multitronic and i have to say its very impressive. Incredibly smooth and a dsg quick 8sp manual change when you want. Im not worried about any potential problems, that's what a warranty is for.

I did have a B6 Multi that did get replaced by Audi due to a leak and then a grinding noise when they replaced a part.

[approach]

I have the misfortune to own a multi on an 2.0 A6 2006.
There is a knocking sound coming from hydraulic control unit (diagnosed by Indie Tech). They are sure there is debris in unit. I think it is related to the oil pump within the hydraulic unit as the knocking rises and falls with revs (pump connected to input shaft)?

Has anyone experienced this one before as most cases are ECU / Clutch plate issues. Oil change done at 40k and full dealer service. Local dealer wants £4300, yeh right! Currently wrangling with Audi UK as out of warranty by 6 months!

One question for TT:

Is the hydraulic/pump unit replaceable or is a full box required?

Thanks