Audi's MultiTronic Gearbox

[PoleDriver]

Seeker UK said:

PoleDriver said:

Tame Technician said:

No gearbox issues on Quattro cars (A4 A6 A8) etc. Good for 120k miles.

Now I'm worried, my A6 quattro sport has done 160k miles!

Got the fluid in my '02 A4 Quattro Tip done with the service. What came out was not pleasant. Should be good for another 50k miles.

Got mine changed just after I bought it. Thick brown/black sludge!

[nigeltt]

Apologies for quoting Riptorn from Sep 2010, but his fault appears to be exactly the same as one I have on a B7 2.0 S-line multi, though the gearbox has not been changed yet and I would agree that it seems more of a control problem than anything with the box basics.

Riptorn said:

Another tale of multitronic woe! My 57 plate A4 2.0 TDI developed a problem at only 15000 mls. From a cold start, even under gentle acceleration, it selects a gear ratio that is too low for the speed and then holds it for too long before changing up ie revs go up to around 2.5K and stay there before a gear change. This behaviour persists for about 30mins unless I stop and restart the engine, in which case the gear change reverts to normal.

The dealer eventually accepted there was a serious problem and, under warranty, changed the gearbox and ecu. It made no difference at all, but the dealer claims that the new gearbox 'must' have cured the problem. It doesn't help that the problem only appears from cold which means that the dealer has to keep the car overnight to detect anything.

It seems to me as if there is a faulty sensor somewhere, outside of the gearbox, which is causing the problem. Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any idea as to a solution ?? Otherwise the car will have to go.

Mine has recently been through the local Audi workshop - no fault found of course. Had a B6 1.9 multi before this one and it did none of this high revving on part throttle from cold. Same as Riptorn it can last for 20 - 30 minutes. Manual mode is normal i.e. when cold, if I put the box into manual mode it will 'change up' normally. If I then put it back into auto mode the revs will shoot up to over 2000, depending on the speed the car is doing.
Audi have said that it is the software protecting the gearbox before the box warms up and also linked to emissions. Engine is BRE with DPF. If that is the case why does it let me change up normally when the box is cold?
At present looking for a local 2008 multi for sale to test from cold and compare.
Would appreciate any comments if anyone has any info or has had a similar fault.
Regards

[dizzym]

dizzym said:

Update on my petrol Audi A4 Avant. Information might be useful to other multitronic owners out there.

The AA Warranty (Gold) will cover the replacement of the ECU unit. This saves me as you'll all know by know £1000. I'm getting it done by Automatic Man who are based in West London and seem very clued up on multitronics.

A big sigh of relief...

Hi all - update: I have an Audi A4 2.0 SE AVANT (2004 B6). Having bought it in "perfect condition" with 33,000 miles back in early 2009 I had to have the ECU and oil changed within 5 months as the display started playing up. After that I have enjoyed problem-free driving until today when the car started to shuddered as I moved through slow traffic. The car now has 51,000 miles and I fear it is the dreaded gearbox that has been discussed endlessly on this forum - do you all concur? As I was only a couple of miles away from home I quickly diverted while the problem shuddering continued mainly at low speed/low gear.

Couple of questions for you all:

1. Do these symptoms point to the need to change the gearbox?
2. Is it safe to drive the car meanwhile with this shuddering?

Any tips/advice would be appreciated. Last time I was lucky as the AA Gold Warranty that I received free of charge when I bought the car second hand from the dealership covered the £1000+ cost of replacing the ECU. I had subsequently renewed the AA Warranty and have no idea if it will cover any potential expensive gearbox change.

Thanks

[bornl1]

nigeltt said:

Mine has recently been through the local Audi workshop - no fault found of course. Had a B6 1.9 multi before this one and it did none of this high revving on part throttle from cold. Same as Riptorn it can last for 20 - 30 minutes. Manual mode is normal i.e. when cold, if I put the box into manual mode it will 'change up' normally. If I then put it back into auto mode the revs will shoot up to over 2000, depending on the speed the car is doing.
Audi have said that it is the software protecting the gearbox before the box warms up and also linked to emissions. Engine is BRE with DPF. If that is the case why does it let me change up normally when the box is cold?
At present looking for a local 2008 multi for sale to test from cold and compare.
Would appreciate any comments if anyone has any info or has had a similar fault.
Regards

This behavior suggest the incline sensor. Yhe car seems to behave as if your are climbing a hill.

