Figure11 Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 From my point of view this is one of the most informative posts I have seen on here. You are a pioneer of Autobox DIY sir. I salute you. ++++++ Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ska Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Can't wait to hear the result, hurry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloss Posted September 17, 2008 Report Share Posted September 17, 2008 Extremely informative Post. I hope the results of all your hard work are positive! I'm sure there are a lot more Lurkers out there agog...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oli18 Posted September 17, 2008 Report Share Posted September 17, 2008 I am so interested to hear if this has made a difference for you because if it has, (a) we'll all be chuffed to bits for you naturally but (b) you may have helped to crack one of the fundamental weaknesses that these cars can suffer from through a simple maintenance step that can be easily done by anyone.:D Hope the results are as good as those posted by the guys in the link mentioned earlier on Audiworld I'm sure a few of us have our fingers crossed for you and thanks again for your in-depth posts...absolutely brilliant! -Oli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 The latest on the solenoid filters... Not as sucessful as I hoped! :ffs: I suspect I have an air lock now, as I can only fill the sump with oil, but it won't circulate any more into the system. Speaking with VM transmissions, he said than they can get air locked from time to time, and suggested that I drain it all, put 4 litres in and leave it idle for 5 minutes or more. Explaining that Ive done that already, he suggested to pop the bottom cooler return pipe off to see if i have any pressure there, so thats the next step... whenever i get a day off again!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpersimon Posted September 18, 2008 Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 Blimey talk about patience with a car.. you are the man. THE man. I have a quick and probably stupid question. I want to 'check' the oil level in my gearbox (yes I intend to have it changed but am interested to know if its low for other reasons based around slight cavitation etc) anyway I assume I check by with the car running, otherwise oil is going to come out of the fill plug isnt' it?, as the torque convertors capacity will be in there when the engine isn't running.. I guess I could bite the bullet and just get on with changing it all myself while I am at it - but still tempted with the £120 all in from the ZF specialist that cropped up on here.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 I used to have patience...but that was when i drove japanese cars. I has a skyline before this and the thing never missed a beat. But my patience is wearing thin since i've bought this thing. I think its the V8 noise, only for it i'd have pushed this thing off a cliff! To answer your question, Yes if you have it running, the car level, and the ATF temp between 30-50 degrees, then it should be there or there abouts. you'll need a 17mm allen head socket and a breaker bar just to check the level (if its low, obviously you'll need a pump and litre or two to top it up) I can only see the torque converter holding up to its half way mark when the engine is off, as the fluid enters and leaves from the centre shaft, but i've noticed that mine drips for a very long time, so there's lots of oil galleries and pipes holding some more. £120 is a good price, but its not a hard job. if you have most of the tools then go for it! I wonder has anyone on here flushed their system with cheap ATF (i.e red dextron II or III) then put the correct fluid in afterwards? my thinking is the colour difference would help tell when the cheaper stuff is out if you let it pump out of the cooler return as someone else suggested on here...A while back i purchased 5 litres of Titan ATF for a tenner! it beats throwing away £50 worth of proper stuff just used to flush the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figure11 Posted September 18, 2008 Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 Have a read of this thread. Ska was talking about flushing. there are 2 flow routes it seams. But it should be possible. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted September 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 Nice one...i was contemplating how to avoid getting my hands burnt by the exhaust while taking off the pipe on the gearbox, never thought of undoing it at the radiator...DOH! cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ska Posted September 18, 2008 Report Share Posted September 18, 2008 treetotreef did you speak to Parish at VM transmissions? Hope you get the airlock sorted; is there any way you could feed some ATF before you put the solenoids back in? I did toy with the idea of flushing the rest of the ATF from the cooler pipes but believe it or not to take those pipes off at the rad is far easier on the V8's than the V6's. If you pop them off from there you'll need to get the seals from the stealer. I ended up doing a second flush but tbh I didn't realy need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted September 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Yep, Parish was pretty helpful. The only way i can see to get any oil into the valve block where the sonenoids pop out of, is to get the rear of the car much higher than the front, and squirt some down each location. Its a possibility, I'll see how i get on with the cooler pipes first. Ska, any idea what the part numbers are for seals are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ska Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 For the V6 5HP19 box cooler pipes the part number is N 906 660 01, though I don'e think they are any different. Its a couple of O ring seals that should cost 2.5 pence but Audi get it up to a couple of quid anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpersimon Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 I used to have