Hi guys. Great forum even if a little dated. I recently purchased a 2009 s4 avant which I love to drive. Apart from the auto gearbox. What happens is that when you go to pull away sharply it jumps out of 1st to neutral and shows the dreaded gearbox fault message on the dash. Gearbox fault cont to drive no reverse it will engage into an even no off gear ie 2nd 4th etc and continue to drive but I usually pull over ASAP and switch off the ignition. Upon this all comes back on as if there wasn't any fault. Worried someone is going to run into the back off me pulling away and this happens. Have tried a few places around the Glasgow area to see if anyone has a fix. Mackies couldn't find anything wrong and wanted 3 to 4 g to fix. I had the mechatronic unit done 6mths ago and it did improve but after reading many forums I believe there is another circuit board that can be replaced in the gearbox itself so can anyone help or suggest someone in Glasgow or surrounding areas who does this kind off work as know this a prominent audi problem.. many thanks
2009 s4 gearbox issues
- Thread starter andy2502
- Start date
look for a dsg specialist in your area and read their reviews first... And before you book the car in read below:
I know it sounds stupid but your problem might be coming from the wrong oil used or to much/little oil in the box... these automatic gearboxes need a special oil that have extra chemicals added to promote non slip, anti corrosion and anti foaming... plus it needs to be put in at a certain heat... now the first time i did mine i put in new oil after i drained 7 liters of oil out... so all came out apart from the 500cc that was in the filter, I got that out when i dropped the filter out too... than i put in a dry new filter... filled it up half way turned the car on filled it up completely.... went for a drive... it did the exact same as you are describing....
got back, opened the fill plug and got out 3 liters of hot oil... left it like that for a day and it drove fine... attempted to fill it some more the next day with the 3 liters and it has been fine since.... somehow the thing doesn't like being rushed... ( cold oil duh)
Now i used a syphon handpump. not a fancy gearbox oil drain and filling machine like most specialist do... and if you used one of them to fill the oil it should be fine... maybe they didn't replace the filter... now it's a screen filter and it can be skipped once every 30k but if you don't know when it was last done insist they replace the filter too... they have to drop all the oil to get to the lot anyway...
PS afaik yours already has the extra plates in there to simulate gearshifts so after having your multitronic ecu repaired all that can cause these problems is the type of oil/to much oil/ or to little oil... and the gearshifter itself ( the part that you use to select PRNDS) mostly it's simple dirt that can be cleanup with an electrical cleaner... same goes for the extra plug you got going to the gearbox.. it can be filled with oil or coolant... an electrical cleaner (or brake cleaner) can help clean it out really quick and safe you ££££ so if i was you i'd start looking at what you can do yourself first, before spending loads of money...
PPS yes i sorted my multitronic out myself and saved ££££
I know it sounds stupid but your problem might be coming from the wrong oil used or to much/little oil in the box... these automatic gearboxes need a special oil that have extra chemicals added to promote non slip, anti corrosion and anti foaming... plus it needs to be put in at a certain heat... now the first time i did mine i put in new oil after i drained 7 liters of oil out... so all came out apart from the 500cc that was in the filter, I got that out when i dropped the filter out too... than i put in a dry new filter... filled it up half way turned the car on filled it up completely.... went for a drive... it did the exact same as you are describing....
got back, opened the fill plug and got out 3 liters of hot oil... left it like that for a day and it drove fine... attempted to fill it some more the next day with the 3 liters and it has been fine since.... somehow the thing doesn't like being rushed... ( cold oil duh)
Now i used a syphon handpump. not a fancy gearbox oil drain and filling machine like most specialist do... and if you used one of them to fill the oil it should be fine... maybe they didn't replace the filter... now it's a screen filter and it can be skipped once every 30k but if you don't know when it was last done insist they replace the filter too... they have to drop all the oil to get to the lot anyway...
PS afaik yours already has the extra plates in there to simulate gearshifts so after having your multitronic ecu repaired all that can cause these problems is the type of oil/to much oil/ or to little oil... and the gearshifter itself ( the part that you use to select PRNDS) mostly it's simple dirt that can be cleanup with an electrical cleaner... same goes for the extra plug you got going to the gearbox.. it can be filled with oil or coolant... an electrical cleaner (or brake cleaner) can help clean it out really quick and safe you ££££ so if i was you i'd start looking at what you can do yourself first, before spending loads of money...
PPS yes i sorted my multitronic out myself and saved ££££
Yeah there's actually allot of fake oil on the market so you never know what's been used tbh.
Not sure what's dated about it lol.
Not sure what's dated about it lol.
Worst case it's fake oil not doing what it needs to do... but I can tell you now that normal cvt oil also works as long as it is the right amount of oil. One of the garages I spoke to told me they use the cheap cvt oil and add 1 liter of a cvt additive... and they have been doing it for years.. on multitronic, tiptronics and DSG's... and the DSG oil spec is off the charts compared to multitronic and tiptronic oil.
That all said:
I'd do the first thing and that is open the fill plug to see how much oil comes out... (whatever comes out is to much anyway)
Than I'd check the first gearbox plug (it sits between the engine and the firewall) disconnect it and give it a quick blast with brake cleaner
And the last bit is cleaning the little gearselectors mainboard with an electrical cleaner (dirt and dust can do weird things to it)
That should be enough to stop the slipping if the oil is of decent enough quality.
That all said:
I'd do the first thing and that is open the fill plug to see how much oil comes out... (whatever comes out is to much anyway)
Than I'd check the first gearbox plug (it sits between the engine and the firewall) disconnect it and give it a quick blast with brake cleaner
And the last bit is cleaning the little gearselectors mainboard with an electrical cleaner (dirt and dust can do weird things to it)
That should be enough to stop the slipping if the oil is of decent enough quality.
Thanks guys for the responses. Always try too use audi oils. Know bit more expensive but if ya gonna do someit do it right. Yes!! As said before have done mech unit and my car has the external oil filter as well.as the one in the mech unit. Replaced both with new straight from audi. Wasn't cheap but part off the job in my eyes. Haven't tackled the gearbox itself yet. Do know that it's diff oil than the mech unit. So wish me luck guys opening up the bix