[yellowbentines]

Can anyone comment on whether or not the multitronic gearboxes on new cars are still problematic, and is it just as risky buying a 2011 model as an older model in terms of things going wrong eventually?

Cars I'm looking at in particular are 2011 A5 and A6 if that makes a difference, I'm unsure if they all use the same multitronic for 2wd cars?

[DickSkruttock]

They will use a derivative of the 6 speed multitronic, these being 7 speed (or even 8).

You'll be covered by the 3 year warranty, so sleep easy

[karlos1982]

hello Guys, here I am, the one who bought one of your problematic multitronic Audi`s on Auction.A6 saloon 03 plate 1.9 tdi 140k So after danger experience, when car lost power in fast line on motorway... well manage to get home. Problem with this car is..everything fine when is cold, transmission works without any strange noise. Once it gets warm up, the PRNDS starts flash and after some time transmission stops to work. Got to garage and got these faulty codes - 17106 - transmission output speed sensor G195 no signal
18226 - pressure control valve 2 N216
17090 - transmission range sensor S125 impossible signal
18201 - transmission output speed sensor 2
18165 - supply voltage open circle intermittent
so any suggestion what I could do? Do you think, that new ECU will cure the problem or It`s Gearbox done?

Edited by karlos1982 on Saturday 24th September 09:26

[crostonblue]

Hi there, I'm new to this forum and I really need some help - basically I have a strange issue on my tiptronic gearbox, I drive a 2008 2.7tdi A6 Avant Le Mans Quattro with 113k miles on it and just recently I've started to have a problem with the gearbox.

A couple of times when I've got in the car in the morning and put the car into D it has been stuck in 3rd, neither the paddles nor sport mode make any difference but after driving for 10 - 15 secs everything is OK.

The gearbox changes gear as good as its ever done and no warning lights show up on the dash.


I pulled off the fault code as follows -

Address 02: Auto Trans Labels: 09L-927-760.lbl
Control Module Part Number: 4F2 910 156 S HW: 09L 927 156 C
Component and/or Version: AG6 09L 2,7 TDI 132 0020
Software Coding: 0000002
Work Shop Code: WSC 02325 758 00200
1 Fault Found:
006228 - Powertrain Data Bus: Hardware Malfunction
P1854 - 000 - - - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100000
Fault Priority: 0
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 177215 km
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2011.08.31
Time: 08:24:49

The gearbox oil has never been changed - would it make a difference if I had this done, or am I on my way to a replacement mechatronic unit?

Any help appreciated - cheers

[PoleDriver]

crostonblue said:

The gearbox oil has never been changed - would it make a difference if I had this done, or am I on my way to a replacement mechatronic unit?

Any help appreciated - cheers

I'm lead to believe that the Quattros don't have the multitronic gearbox.
My A6 has done 164,000 miles. I changed the gearbox oil at 150,000 miles, it was like mud. Made a big difference after!

[Bitzer]

That is correct.

Quattros only have a convential automatic, not the multitronic.

[crostonblue]

Cheers, much appreciated, I'm doing a service soon, so I'll do a tiptronic oil and filter change then, sorry to be a pain, but can someone advise if there is a specific process I should follow, plus which oil and filter to use.

[Bitzer]

I've asked main delaers, independents and gearbox specialists and none of them recommending changing the fluid.

I'm offering them business and they say it isn't required. If the transmission fluid starts to leak, then this is when problems arise.

[5678]

So I've read the front page, but not all 400+ replies...

Looking at an 06-08 A6, 2.7 or 3.0ltr. I am getting the impression that I NEED to go for a quattro with the Tip box rather than a 2wd with this Multitronic?

Yes/No?

[Bitzer]

5678 said:

So I've read the front page, but not all 400+ replies...

Looking at an 06-08 A6, 2.7 or 3.0ltr. I am getting the impression that I NEED to go for a quattro with the Tip box rather than a 2wd with this Multitronic?

Yes/No?

Yes. Quattro

[Ben Cole]

So after reading the entire thread and searching the internet for hours and hours I'm still not really clear.

Can anyone give any more opinion on whether the 7 plate design solved the problem? I haven't read of any 7 plate failures but this could simply be because they're all newer.

It's the classic situation for me of deciding to buy a car and finding this issue just before phoning the guy to say yes!!!!