patience...but that was when i drove japanese cars. I has a skyline before this and the thing never missed a beat. But my patience is wearing thin since i've bought this thing. I think its the V8 noise, only for it i'd have pushed this thing off a cliff!To answer your question, Yes if you have it running, the car level, and the ATF temp between 30-50 degrees, then it should be there or there abouts. you'll need a 17mm allen head socket and a breaker bar just to check the level (if its low, obviously you'll need a pump and litre or two to top it up) I can only see the torque converter holding up to its half way mark when the engine is off, as the fluid enters and leaves from the centre shaft, but i've noticed that mine drips for a very long time, so there's lots of oil galleries and pipes holding some more. £120 is a good price, but its not a hard job. if you have most of the tools then go for it! I wonder has anyone on here flushed their system with cheap ATF (i.e red dextron II or III) then put the correct fluid in afterwards? my thinking is the colour difference would help tell when the cheaper stuff is out if you let it pump out of the cooler return as someone else suggested on here...A while back i purchased 5 litres of Titan ATF for a tenner! it beats throwing away £50 worth of proper stuff just used to flush the system. Thanks, always good to confirm from an expert!! - I sympathise, I also drove Japan's finest for years, Honda's, Supra's etc and they were pretty bullet proof if not boring places to be inside some of them! I have tried most car makes over the years to be fair - and this is no worse - but I am saying that having (touch wood) pretty well zero issues. I do have the tools to do the job, just maybe not the ideal location (on my drive) to do it or a pump that I believe I need. Having spoken with Automatic Transmissions rated on here before, and being ZF specialists providing excellent service I am tempted to get them to do it since they have quoted me less than the cost of buying the oil alone! All the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted September 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 'expert' you say! Hmmm, chancer more like! If you want to wait to see if this solenoid cleaning works 100%, then if i were you I'd ash the company to drop the sump, clean the magnets etc, blow out the cooler and check the solenoids. it may cost extra, but should be worth it long term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted September 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 Ok, For me anyway the solenoid filter cleaning wasn't sucessful. I'm at the end of my abilities with this one. I cracked off the pipes going to and coming from the heat exchanger for the gearbox and there's no pressure in either. I even used a syringe to push some back but no good. I've spoken to 4 different auto trans specialists and they all say in theory there should be no problem with removing the solenoids from the valve block, and its very rare that they get air locked. From what info i can find, the pump is a high volume medium pressure pump and air shouldn't be a problem. bottom line now is I'm going to send the car to a trans specialist to see what they can do. If they can give me an answer on what has happened this time it would be great. To anyone thinking of doing this job, all i can suggest is to wait to see if an answer comes as to why it won't take the correct amount of oil onto the system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treetotreef Posted November 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2008 She's back! Finally got the car back on Friday after some major transmission surgery at vmtp.com. I told them my woes and attempts to fix them, gave him the car and the car's original gearbox and see what he could do. They choose to rebuild my original gearbox, and had his own dramas in the process, with hydraulic pumps breaking up 10miles into the test! It looks like the original gearbox's pump was no good (possibly damaged when it through out its oil on the motorway). The 2nd hand scrappy box I purchased also had a problem with the pump. Parish in the workshop described it as an exhaust valve stuck/jammed open and not allowing any pressure to build up. He couldn't explain why this happened when I cleaned the solenoid filters, but he did find some swarf jamming the exhaust valve open. I can only assume from this, that cleaning the filter increased the pressure in that line and pushed swarf and debris further down the line and allowed it to get stuck in the valve. I asked him should these filters be looked at when servicing the gearboxes, and he said no, that there should be no need. I can only advise the same for people on this forum. I suspect that the gearbox I had was already faulty (due to the swarf found in one of the solenoid filters) and mine was a worst case scenario, but I'd hate to be the cause of this happening to a car that was at least driving. This pump was repaired and fitted, along with full set of friction plates, seals, etc. Anyway, Top job by these guys, and after some haggling, a top price too. I'd prefer not to say here what I paid (P.M me for details) but suffice to say that my highest quote from one company was £2700 and these guy's were extracting the urine! My gearbox is smoother than ever, and is even doing things that the old one didn't do! On the motorway on downhill sections, the old torque converter unlocked and locked a lot. It was more noticeable with cruise control on, and seemed to be a very poor way of controlling the speed. I initially thought it was crap software strategy, but now it doesn't do it anymore, and the result is a much smoother ride with no jerking on downhill sections. Can anyone else on here confirm this? Anyway, bottom line is its good to have her back! Now If I could just catch the little ****s that keyed it when it was parked up, I’d be 100% happy! Thanks to all on here for suggestions and directions throughout this drama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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