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weird automatic transmission issue, any tranny gurus out there?

2K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  3coupe 
#1 ·
OK this is not BMW related, but I have searched endlessly, posted on all the VW forums, and spent hours talking to the car trying to coax an answer from it. Im hoping maybe someone will have an idea of whats going on.

The car: 2002 VW Jetta GLS 1.8T AUTO tranny (09A tiptronic) 160k miles

The story: Bought the car under the premise of a blown tranny. Got the car back to the shop, put it in drive, and it moved fine. Reverse was fine. After a couple seconds, the car goes into "neutral" although the indicator still says its in drive (or reverse). The car will just rev and it will roll freely, even when in gear. If I shut the car off for 3-5 minutes and restart it, it will be fine again for 15-30 seconds and then all of the sudden, wont move and acts like its in neutral again. When the tranny is working, it doesnt slip at all, doesnt make any wierd noises, nothing. Ive checked the tranny fluid and its good. Ive scanned the car with vagcom (vw diagnostic program) and the only code that came up was a faulty brake light switch, which I replaced, and still have the issue. I have searched every tranny related post on google and no one has had the same problem. I am confident that the problem is not with the tranny, but rather an electrical or computer related issue. Please help me out here, I am at the end of my rope and need to get this thing fixed. Thanks

$20 bucks via paypal to anyone who can correctly diagnose the problem!!!!
 
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#4 · (Edited)
Sounds like a solenoid related issue. It sounds like the solenoid is either weak itself or electrical connection related, connector or grounding. Transmission is probably good.

I have 1st hand experience at electrical connections that show very slight resistance (less than .2 ohms) but aren't clean enough to carry an electrical load. As an example I had a solenoid in a seat control that would initially start up but immediately quite. I knew the fuse was good. Showed good continuity but upon further examination the wire was actually fully broke in the middle of the wire loom.

I would start out with cleaning and examining the connectors first, solenoid next, and if that didn't fix it, tear the wire loom apart to see if you have a broken wire.
 
#5 ·
yea i have given the solenoids a LOT of thought. There are 9 solenoids in the tranny, is there a way to pinpoint which one is bad? Or replace them all? I read somewhere that its about 300 bucks for all 9 solenoids. For roughly 100 more I can get a used tranny
 
#8 ·
#10 ·
A few things on the 09G transmissions.

1. They eat their own valve bodies and the solenoid bushing wear out. This is NORMAL. They ALL do it. Likely you need your valve body overhauled. Even a used transmission will have issues. Problems could happen as early as 45-50k miles if driving in the city or as late as 110k+ miles if the car had a lot of highway driving. Also soft thermostats in these cars may have lead to accelerated wear. You need to get a scan tool that car read real time engine data and make sure the engine is running 205-210F on a consistent basis. If the outside temp is above 70F, then you need to super cool the radiator to make sure the engine time is high enough. As for reworked valve body, expect to pay about $500 for a reworked valve body. Pulling the valve body is not too hard, the problem is the 12+ wire connections in the valve body. Take a lot of picture, make drawing and notes. I had my valve body reworked by a small independent shop in CA that did a good job and turned it around the next day for me. The have to ream some of the valve bores and install oversize valves and rebuild the solenoids with new bushings and repair any broken wiring caps.

2. Brake light switches were BIG issues on these cars, many would not turn the brake lights on and therefore you could not shift out of park, plus people behind you would have no idea you were trying to slow down or stop.

3. Some of the VW's actually would put the trans into neutral at a stop when the brakes were on to unload the torque converter drag on the engine. There was a delay when the brake was released and then the throttle was pressed. I think this was for fuel economy?? I cannot recall which models this was for, I know there was a VW Tech bulletin on this and it may have outlined the models?? My electronic VW Bentley manual will not run, I have to reload it, otherwise I could search the bulletin.

4. Check the fluid level as well. If the trans is low, likely you may have this issue.

Unfortunately I know as much about the VW 1.8t and the 6 speed 09G Tiptronic trans as I know about BMW`s!!

See links below for more info.

http://newbeetle.org/forums/transmission-talk/61467-6-speed-tiptronic-informaton.html

http://newbeetle.org/forums/transmission-talk/60709-auto-trans-level-check-fill-info.html
 
#11 ·
A few things on the 09G transmissions.


3. Some of the VW's actually would put the trans into neutral at a stop when the brakes were on to unload the torque converter drag on the engine. There was a delay when the brake was released and then the throttle was pressed. I think this was for fuel economy?? I cannot recall which models this was for, I know there was a VW Tech bulletin on this and it may have outlined the models?? My electronic VW Bentley manual will not run, I have to reload it, otherwise I could search the bulletin.
I was thinking that it was something with the brake light switch. If the car goes into neutral, maybe the switch activates and the car goes into neutral thinking it's stopped. (the pdf I linked talks about that) The fact that it is "fine" after being turned off for a certain amount of time might be due to capacitors discharging. Might be that it takes 15-30s to load, then the car thinks it's stopped and goes into neutral. Which would make sense as well since you wouldn't want the car to go into neutral every time you touch the brake, just when it's actually stopped.
 
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