It's easy to say walk away, but I don't want to. I like the car and the way the multitronic drives and as this car is a 58 plate it's newer design. I just want to know how much the new design eradicates the issue.

[Fish4]

Thought I was safe with an a4 tdi cab 57 plate but just beginning to experience similar faults to 2002 -05 , slow pick up pulling away, ok if you delay a couple of seconds between selecting drive and accelarating, shuddering when braking and just recently over accelarating when comming downhill, as you brake slowly the engine starts to accelarate. Full service history gearbox oil changed 40k.
Comming up for 70k and a cambelt change and don’t know whether to call it a day and trade in or fork out £1000 for the cam belt and service. Great car, drives realy well shame about potential multitronic problems which apear not to have been resolved in the 57 model.
Going to call in to audi dealer today to discus gearbox problems, will come back with their response, could be interesting.

[Fish4]

Further to my comments on my 57 plate A4 Cab with problems develioping. Asked Audi main dealer to assess. When I picked it up they immediately said they had taken a sample of the gearbox oil and it contained swarf and just said without hesitation new gearbox, £4880 plus labour.
Has anyone esle had the gearbox oil checked and a similar respopnse. A but miiffed when she asked me if I new what swarf was. I will put a letter together to Audi with all the service history which is all as specified by Audi, including an extra gearbox oil change in Sept this year which they carried out by mistake, but never mentioned any swarf at that time.
Has anyone an idea what may cause the swarf.

[K12beano]

For the moment I am a relatively happy Audi owner.

2003, 2.4 petrol, A6, 103,000 miles. Gearbox ECU replaced 13 months ago.

Last week had the whole gearbox reconditioned. Over the last 6-12 months the car had been "surging" a few hundred rpm when steady or lightly loaded in the 1200-1800rpm range. Was becoming quite impossible to drive!


I bought the car at 1 year old/5,500 miles. The Audi dealer had, at first, acknowledged that it was fairly rubbish when selecting reverse. But when push came to shove, point blank refused to do anything under warranty. I ended up living with it.

2010 - summer: it started reverting to emergency mode (i.e. PRND flashing and quite often would not engage reverse at all - sometimes embarrassing!)

October 2010 - ECU was replaced by an independent who has been looking after it for five years. they weren't in the least surprised that the ECU needed changing, but subsequently have been telling me that they could not replicate the other issues and because "it's not showing any fault codes" had insisted there was nothing wrong with it. Lived with the car while I tried to readjust my imagination!!!

October this year: took it to a totally different independent to assess whether engine was OK - a few tweaks and they concluded it was gearbox. They managed to get the engine running better - which just went to highlight the poor gear changing and the "misfire" as I thought in the 1200-1800 region.

Researched gearbox a bit more - having heard all the typical £5,000+ for new gearbox stories.

Took it for diagnosis to Automatic Man in Acton. They gave it 45 minutes of diagnosis and confirmed all the electronic trickery was fine - either the whole thing or just the clutch assembly needed attention - but would only be sure when the clutch assembly came out. He even showed me a Multitronic box he had stripped down and had clearly rebuilt - hell! I think he's probably built as many as I've had hot dinners, so knows his stuff. His prices in the region of a third or just an eighth (clutch only) of figures I had heard for new 'box depending on which needed attention (plus dreaded VAT).

Fair enough - gave it to him for a week and sure enough needed the full works. But - in the first 200 miles, and assuming it lasts in the region of another 100,000 miles - well worth it! Hell I couldn't have sold the car, except for scrap, yet only the gearbox was giving any obvious problems.

Fully recommend Automatic Man (especially Mike) - I know there are a few specialists out there, but if you're near Londinium..... His overheads are all invested in all the diagnostic equipment - he's no plush waiting room, TV or coffee machine. But your gearbox is in good hands.

[K12beano]

And just to add, in relation to...

944fan said:

I think it is the higher levels of torque from a diesel engine that causes the problem.

Definite comment from Automatic Man that troubles are much accelerated with the higher torque dished out by diesels.

(Reminder, my A6 is the 2.4 petrol)

Plus, his comments on the efficiency of the multitronic design - i.e. I'd probably be enjoying just 24-28mpg compared to the typical 32-35mpg mean over the longer term the multitronic can be a good buy. I'm now intending to keep for maybe three years more / 50,000 miles - because little of about that size, even diesels, will be much better on consumption.

[eric twinge]

mine ticked over to 168,000 miles today no problem.

Cheers.